Former President Barack Obama on Thursday claimed the moral high ground by cautioning “one side” of politics is going to “stack the deck” by stealing elections and politicize the U.S. government.
He declined to name which specific party should be attributed with those anti-democratic principles but added they should be opposed.
In a speech at the third annual Obama Foundation Democracy Forum in Chicago, Illinois, the 63-year-old called for a renewed commitment to pluralist ethics and said the consequences of failing to do so are barely worth considering.
He said:
There are going to be times, potentially, when one side tries to stack the deck and lock in a [long pause] permanent grip on power—either by actively suppressing votes, or politicizing the armed forces, or using the judiciary and the criminal justice system to go after opponents.
In those circumstances, pluralism does not call for us to just stand back and say, ‘Well, I’m not sure that’s okay.’
In those circumstances, a line has been crossed, and we have to stand firm.
Critics were quick to point out Obama had only one party in mind when he made the claim.
Obama has mostly stayed silent since enthusiastically backing Vice President Kamala Harris in the run up to her crushing 2024 election loss.
In the process the Democrat lost every battleground state and the popular vote and her party lost control of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Obama was pinpointed as one of the Democrats who worked enthusiastically behind the scenes to defenestrate President Joe Biden and anoint Harris as his successor.
Democratic nominee and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also failed to win the presidency in 2016 despite Obama’s enthused backing.