Barack Obama held a townhall at the Obama Foundation in Berlin.
The stark differences between our congenial, thoughtful former president, and our current abrasive, thoughtless president are stunning to see.
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“...and I asked myself alright what’s the next thing that I can do to make the biggest impact, the most difference. And there are a whole range of issues I care deeply about, many of which you work on.
I beleive Climate Change is an existential challenge for all of Humanity.
I believe that creating communities of tolerance and respect, despite our ethnic and religious differences is vital if we are to thrive in this world that has now been shrunk by technology, and travel, and migration.
I believe deeply in gender equality, and making sure that that women have the same opportunities that men do is all fields of life, and that people of different sexual orientations are treated with dignity and respect and human rights.
I beleive deeply with dealing with the growing inequality that has arisen as a consequence of globalization and technology.”
Obama mentions the high standards of living, health, and education we’ve achieved.
“And yet what we also know is that powerful forces are threatening to reverse many of these trends. The democratic institutions that helped to bring these about, often times have been been taken for granted. The Planet we live on is in danger. Some of the contradictions of our economies and how we produce and dispose of goods and services continually, now doesn’t appear to be as sustainable, particularly if understandably other parts of the world want to achieve the same kind of standards of living as we have.”
“There are a lot more people like you out there who want to build rather than tear things down. And who want to bring people together rather than split them apart. But sometimes all of you work are isolated and work alone, or feel as though you’re working alone and then the whole feels like it’s less than the sum of its parts.”
“I’m deeply invested in these values, of tolerance, and equality, and rule of law, and democracy, and human rights, and human freedom, and human dignity.”
“Michelle and I talk sometimes and when we hear when young people aren’t voting or participating, we say to them: ‘you would not let your grandfather or grandmother decide what clothes you wear, or what music you listen to, so why would you let them decide the world you’re going to live in, and the politics you’re going to be subjected to? Why would you give away that power and authority?
"But as we all know casting a ballot is just the start. I always used to say the most important office in a democracy is not president or prime minister, or chancellor, or governor, or mayor, it’s citizen. Change happens because citizens are mobilized and force change. and each of you are a part of that process.”
Responding to a question Obama came to Joe Biden’s defense.
"One of the things I do worry about sometimes among progressives in the United States, maybe it's true here as well, is a certain kind of rigidity where we say, 'Uh, I'm sorry, this is how it's going to be,' and then we start sometimes creating what's called a 'circular firing squad,' where you start shooting at your allies because one of them is straying from purity on the issues,"
“You have to recognize that the way we structure democracy requires you to take into account people who don’t agree with you, and that by definition means you’re not going to get 100 percent of what you want.”
But Biden’s speech last night shows his campaign’s biggest problem isn’t so much progressives criticism for Biden, as it’s Joe’s own faulty filter. Biden was already trying to walk his bad jokes back by the time he left the venue.
That being said I agree wholeheartedly with the priorities Obama articulated, with climate change at the top of the list. Obama’s Town hall made me nostalgic to see what a real president looks and sounds like.