“What’s going to happen in this next election? I’m terrified about what could possibly happen, because our leaders matter. Who we select, who speaks for us, who holds that bully pulpit, it affects us in ways sometimes I think people take for granted,” Obama told Jay Shetty on his podcast “On Purpose.”

“The fact that people think that government — ‘eh, does it really even do anything?’ — and I’m like ‘Oh my God, does government do everything for us, and we cannot take this democracy for granted.’ And I worry sometimes that we do. Those are the things that keep me up,” she said.

“The bars are different for people in life. That I’ve learned,” she said.

Without naming Trump, she continued: “Other people can be indicted a bunch of times and still run for office. Black men can’t. You just learn to be good. And in the end, you benefit from that extra resilience.”

  • dhork@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    There was a rider attached to one of the latest appropriations bills (which is now law) that restricts how future Presidents can pull the US out of NATO. It can’t happen now unless Congress passes an act authorizing the President to do so, or with a 2/3 vote of the Senate (the same mechanism as ratifying a treaty).

    So at least on this issue, we’ve put in some safeguards in case we elect an idiot again.

        • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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          10 months ago

          They stopped some of his bullshit, but they also failed to stop a lot of it. If he’s allowed to run for president again, that will be a huge example of rules not stopping him.

          • kofe@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            This is where states rights are again shown to be fucked. States rights to include insurrectionists on the ballot this time.

        • Xanis@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          I may argue he’s not in office because the coup attempt didn’t succeed.

          Though maybe that’s just me.

        • fidodo@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          He did a lot of illegal things that got overturned. But the problem is while it’s being overturned it can still do a lot of damage.

        • prole@sh.itjust.works
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          10 months ago

          Huh? How is that why he’s not in office? I would say that, in spite of all those things, he still received the second highest vote count in presidential election history.

          He just happened to lose to the person who got the highest.