Raj Abrar: Former US President Barack Obama recently criticized his successor Donald Trump as well as the Republican party on Friday, while also urging Democrats to deliver a check on the administration’s “abuses of power” and restore a sense of sanity to politics by voting in November’s elections.
In an unusually blistering verbal attack, Obama said Americans were living in dangerous times and accused Republicans of “threatening democracy, dividing the country, undermining global alliances and cozying up to Russia.”
“In two months we have the chance, not the certainty, but the chance to restore some semblance of sanity to our politics,” he said in a speech at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
“There is actually only one check on bad policy and abuses of power, and that’s you and your vote.”
Both parties are urging their core supporters to get to the polls for the November 6 midterm elections, when Democrats need to pick up 23 seats in the House of Representatives and two seats in the Senate to gain majorities in Congress.
Obama, who had frustrated some Democrats by keeping a relatively low profile since leaving office in January 2017, accused Republicans of being unwilling to safeguard democracy or offer a check on Trump’s policies or worst instincts
He said voters would have to do it instead.
“In the end, the threat to our democracy doesn’t just come from Donald Trump or the current batch of Republicans in Congress,” he said. “The biggest threat to our democracy is indifference. The biggest threat to our democracy is cynicism.”
Obama ridiculed Trump for taking credit for economic gains that began under Obama’s administration, and said Trump was exploiting cultural fears and economic anger that have grown in recent years amid societal upheavalS