Obama says one election won't reverse 'truth decay', sees 'great hope' in next generation

Amid the US election 2020 chaos, former President Barack Obama said that the country is facing a huge task in reversing a culture of “crazy conspiracy theories” that have exacerbated divides in the country. In a BCC interview, Obama said that the US is more sharply split that even four years ago when Donald Trump won the presidency. He suggested that Democratic leader Joe Biden’s victory in this year’s election is just the start of repairing those divisions. 

While speaking to the media outlet, the former president said that anger and resentment between rural and urban America, immigration injustices like inequality and the kinds of “crazy conspiracy theories” - also known as “truth decay” - have led to division in the country. He also noted that such theories have been amplified by some US media outlets and “turbocharged by social media” as well. He said that the country “is very divided right now,” and added that certainly more than when he first ran for the office back in 2007 and won the presidency in 2008. 

In recent days Obama has done a series of interviews timed to the release of the first volume of his memoir, “A Promised Land,” which will be available November 17. The book revolves around the 44th President's childhood and political rise, before diving into his historic campaign and first four years in the White House. In the book, the country’s first Black President also confronts the racist politics of Trump, suggesting his 2008 election opened a wave of bitter and divisive turmoil that furled Republican’s obstructionism and ultimately changed the party. 

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Obama sees ‘great hope’ in next generation 

While speaking to BBC, Obama defended his active campaign for Biden and said, “It’ll take more than one election to reverse those trends”. 

The former president went on to argue that tackling a polarised nation cannot be left only to the decisions of politicians, but also requires both structural change and people listening to one another. He agreed that a “common set of facts”. He also added that he sees “great hope” in the sophisticated attitudes of the next generation, further urging young people to “cultivate that cautious optimism that the world can change” and to be a part of that change. 

Moreover, Obama also took a jibe at President Trump and said that the nation’s division is somewhere attributable to the Republican leader’s willingness to “fan division” because it was goo for his politics. He added that the spread of misinformation also contributed hugely. The former president said that there are millions of people who subscribed to the notion that Biden is a socialist and Hillary Clinton was part of an evil cabal that was involved in “paedophile rings”. In the end, he said that division is also a result of socio-economic factors such as increasing inequality and disparities between rural and urban America. 

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