The party has lost its grasp on ethnic minorities, young people and blue-collar voters. Why?
Barack Obama left office eight years ago, but he remains one of the most popular politicians in the country. During an appearance at Hamilton College in upstate New York last week, the former president waded into the campus debates that have roiled higher education since Donald Trump was re-elected and threatened federal funding. His fellow Democrats might take note.
Mr. Obama couldn’t resist a little historical revisionism, but we’ll forgive him. “Imagine if I had pulled Fox News’ credentials from the White House press corps,” he said in a gibe at the Trump administration, which has blocked the AP from attending Oval Office events. In reality, the Obama administration did target Fox News for its political coverage. As FactCheck.org reported in 2018 after Mr. Obama made a similar remark, “the Obama Justice Department surveilled one of Fox News’ reporters, and a White House spokesman acknowledged excluding Fox News from interviews.” Why is it so hard for Mr. Trump’s political opponents to concede that not all of his excesses are unprecedented?
Mr. Obama was on firmer ground when he said that progressives would do well to engage in some self-reflection. “We say that we’re for rule of law. Are we going to stick to that when it’s tough?” he said. “We believe in freedom of speech. Do we stand up for freedom of speech when the other person talking is saying stuff that infuriates us and is wrong and hurtful?” He told the audience that “part of how we got confused around some of these issues is that those who claimed to be fighting on behalf of social justice and freedom of speech and equality—sometimes we didn’t observe it ourselves.”
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Jason L. Riley is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a columnist at The Wall Street Journal, and a Fox News commentator. Follow him on Twitter here.
Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images
