Barack Obama says Democrats have to adopt a universal language to appeal to moderate voters

Former President Barack Obama has recently touched on the divisions within the Democratic party. While promoting his memoir, “A Promised Land,” Obama stresses the need for party members to adopt a more universal language to appeal to moderates.

Speaking to a literary group, the former president reiterated the need for the Democrats to embrace a more universal campaign message, so as not to put off those who identify as moderate members of the party. Obama cited that if he spoke a similar message or language as leading intellectual James Baldwin, he may not have gotten a lot of votes in Iowa. The former president also previously voiced his opposition towards slogans like “Defund the Police,” which has become a popular message from the left. The slogan was in response to the protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd early this year.

Obama is not the only one who has criticized the slogan. South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn has also criticized the message, saying that it was a factor that contributed to the losses experienced by Democrats in the House and Senate races. The former president’s opposition to the slogan has since drawn backlash.

The former president also said there is an opportunity to broaden conversations centered on race in the country in his remarks to PEN America. Obama said that the recent civil unrest paired with generational change could give way for a less-nuanced political discourse. “What I think has changed -- and we saw this this summer - is because of people’s witness to George Floyd, because of what seems like a constant stream of irrefutable evidence of excessive force against unarmed Black folks, that I think white America has awakened to certain realities that even 20 years ago they were still resistant to.”

During Obama’s two-term tenure as president, he oversaw the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011. The former president’s memoir gave a detailed account of how it came to the decision, where he ordered a Navy seal team to raid the bunker in Pakistan to kill the Al Qaeda leader. President-elect Joe Biden, who was his vice president at the time, advised caution before giving the green light, advice that Obama ultimately did not take.

In the CNN documentary focused on all five living former vice presidents, Biden revealed why he advised caution, saying that it was to give bin Laden space first. Biden later advised Obama to follow his instinct first, which led to the greenlighting of the raid.