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Obama’s Prophetic Voice Has Never Been More Needed

Dare we hope for audacity?

As various leaders call for resistance against Trump’s march to dictatorship, one prophetic voice has been missing in action. Barack Obama, before he was president, was a professor of constitutional law. He understands the stakes better than anyone. He also knows how to give a powerful and inspiring speech.

Obama’s successful campaign for the presidency began with real hope that America could finally move beyond racial division with a unifying leader of vision, dignity, and courage. But early on, even before he took office in January 2009, Obama made the catastrophic decision to bring in the Robert Rubin/Bill Clinton team of advisers to address the financial collapse that their policies had caused.

Thus Obama squandered the opportunity to turn away from the neoliberalism that was destroying living standards and energizing the right. The hope of a second New Deal was stillborn. In contrast to the audacity of his presidential campaign and his rhetoric, Obama turned out to be characterologically cautious, transactional, and incremental.

Obama’s post-presidency has been even more of a disappointment. As Trump has gone deeper into his effort to destroy both constitutional democracy as well as government that helps people, Obama has declined to get involved.

This threat is not just constitutional; it ought to be personal. One of Trump’s top targets is Obama’s signature creation, the Affordable Care Act. The current Israel-Iran crisis is the direct result of Trump’s blowing up one of Obama’s best diplomatic achievements, the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that limited Iran’s uranium enrichment in exchange for sanctions relief.

Two weeks ago, Mark Leibovich wrote a lacerating piece, “Where Is Barack Obama?” in The Atlantic. “No matter how brazen Trump becomes,” he wrote, “the most effective communicator in the Democratic Party continues to opt for minimal communication. His ‘audacity of hope’ presidency has given way to the fierce lethargy of semi-retirement.”

Obama’s projects include completing the second volume of his memoir, working on his presidential library, working with Michelle’s film production company, giving very occasional speeches, and intermittently lending his name to Democratic fundraising pitches with lame appeals inviting donors to send money and bid for a chance to meet Obama personally.

But Obama has stayed his feckless course. On Tuesday night, at the Bushnell Theater in Hartford, Connecticut, Obama kept a long-scheduled paid speaking gig, a conversation with the historian Heather Cox Richardson. The ground rules precluded audio or video recordings.

Obama’s rhetoric was low-key. He called out Vladimir Putin and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán by name, but not Donald Trump. He reflected on the meaning of the heroism of John Lewis and other civil rights marchers in Selma, Alabama, more than half a century ago. “To me, that conflict on the Edmund Pettus Bridge is as important a battle as Concord, and Lexington, and Appomattox,” Obama said.

But what about the current battle?

To give Obama the benefit of the doubt, perhaps he doesn’t want to make himself a lightning rod for the ire of Trump and MAGA. Perhaps he is concerned for his physical safety. Or maybe he feels he has served his country and doesn’t want to impair his pleasant retirement.

But this is a moment of crisis at least as dire as the events in the 1860s or 1960s. A little courage—a little audacity—is called for.

The sad fact is that the Democratic Party has far too few leaders capable of rallying a broad-based resistance. Several, who have nothing like Obama’s visibility and presence, have already braved arrest.

And you may recall the speech of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker of April 27, calling for massive resistance to Trump and his enablers. “It’s time to fight everywhere and all at once,” he told a group of Democratic activists, officials, and donors meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire. “Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption. But I am now. These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace. The reckoning is finally here.”

Suppose it was Barack Obama leading that fight to save American democracy?

~ ROBERT KUTTNER

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