A Key Sentence from Interview with Barack Obama Last Night...analysis by CNN:

[Stuart G]

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/08/politics/barack-obama-anderson-cooper-democracy-in-peril/index.html

Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large,,,,Updated 11:28 AM ET, Tue June 8, 2021

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CNN) — In an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper on Monday night, former President Barack Obama admitted that our democracy isn't something that we should just assume will always be there.

"My hope is that the tides will turn," Obama said of our current political moment. "But that does require each of us to understand that this experiment in democracy is not self-executing. It doesn't happen just automatically."
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Yes. Nailed it. Especially this: "This experiment in democracy is not self-executing. It doesn't happen just automatically."

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If the last four years of Donald Trump in the White House have taught us anything, it should be this: Democracy is durable, yes, but it is not immune to corruption and collapse. It requires care and maintenance -- from all of us.

And at the moment, it is quite clearly under attack by Trump and the forces aligned behind him.

[Biophilic]

1. You know, that is part of our problem. We were raised, educated, and told that democracy was

our heritage and our right. That we just got it because of those that came before. That the main thing we needed to do was acknowledge what the "great ones before us" had done. I never heard anything about the price we, as the next generations (after the war) needed to pay. There really wasn't a price for democracy any longer. Yeah, I grew up white, upper middle class and post WWII baby boomer. We were told it was our right to vote, but not that that vote was really, really important. Only that we had the right to do it. As a woman, of course, I internalized the message that the MEN in government would handle everything. I always voted, but I admit that it didn't seem all that important until GWB. I believed my teachers and my "elders." What a crock of shit. Did they know? I'll never know. They are all gone. I'm 75. I feel like I've lived a lie. Probably because I have. A really, big, "white" lie.

[Pepsidog]

10. Good post.

[Biophilic]

12. Thanks. Hard to look back and see the trivia I was fed and believed. I was so nave.

But most of us were. Now, I'm just really, really ticked off and determined that the next generation will also experience democracy rather than autocracy. Now I know that democracy is fragile and needs support, lots of support.

[Boomerproud]

13. I hear you loud and clear.

I think your post summarizes everything that has been really bothering me lately. Share your important thoughts with all the people you can.

[Biophilic]

23. Thanks, Boomerproud. I have to admit that I'm partially really embarrassed about what I've

believed and felt. I does help to clear my mind to say these things out loud, so to speak. And it is great to hear others saying much the same thing.

[dianaredwing]

17. Feel the same

And I actually protested and was part of the 'counter culture,' but I never did trust anyone over 30, myself included. And now that I'm in my 70s I realize that I missed a lot of opportunities to make a difference but simply didn't think it was necessary. I guess I believed that the government, that is democracy, could run by itself no matter what idiot was president or what kind of deplorables got elected. I always voted, but not really until HRC did I really feel that my vote mattered. As it turned out, they stole the election anyway. Anyway, you're never too old to learn. Hang in there. Peace.

[Biophilic]

24. Yes, exactly, dianaredwing. You really are never to old to learn. Thank heavens.

And we can still make a difference.

[msfiddlestix]

20. Hello Fellow Traveler!

Well sort of, not from middle class, but not dirt poor either. I'll soon be 71, my dad was in the military..

what you said is exactly what I grew up to be believe, to understand, to know to my very core.

Some of us of our age are not adjusting to what feels like a more cavalier attitude now that our guy is in the white house.

I should speak for myself in this instance, I'm not adjusting to it, and will not accept it.

This just can't be happening, but it is. And I'm told as well as others, to be patient, we don't know the law, we don't know what a crime against our democracy really looks like, what it is or what it means. We've moved on from Jan 6th..that's never gonna happen again.

I'm just not feeling that sanguine about it at all.

I'm pretty sure I shouldn't be either.

[MagickMuffin]

2. Could you please edit to spell Barack's name correctly?

Thanks!

And of course Barack Obama is correct.

[malaise]

3. A question that needs to be answered urgently across the planet

Why have civics been replaced by principles of business?
Oligarchs and their tools don't want governments.

[Stuart G]

5. .....Got to tell this: I taught "Civics" for many years in the Chicago Public Schools

......I was teaching Modern History..& in 1970...and I went over the line with my first Civics Lesson on
............HOW TO KEEP FROM BEING CHEATED....an explanation of ..."Bait and Switch"......

........I continued to teach about "Bait and Switch" until the mid 90s when I retired..................

[malaise]

6. LOL

[Stuart G]

7. Thank You for your response......and here is mine.....:

[malaise]

8. Sweet

[malaise]

9. Sweet

[Chainfire]

4. What the right-wingers don't understand is that even if they got everything that they claim to want,

they would soon find it unpalatable. There would be a fast transfer from Fascism to Feudalism. If we were to be weakened by a Fascist revolution, (whatever they called it) We would be so weakened that outside forces would have to come in to "Save us."

Smart right-wingers will be studying Mandarin, before they sharpen their swords.

[Ferrets are Cool]

21. And they would STILL blame it on the Democrats.

[Chainfire]

25. A perfect example of that is a thread I have been following on a gun forum

Blaming Bill Clinton for declining numbers of mom and pop gun shops. When the simple answer is that they can not compete with big box stores that sell guns, and big on-line sellers. The lie is more exciting to them than the truth.

[DallasNE]

11. Hello Citizens United

The idea of dark money assures major corruption by the elite. It didn't happen overnight. Reagan started things off by eliminating the Fairness Doctrine and the ultimate deregulation fiasco called Citizens United really juiced things along, making someone like Trump a sure thing to come along. The one surprise has been the effectiveness of the Big Lie - at least I missed on that one.

[Mr.Bill]

14. Getting rid of the fairness doctrine

was what made the big lie work. Those two go hand in hand.

[HUAJIAO]

15. Especially when being attacked from within....

[Ohioboy]

16. Wow, he put it in very clear words

[Wounded Bear]

18. Democracy fails when too many people don't vote...

That allows minority factions to gain more power until someone like Trump comes along and we morph into fascism.

[Ferrets are Cool]

22. Or, when people are NOT ALLOWED to vote.

That is what the reich-wing wants.

[The Roux Comes First]

19. This Would Not All Be So Stupifying to So Many of Us If

The history we were taught had included critical race theory and the myriads of truths about our history that are only gradually dribbling out now. Hell, Zinn wasn't even on the reading last when I was in High School, and I learn now that even he didn't address Tulsa and the numerous similar white supremacist terrorist acts! The filibuster was a fully-enshrined element of our political gearwork as far as I knew, reaching back to the founding. And of course that scarcely scratches the surface.

[ProfessorPlum]

26. National Democratic politicians will still be relying on "hope" when the GQP destroys

our democracy. And Joe Manchin will act surprised.