Conservatives on social media blasted former President Obama after his first speech since the presidential election in which he lamented polarization in politics.
During a speech Thursday at the Obama Foundation's Democracy Forum, Obama made the case that if "one side" attempts to cement "a permanent grip on power" through "suppressing votes," "politicizing" the military or weaponizing the judiciary and criminal justice system to target opponents, "a line has been crossed."
"Pluralism is not about holding hands and singing ‘Kumbaya,’" Obama said. "It is not about abandoning your convictions and folding when things get tough. It is about recognizing that, in a democracy, power comes from forging alliances and building coalitions and making room in those coalitions not only for the woke, but the waking.
Obama’s speech quickly drew strong criticism from conservatives.
"It’s over for Obama," journalist Miranda Devine posted on X. "The spell is broken. Donald Trump vanquished him, Biden, Harris, the Bushes, the Cheneys. All of them, with a spring in his step."
"Ever since his last minute desperate smear of Trump with the ‘very fine people on both sides’ lie, Barack Obama has been slowing realizing his status as false prophet of the Democrat party is no more," conservative radio host Buck Sexton posted on X.
"Obama turned our politics into ‘if you disagree with me, you are a bad person,’" Republican communicator Matt Whitlock posted on X. "Few people did more to pave the way for Trump. So he can take a seat."
"By voting in a democratic election, millions of people proved they hate democracy," author Jon Gabriel posted on X. "Yes, this Obama fellow is quite the intellect."
"Setting aside the unbelievable hypocrisy here, this is also the guy who’s launching a project to lessen our political divisions. Being the problem — way up on his high horse, looking down disappointedly at the unwashed masses — while publicly lamenting the problem is peak Obama," Fox News contributor Guy Benson posted on X.
Obama, in his remarks, insisted he is "convinced that if we want democracy as we understand it to survive," people must work for a renewed dedication to pluralist principles.
"Because the alternative is what we've seen here in the United States and in many democracies around the globe. Not just more gridlock. Not just public cynicism. But an increasing willingness" among "politicians and their followers to violate democratic norms. To do anything they can to get their way. To use the power of the state to target critics and journalists and political rivals and to even resort to violence" to obtain and retain power.