Former President Barack Obama on Tuesday repeated calls for increased engagement in the democratic process during an appearance in Italy, saying that “you get the politicians you deserve.”
“People have a tendency to blame politicians when things don’t work,” Obama said during a Q-and-A session at the Global Food Innovation Summit in Milan.
“But as I always tell people, you get the politicians you deserve. And if you don’t vote and if you don’t participate and if you don’t pay attention, then you’ll get policies that don’t reflect your interests.”
The comment echoes Obama’s calls in several post-White House appearances for renewed civic engagement in the U.S. and abroad.
Last month, in his first public speech since leaving office in January, Obama said he wanted to help develop the next generation of leaders and encouraged active participation in politics.
“The one thing that I’m absolutely convinced of is that, yes we confront a whole range of challenges,” he said to a crowd of students at the University of Chicago.
“All those issues are […]
Well, if Obombya is including himself in his assertion…I agree with him too. He should be in prison for killing innocent children & civilians with his drone strikes at the minimum.
Instead, Obombya is flying around in private jets & driving in huge motorcades to climate change meetings and making $$ off speeches while we pay for his security. We definitely deserve that hypocrisy.
“Society always get exactly what it deserves” has been a widely held belief for centuries. Yet fault finding and finger pointing persists. We are the problem and we must be the solution. All of us need a better understanding of Dr. De Bono’s ” Intelligence Trap”.
I’m sure it was not Obama’s fault he killed innocent people..I mean who knew firing hellfire missiles into groups of people would result in innocent people dying, right? I agree we ultimately bear the responsibility..however these so called leaders have hijacked the ability of people to control their own circumstances because government rules through coercion and violence – taking the fruit of our labor and using it to harm others. This must be halted.