Former President Obama warned voters at an economic speech in Chicago not to become complacent, and took a not-so-veiled swipe at the current administration by comparing today’s political climate to 1930s Nazi Germany.
While Trump’s name was never mentioned, it’s clear what Obama was referring to in his speech.
In addressing complacency, Obama said, “We have to tend to this garden of democracy or else things could fall apart quickly.”
“That’s what happened in Germany in the 1930s which, despite the democracy of the Weimar Republic and centuries of high-level cultural and scientific achievements, Adolph Hitler rose to dominate,” he added. “Sixty million people died … So, you’ve got to pay attention. And vote.”
.@BarackObama didn’t mince words in Chicago last night during @EconClubChi speech, via @GregHinz pic.twitter.com/C8wuBzz1dY
— Kristen Schorsch (@kschorsch) December 6, 2017
In other words, vote Democrat in 2018, vote Democrat in 2020, or risk becoming Nazi Germany. What a disgrace.
Political reporter, Greg Hinz, of Crain’s Chicago Business, called the comments “jaw-dropping” and an attempt to throw “a bit of red meat to a hometown crowd that likely is a lot closer to him than … Trump.”
It’s also a base reaction for a man hailed by the left as intellectually superior to his opponents.
Take that, @realDonaldTrump: @BarackObama makes clear his view that a complacent America could be headed the way of Nazi Germany. Read his remarkable comments at #EconomicClub of Chicago. @BarackObama2Day https://t.co/XD4gdhjDRr
— Greg Hinz (@GregHinz) December 6, 2017
Bill Ozanick, in covering the speech for The Hill, wrote: “Comparing Trump to Hitler is not only inaccurate, ineffective, dishonest, and dangerous, it also trivializes the tragedy of the Holocaust in the name of scoring political points.”
He added, “Indeed, comparing Trump to Hitler says a lot more about the accuser than the accused.”
It certainly does. It says he no longer knows how to sell his worldview of “hope and change.” It says he’s not smart enough to argue against policies that people know will ‘make America great again.’ And it says he’s still bitter over Trump decimating his legacy by repealing nearly everything he set out to do.
Who’d have thought – Obama is now the bitter clinger.
In September we noted that the former President would be making a return to politics in Chicago for a summit aimed at inspiring and empowering people to “change the world.”
Former Pres Obama issued a stark warning against growing nativism in the U.S. and throughout the world at the Economic Club of Chicago, invoking complacency and the rise of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. https://t.co/2p2FkQvsw0
— Freedom Forever 🇺🇸 (@WayneWi20770958) December 6, 2017
This is how you inspire people? Telling them that the nation is bordering on being 1930s Germany when 60 million people died?
Obama may hold himself in higher esteem than his colleagues, narcissist that he is, but he just made clear there is no intellectual level he is unwilling to stoop to.
What do you make of Obama’s comments? Share your thoughts below!