Obama

 Last night, my wife and I went to see Barack Obama speak in Hartford. He had one insight that was new to me: he felt that among the many impacts of smart phones was the ability of people in poorer parts of the world to see the richer parts. In America, this led to the resentment that poorer rural areas have for the coasts but in the rest of the world, it doubtless fueled the migrant surge of the past 15 years. I had never thought of that last bit.

The rest of his comments were not especially revelatory. He remains a formidable speaker. I remember when he said something was pernicious, and I struggled to imagine Trump even being able to define that word. He speaks in measured cadences, considering every word that leaves his mouth. Going there, I resigned myself to the fact that he was too smart to say anything especially controversial, and he did couch everything in terms of "that guy" or "some people" in keeping with the norms that former presidents butt out of current politics. I do find that annoying, in the sense that one side abiding by norms while the other tears them up seems like asymmetric warfare. 

Still, his criticisms were real, and he made the unassailable argument that the members of our current government are not loyal to the ideals of American democracy that stretch back to World War II and again further back to our founding. He reiterated his position that there are two stories in America. While he didn't mention him, I would argue that it's the two stories present within the person of Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson, the democrat, who believed in the natural rights of all people. Jefferson, the slaveholder, who limited the universal rights because he simply could not see Blacks, Natives and women as equals.

Of course, Trump and the entire GOP are loyal to the story that there are some "real Muricans" and then there are vermin. Trump's American Carnage, his language about cities and Democrats, the rhetoric just this weekend about the assassinations in Minnesota, his ridiculous invocation of "Marxists" and "lunatics" are all part of the caste system that has always been part of the American story.

(I think Heather Cox Richardson, the moderator, asked maybe four or five questions over the course of an hour and a half. Dude can talk.)

He also echoed a thought I've had for years, which is that we have so balkanized our public life that there is no common civic language. He specifically and pointedly noted the abandonment of factual truth by Trump and the GOP, but he rightly noted that this is deeply cultural. 

In all, it was a defense of the sort of postwar and post-Cold War liberalism that has brought great good to the world, but has also led to disruption, as free trade has left some people and regions behind. It was intelligent, coherent, wise and completely at odds with the current leadership of this country. It was also, I need to say, an argument that Joe Biden simply could not make in 2024. It was an argument that Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris articulated forcefully, but latent misogyny led to it falling on deaf ears.

I miss the guy.