During an hour-long discussion with author Dave Eggers at the Obama Foundation Summit in Chicago, former President Obama opined on ways to mobilize Americans toward creating social change.
While the entire session was a thinly-veiled attack on the current administration (and anyone who voted for it), as Grabien’s Tom Elliott notes, when the topic of global warming came up, Obama’s criticism was particularly pointed.
Obama begins his somewhat off-the-rails comments at around 29:00 in, proclaiming:
“…the reason we don’t [invest in climate change policies] is because we are still confused, blind, shrouded with hate, anger, racism – mommy issues…”
“I mean, we — we are we are fraught with stuff,” he continued,
“And — and so if that’s the case then the single most important thing that we have to invest in is not all — and look I’m a huge supporter of science and technological research and social science and, you know, evidence-based learning and all that good stuff.
I’m — I’m — people call me Spock for a reason, I believe in reason and logic and all these enlightenment values, but the thing that really we have to invest in is people. We got to get people to figure out how they work together — in a — you know, how do we get people to work together in a cooperative, thoughtful, constructive way.”
But as Grabien’s Tom Elliott points out, the erstwhile commander-in-chief did not explain what meant by “mommy issues,” or how these related to countering climate change. But, the former President was far from done with his ramblings…
“I was having a conversation with a friend, who was depressed about the current course of our country — it’s a conversation that happens a lot,” Obama said later.
“I had to remind him that this is what happens. Societies are these incredibly complex, organic things that sometimes moves forward and sometimes takes a step back.”
“This is a heavy burden,” he said.
“But what a joyous burden to have this grand adventure where you can literally remake the world right now because it badly needs remaking. If you could blindly choose when you wanted to be born, you’d choose now … Or — maybe two years ago.”
And in another dig at Trump on Monday, Obama suggested the US was a better place before he was sworn into office.
Obama repeated his belief that if you could choose a time and place to be born, you would choose the US.
But he amended that thought and said: “You’d choose now – or maybe two years ago.”
Full discussion here:
As Breitbart’s John Nolte so masterfully concluded:
Obama, who famously wrote an entire autobiography called Dreams from My Father as a means to work through his lifelong daddy issues, is certain we can solve all the world’s problems – “climate change, education, agriculture and so on” – quite easily because they are “not nearly as complicated as they are made out to be.”
The “reason we don’t do it,” Obama explained, “is because we are still confused, blind, shrouded with hate, anger, racism, mommy issues.”
