Former President Barack Obama embedded a hidden message about his Oval Office successor and his political party's electoral foe in his Democratic National Convention speech Tuesday night, a New York Magazine columnist believes.
Behind the funny jabs at former President and Republican nominee Donald Trump, Obama delivered a subtle message about the limitations of rage-fueled rhetoric he urged Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) to heed, Jonathan Chait argued Wednesday.
"Kamala and Tim understand that when everybody gets a fair shot, we are all better off,” Obama told the delegates gathered in Chicago.
“Donald Trump and his well-heeled donors, they don’t see the world that way. For them, one group’s gains is necessarily another group’s loss.”
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Chait mirrored this message to the one Obama delivered 20 years ago, and which he argued Democrats have since set aside in the face of what he describes as Trump's "angry pseudo-populism."
Obama's message was then, as it was Tuesday night, that American people can be decent no matter the name on the ballot they cast, and that it behooves leaders to care about all the nation's citizens, Chait argued.
"Does that mean we can all just hold hands and skip off into the future together?" Chait asked. "No, because there have always been demagogues who seek to divide us so they can exploit the division."
Chait likened Trump's racial rhetoric to that former President George W. Bush used to inspire fear of gay marriage when he ran for office in 2004.
Obama did, too.
“The other side knows it’s easier to play on people’s fears and cynicism," Obama said. "They'll tell you government is fundamentally corrupt and that sacrifice and generosity are for suckers."
Obama then turned his criticism to his own party and quietly issued Harris and Walz a piece of advice.
“The vast majority of us do not want to live in a country that’s bitter and divided," Obama said. "To make progress on the things we care about, the things that really affect people’s lives, we need to remember that we’ve all got our blind spots and contradictions and prejudices."
The message, according to Chait was this:
"Obama argues that, despite Trump’s ugliness, most Americans are still decent and good," Chait wrote. "That hope has been deeply shaken in the Trump era. Obama is making the case that Kamala Harris can restore it."
