Obama in his new book: Our divisions are deep and our challenges are dire

In a forthcoming book, former US President Barack Obama spoke about “America’s deep divisions” and the extent to which Donald Trump’s departure from the White House alone will not be enough to correct them. In excerpts from the first volume of his diary: “A Promised Land”, which will be on the market next Tuesday, and the magazine “The Atlantic” published excerpts from it, Obama goes back to the last four years since he left the White House .

He wrote: “Perhaps the most worrying thing is that our democratic system appears to be sinking into a crisis.” He added: “A crisis rooted between two different visions of America, what it is and what it should be,” denouncing the coup by the wall’s standards and abandoning issues that were long “a given” for both Republicans and Democrats.
Regarding Obama, this rivalry between visions “is not, of course, new, and in many ways defined the American experience,” noting that “it is found in the founding documents that can declare at the same time that all men are equal, but the servant is counted as three fifths of a man. ”“ At the heart of this long battle, ”Obama said,“ is a simple question: Are we concerned with matching America’s reality with its ideals? If so, Do we really believe that our concepts of autonomy, individual freedom, equal opportunity and equality before the law apply to everyone? Or are we obliged, practically if not in the Basic Law, to reserve these things for a privileged few? “

Obama welcomed Biden’s election as president, warning of an optimistic outlook for the years after Trump.

Obama welcomed the election of his former vice president, Joe Biden, as president of the United States, warning of an optimistic outlook for the years after Trump. He said, “I also know that an election will not solve the problem.” Emphasizing that he is not prepared to give up “the possibility of America,” he added: “I am encouraged by the record number of Americans who came out to vote in last week’s election and have strong confidence in Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, in his character and in his ability to do the right thing. ” He added: “But I also know that there is no single choice that decides the matter.” Our divisions are deep. Our challenges are dire. “He continued:” If I remain optimistic about the future, it is in large part because I have learned to place my faith in my fellow citizens, especially in the next generation, whose belief in equal value for all People seem to emerge as second nature, and they insist on achieving those principles. What their parents and teachers told them is correct, but they may not be fully believed.
In the volume, which has 768 pages, Obama also recounts his writing style (with a pencil and not on the computer) and the difficulty he found in shortening. “I thought I could summarize everything in about 500 pages,” he says. He expected it to happen within a year. But every time I sat down to write, whether it was describing the early stages of my campaign, or my administration’s handling of the financial crisis, the negotiations with the Russians to curb nuclear weapons, or the forces that led to the Arab Spring, I found that my mind resisted a simple linear narrative.

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