Obama worries about "rigidity" of Liberal Democrats

Former President Barack Obama said Saturday that he worried about the "rigidity" of some liberal Democrats who were targeting other party members to be removed from purity .

His remarks come in the context of an internal debate within the party on the most effective way to challenge President Trump in the White House in 2020. The Democrats resumed the House in November, largely because of Liberal liberal energy. But while some have embraced radical proposals such as Medicare-for-all and the Green New Deal plan to tackle climate change, others have retreated, saying the party should take a more centrist approach.

At an event organized in Berlin by the Obama Foundation in Berlin, the former president was questioned about the art of compromise.

He told the crowd, mostly young people, that in the political and civic sphere, "you have to recognize that in our structured democracy you have to take into account the people who do not agree with it. you".

"One of the things that sometimes worries me about the progressives in the United States – maybe it's true here too – is a certain type of rigidity, where we say," Oh, I'm sorry. That's how it will be, "Obama said.

He lamented that Democrats sometimes create "what is called a" circular firing squad ", in which you start shooting at your allies, as one of them moves away purity on the issues ".

"When that happens, usually the effort and the movement weaken. . . . You can not configure a system in which you do not compromise. But you can not operate in a system where you compromise on everything. everything is up for grabs This requires a number of reflections and internal deliberations, "he said.

Obama told the crowd that while his national feat, the Affordable Care Act of 2010, did not contain everything he wanted, he considered his adoption a success.

"It was not the ideal health program I wanted to put in place. That's what I could get at the time and if I could establish the principle that everyone has access to health care and 20 million more people, even if 10 million people do not have them. have not received yet, that's what I'm going to do now. ," he said.