 So former president Barack Obama is promoting his new book because apparently he's not rich enough So he has to publish a 20th book or something like that But as a result of this promotion that he's doing he is appearing on various news programs And he's weighing in on modern political issues and you know a lot of people respect what he says Because he's a former president and basically he is a god to the Democratic Party's base But the more he speaks the more that he demonstrates how out of touch he is case in point This is what he said about defund the police as the Hill reports Obama says you lose people with snappy slogans Like to fund the police he then adds the key is deciding Do you want to actually get something done or do you want to feel good among the people you already agree with? How very condescending of him. I I can't take it Obama is more smug and insufferable than ever And it's really really important for people of credibility to call him out and denounce what he's saying Because what he's saying is wrong first of all Republicans never think about what is or isn't popular They just support the policies that their base wants banning abortion banning same-sex marriage. They don't care But yet they still somehow managed to win elections How do they do that? It's only Democrats who are worried about what is or isn't popular second of all if we're just basically going to Decide to support policies that are popular and not based our decision to support said policies on their efficacy Why aren't Democrats supporting policies like Medicare for all which they know works and they know is very popular Why aren't they supporting the Green New Deal? Why aren't they supporting legalizing recreational marijuana? Do you understand it's a double standard the things that you like even though they're popular We're not gonna support them, but the things that aren't popular that you also support That's what we're going to criticize you for while we don't get on board with popular policies Either you care about the popularity of policies or you don't now I think that Carlos Mazzo put it best when he said I remember all the polling suggesting that same-sex marriage was an election loser And that queer people should opt for lesser protections if they wanted to win at the ballot box Grateful for every activist who says we don't care what's popular. We care what's right there will always always be scared pundits and political operatives asking Activists to soften their language in order to win elections It's the job of activists to ignore those people completely and fight hard at every turn to yank the Overton window towards justice And he adds everything in politics is too extreme until you fight for it. And that's exactly it I don't care about what's popular I care about what's right and if Americans aren't on the side of a good policy that works That's morally right then we have to make them get on our side make the case for it educate people now I Recently shared my dismay at the fact that nobody seems willing to want to criticize Obama like he says terrible things And unpopular things and incorrect things quite frankly and nobody Will take a shot at him and say you're wrong on this Why because he has legitimacy and I've said it once I'll say it again so long as Obama has Legitimacy it's going to be very difficult to make any progress because all it takes is Obama saying we shouldn't do x or y and Then the Democratic Party their base like good little soldiers will fall in line But you have to challenge people challenge these individuals who are standing in the way I mean Obama himself said older politicians need to get out of the way and make way for young generations But he needs to take his own fucking advice But thankfully what we saw in response to Obama saying that we shouldn't use Phrasing like to fund the police was a lot of pushback from progressive leftist lawmakers And this was honestly really encouraging to see because it's super important people who are popular need to speak up and Actually challenge the incorrect things that Obama says and boy do they do that so Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted out what if activists aren't PR firms for politicians and their demands are because police Budgets are exploding community resources are shrinking to bankroll it and people brought this up for ages But it wasn't until they said to fund that comfortable people Started paying attention to brutality the thing that critics of activists don't get is that they tried playing the polite language policy game And all it did was make them easier to ignore It wasn't until they made folks uncomfortable that there was traction to do anything even if it wasn't their full demands Cory Bush then responded saying with all due respect mr. President. Let's talk about losing people. We lost Michael Brown, Jr We lost Breonna Taylor. We're losing our loved ones to police violence. It's not a slogan It's a mandate for keeping our people alive Defund the police Ilhan Omar responded saying we lose people in the hands of police it's not a slogan but a policy demand and Centering the demand for equitable investments and budgets for communities across the country gets us progress and safety Iona Presley responded saying the murders of generations of unarmed black folks by police have been horrific Lives are at stake daily So I'm out of patience with critiques of the language of activists Whatever a grieving family says is their truth and I'll never stop fighting for their justice and healing Rashida Tlaib says Rosa Parks was vilified and attacked for her civil disobedience. She was targeted It's hard seeing the same people who uplift her courage Attack the movement for black lives that want us to prioritize health funding of schools And ending poverty rather than racist police systems and probably my favorite response to Obama is this one from Jamal Bowman who says Damn, Mr. President didn't you say Trayvon could have been my son in 2014 black lives matter was too much in 2016 Kaepernick was too much today discussing police budgets is too much The problem is America's comfort with black death not discomfort with slogans and to that I say Well done that deserves a slow clap That's phenomenal. I cannot tell you how encouraging it is to see young Popular lawmaker stand up to what Obama is saying because when I saw Obama say this my first instinct was oh god now all of a sudden Everyone's gonna be attacking to fund the police the media and there's gonna be no pushback And since the god Obama said it then you know it is done everyone has to go along with what he says because we worship him But that's not what we're seeing Thankfully, we're seeing people call out Obama and what Jamal Bowman speaks to here is so important If you're more uncomfortable with a slogan than you are with black Americans dying at the hands of police It's not the slogan ears who have the problem. It's not the activists who created the slogan that have the problem You're the one with the problem You are the one who needs to reevaluate your priorities and for all of these progressive lawmakers to call out Barack Obama year This is so important Obama has been a really prominent moderating force in the Democratic Party and he's also a movement killer I mean, let's all remember that back in March all he had to do to end Bernie Sanders Presidential campaign was pick up the phone and make a couple of calls to be but a judge name a club Would try and get them to drop out and of course they listened and they jumped right Obama says jump they say How high that's the way that they respond to Barack Obama so to see this it really almost feels like a paradigm shift And on top of that when the NBA was going to end up striking doing something really meaningful it was Obama that stopped that like he is a movement killer and I've described him as the final boss of liberalism and I still think that that descriptor is Apt because that's what he does like he has so much credibility and legitimacy That he can basically say whatever he wants and anything that he says by definition is true because it came from his lips And that's unacceptable Barack Obama is a fallible human being and in fact, he's a bad human being He's a war criminal who murdered countless civilians in Pakistan Yemen and Somalia So the fact that it's taken this long for anyone to criticize him even tapedly is a little bit depressing But I mean baby steps right the fact that so many progressives are speaking out against Obama here That's important. It tells us that Obama isn't infallible He can say something too extreme for people and they will criticize him. That's that's so important So this is a small step in the right direction, but um I'll take it. I really give credit to the progressives who called him out because what he's saying is wrong And he needs to be called out