“I’ve become increasingly concerned about the rising wave of authoritarianism sweeping the globe,” Obama said in a video introducing the conversation, which took place in London.Obama is obviously intelligent and often eloquent. His comments are welcome to defenders of US democracy. And they vaguely hint at perspectives that could be helpful in pushing back against Trumpista authoritarianism.
The comments were a veiled, if clear, rebuke of not only the current US administration but also some of the leaders Trump has aligned himself with since taking office. …
[T]he former president offered an acknowledgment that sclerotic bureaucracies and unresponsive politicians had, in many ways, ushered in a global populist wave.
“In the United States, for example, there will need to be laws that are changed so that action can be taken more effectively, more quickly to respond to problems in a lawful way,” Obama said during his discussion. “I think what we’ve seen is that when people are frustrated, they’re willing to take any action, even if it’s unlawful, because at least there’s a sense of, something’s happening. That’s something that I think everybody has to internalize at this point.”
He acknowledged that centrist politicians had, in many instances, lost the pulse of voters and allowed some of the populist anger to take hold.
“A big challenge is that the governments themselves, whether center-right or center-left, were losing touch with people and weren’t delivering on some of the basic hopes and dreams of people, so you get frustrated with government, period,” he said. “That obviously then opens the door for right-wing populism, anti-immigrant sentiment, anger, grievances.”
He said wealth gaps and … complex modern economies had left people feeling “as if they don’t have control, and they feel as if their politicians often don’t have control over all the different forces there.” And he said social media was “very good at making people fearful of or angry about those who don’t agree with them.” [my emphasis] (1)
But what he says in the above quotes also tiptoes around what the political and social pushback against authoritarians needs to be. For instance, why should Obama stick to what the CNN reporter calls “a veiled, if clear, rebuke” to Trump and other authoritarian leaders? Why doesn’t he just be clear about his points without the “veiled” part?
Comments like, “I think what we’ve seen is that when people are frustrated, they’re willing to take any action, even if it’s unlawful, because at least there’s a sense of, something’s happening” would certainly count as vague. But clear? That is something very like what European conservative politicians say when they want to try to position themselves for coalitions with xenophobic, far-right parties. A strategy which has very consistently led to strengthening the far-right parties.
And what sort of criminal actions does he have in mind that people would understandably take when they “are frustrated”? Would Obama defend people staging “bread riots” in the US if people soon start facing serious food deprivation because of Trump’s refusal to continue providing food stamps to qualified recipients in the current moment? A safe guess would be: no!
And why would generically being “frustrated with government” lead specifically to “right-wing populism, anti-immigrant sentiment, anger, grievances”? Do violent goons join ICE to beat, kidnap, and terrorize anyone they think looks Latino because they are frustrated filling out their income tax form? The problem with a completely vague diagnosis like “frustrated with government” doesn’t say anything about what are sensible concerns, as opposed to people being angry because they think there are too many people around who don’t look like Real Amuricans?
And when he says people “frustrated with government” because of “wealth gaps” and “complex modern economies,” what does that tell anyone the political framing or concrete policies that would address such frustration while defanging rightwing demagoguery? Does Obama advocate major redistributive measures to reduce the wealth of billionaires and increase incomes of working-class people? Measures like facilitating the formation of unions or setting national living-wage requirements, neither of which occurred during his Presidency? (The last increase in the federal minimum wage, to $7.25 an hour did take place in 2009 during the first year of Obama’s Presidency but it was mandated by the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007.)
Vague platitudes about “frustration or people feeling a loss of control just don’t tell us a whole lot about the politics of authoritarianism.
How could an American politician address such concerns in a more helpful and motivating manner? Well, here’s Al Gore this year: (2)
Gore can "bring it" when he wants to. I’m sure Gore knows he's poking the wannabe-"highbrow" Trumpistas in the eye by explicitly praising the Frankfurt School and Theodore Adorno and Jürgen Habermas specifically.
There's a bizarre rightwing theory pushed by people like Christopher Rufo is that the Frankfurt School spawned "political correctness" and "wokeism" and DEI as part of a decades-long Jewish Commie plan to undermine the White Man. This crackpot narrative even blames the Frankfurt School for creating “postmodernism” philosophy, which is just a bonkers claim.
Various figures associated with the Frankfurt School were Jewish and influenced by Marxist ideas, including Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Franz Neumann, Max Horkheimer, Erich Fromm, and Walter Benjamin. Jürgen Habermas who Gore specifically mentions is currently 96 and is considered one of the leading public intellectuals in the German-speaking world, even the leading one. A student of Adorno’s, he is considered one of the Second Generation of Frankfurt School thinkers. The current Britannica article on him describes him as “the most important German philosopher of the second half of the 20th century.” (3)
It's a demented conspiracy theory. But the St. Charlie Kirk crowd takes that stuff seriously.
Notes:
(1) Liptak, Devin (2025): Obama’s warnings about democracy fading sound increasingly directed toward the US. CNN Politics 10-11-2025. <https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/11/politics/obama-democracy-warnings-trump> (Accessed: 2025-07-11).
(2) Gore compares Trump administration's actions to Nazi Germany's attacks on the truth. NBC News YouTube channel 04/22/2025. <https://youtu.be/9uQoXRHsu2U?si=baAPmmQcP6asVayZ> (Accessed: 2025-07-11).
(3) Matusik, Martin Beck et al (2025): Jürgen Habermas. Encyclopedia Britannica 09/20/2025. <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jurgen-Habermas>(Accessed: 2025-07-11).
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