Barack Obama’s excoriation of his successor and his plea to voters who he says will decide the fate of American democracy was an unusually emotional performance for the former president.
There was a moment during his Democratic National Convention speech on Wednesday night when former President Barack Obama appeared on the edge of tears. Evoking American ancestors persecuted because of their race, religion or nationality, he said they had every reason to give up on democracy but did not. In his telling, that is what is at stake at this hinge point in history, nothing less than the future of democracy, and he seemed emotional in a way that the famously stoic former president rarely allows himself to be in public. He talked of “dark times” and “hardship and injustice” and “the meanness and the lies and crazy conspiracy theories.” He declared that this year’s election will determine whether America lives up to its promise. His excoriation of his predecessor was withering. The incumbent president, he charged, is lazy, uncaring and interested only in drawing attention to himself. President Trump, Mr. Obama said, acts as if he is “above the law,” uses his office “to enrich” himself and his allies, exploits the military “as political props” to be deployed against peaceful protesters, demonizes his opponents and the free press, and disregards science during a deadly pandemic in favor of “just making stuff up.” What’s more, he added, Mr. Trump is trying to suppress the vote to stay in office. The 19-minute address, delivered in front of an exhibit titled “Writing the Constitution” at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, reflected a long journey from the hope and change of 2008 when Mr. Obama sailed into the White House on a fundamentally optimistic message that whatever the country’s problems, they could be solved by coming together. Twelve years later, he did not seem quite so certain. With Mr. Trump in the White House, Mr. Obama sounded more worried than perhaps at any point in his public life. “This president and those in power — those who benefit from keeping things the way they are — they are counting on your cynicism,” Mr. Obama told his audience.
