Former President Barack Obama has issued one of his most direct and serious warnings to date about the direction of the United States, expressing grave concerns about the ongoing leadership of Donald Trump.
Speaking at the Connecticut Forum on June 17, Obama reflected on what he sees as a weakening commitment to the democratic norms that have defined American governance since World War II.
His remarks – which touched on the erosion of institutional safeguards – drew comparisons between current U.S. political behavior and authoritarian regimes abroad.
“This is not consistent with American democracy”
“If you follow regularly what is said by those who are in charge of the federal government right now, there is a weak commitment to what we understood — and not just my generation, at least since World War II — our understanding of how a liberal democracy is supposed to work,” Obama said at the Hartford event, per LBC.
“What we’re seeing right now … is not consistent with American democracy,” he continued. “It is consistent with autocracies.”
What is ‘Autocracy’?
The term “autocracy” has not only been used more and more in online reports in the last few weeks, but online searches for the term have skyrocketed.
Put simply, “autocracy” is a system of government by which one person has all control and absolute power.
Per National Geographic: “An autocratic ruler is accountable to no one; there is no system of checks and balances, no constitutional limit on the ruler’s power, and the ruler is not held accountable by a cabinet of advisors, a system of courts, the people, or the press.”Read More Below
