– Our democracy seems to be on the verge of crisis – VG

In the book A promised land , to be published in Norwegian on Tuesday, November 17, Obama reflects on the four years that have passed since the presidential term expired. Obama was president from 2009 to 2017, and A promised land It is the first of the two planned books that make up his memoirs.

“Our democracy appears to be on the brink of crisis, a crisis that is rooted in a fundamental competition between two conflicting visions of what America is and what it should be,” the 59-year-old wrote in an excerpt shared on The Atlantic magazine on Thursday.

The crisis has left society divided, angry and suspicious, he believes. Obama also writes that the crisis has opened up to continued violations of rules, protections, and adherence to basic facts that both Republicans and Democrats once took for granted.

Obama believes the electoral victory of his former Vice President Joe Biden and incoming presidential candidate Kamala Harris is encouraging.

– However, I also know that no option can solve the problem. We are deeply divided and we have great challenges. If I remain hopeful, it is largely because I have learned to have faith in my fellow citizens, especially in the next generation, Obama writes.

In addition, he writes that the book is for the next generation, an invitation to recreate the world and create an America that finally brings together all the best of us.

– Created panic

According to CNN, Obama also reaches the so-called birther controversy, when Donald Trump asserted without foundation that Obama was not born in the United States.

It was as if my presence in the White House had created a deep form of panic, a feeling that the order of nature had been disturbed. That is what Donald Trump understood when he began to share claims that I was not born in the United States and therefore was not a legitimate president, he writes.

According to Obama, Trump promised an elixir against anxiety for millions of Americans who were intimidated by the idea of ​​a black man in the White House.

He also questions whether the opponent in the 2008 election, John McCain, would have chosen a different vice presidential candidate than Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, had he had the chance to try again.

– Through Palin, it seemed that the dark ideas that had wandered outside the party, found a place on the stage: xenophobia, anti-intellectualism, paranoid conspiracy theories, and contempt for blacks and browns, he writes.

– Get a lot of sleep for a month

Obama also admits that he smoked up to 10 cigarettes a day while he was president.

Eventually, she switched to nicotine gum after her daughters’ comments about smoking. He also says that he writes the book by hand and claims that it cannot be concise. He also talks about what he and his wife Michelle did after they left the White House in January 2017, physically and emotionally exhausted.

– For a month, Michelle and I slept a lot, ate long dinners, took long walks, swam in the sea, recreated our friendship, rediscovered love, and planned a less rugged but hopefully equally satisfying second act, he says.

In a New York Times review, Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writes that Obama is good at asking tough questions in the book.

– At the same time, little of what the best memories have: authentic revelations about oneself. Much is still offline. It is as if the emotional aspect itself is attenuated, because he fears excessive emotions, he writes.