President Obama appeared on Fox News Sunday and was interviewed by Chris Wallace. Wallace asked Obama why he thought voters were expressing such anger and frustration this election. Obama responded by calling out how both sides are in their own bubble where they just hear things that reinforce their own opinions and fears, saying “I think the danger both among Republicans and among Democrats who just listen to each other or they just listen to people that already agree with them — you know, Republicans have their own TV station.”
Wallace interrupted, saying “Go ahead, you can say Fox News.”
Obama continues, “They’ve got their own publications, their own blogs. Democrats, same thing. Increasingly what happens is, we don’t hear each other. And so what happens then is when Republicans promise to repeal Obamacare and it doesn’t get repealed, they’re outraged. … Democrats get frustrated they say ‘well why didn’t we have a public option in our health care system or have a single-payer system.”
Obama ends by pointing out all that’s good about our country:
America’s got the best cards. We are the envy of the world. We have the most powerful military on earth by a mile. Our economy right now is stronger than any other advanced economy. We have the best workers, we have the best universities, we are the most innovative, we have the most advanced scientific community, we have an incredibly diverse and talented population. This can be our century, just like the 20th century was, as long as we don’t tear each other apart because our politics values sensationalism or conflict over cooperation and we don’t have the ability to compromise. And if we get that part right, nobody can stop us.
Watch it:
One Comment
I am happy he agrees that Libya was cluster#$@! due to their intervention. I mentioned in my comment few weeks back that there is no consistency in Hillary (and to Obama as well) approach. They are against Iraq war (Hillary repented 2008) but they supported regime change in Libya and she been defending it on campaign trail as something good. Apparently she did not learn anything from her mistake that she repented from in Iraq vote.
On the other hand the points you are highlighting that Obama said is that each partisan lives in their own echo chamber bubble goes against the establishment and status quo. I read and follow very conservative sites and as well as very liberal blogs. And the people are overwhelming sick and tired of establishment and status quo on both sides. There is not much left/right divide, rather there is establishment(status quo)/non-establishment(change) divide. Glen Greenwald has written on it many times on various votes (privacy/NSA etc) that this left/right divide is myth. Similarly Trump popularity is also proving that republican middle/poor class has no love for economic conservatism of rich getting richer. They want solutions to fix their life. Difference between Sanders and Trump supporters is only about how racists/bigoted people are. If Sanders today comes out and says same shit that Donald is saying, he may get same votes as Trump.