Barack Obama doesn’t sound the alarm unless he really means it. During a recent conversation in Hartford, Connecticut, the former president issued a blunt warning about where America might be headed: toward autocracy—a system of government in which one person holds absolute power.
“We’re not there yet completely,” Obama told the audience, “but I think that we are dangerously close to normalizing behavior like that.”
His comments came during a sit-down with historian Heather Cox Richardson, whose daily Substack newsletter Letters from an American has become a go-to for political context.
Obama pointed directly at the current political climate, saying it’s not exactly in line with the ideals of American democracy.
“It is consistent with autocracies,” he said, drawing a clear contrast between democratic values and what’s happening in today’s leadership, particularly under the shadow of Trumpism.
“If you follow regularly what is said by those who are in charge of the federal government right now,” he said, “there is a weak commitment to what we understood, at least since World War II, as how a liberal democracy is supposed to work.”
And he didn’t just stop at criticizing Trump and company. Obama also took aim at a large part of the Republican establishment.
Referencing the 2020 election, he said, “In 2020, one person won the election, and it wasn’t the guy complaining about it. That’s just a fact. Just like my inauguration had more people. I say that, by the way, not because—I don’t care—but facts are important.”
There’s a dangerous number of people, elected officials included, who know better but still choose to play along. “In one of our major political parties, you have a whole bunch of people who know that’s not true but will pretend like it is,” he said. “And that is dangerous.”
Still, in classic Obama fashion, he didn’t leave the room without offering a spark of hope.
“I’m still the ‘hope’ guy,” he said. “It is important to be impatient with injustice and cruelty… but if you want to deliver on change, then it’s a game of addition, not subtraction.”
He encouraged young people and activists to channel their outrage into action, but also to find common ground where it exists.
As protests like “No Kings” continue to pop up across the country, Obama’s message is a timely reminder that democracy isn’t self-sustaining. It requires vigilance, participation, and above all, a shared commitment to truth, even when it’s inconvenient.
