Editorial from Progressive Post Daily:
A Quick Note About President Obama’s Paid Wall Street Speech
There has been a lot of criticism coming from progressives in the last few days about the fact that former President Obama will get paid $400,000 to give a speech to a Wall Street firm. While we certainly agree that paid speeches at Wall Street banks aren’t in line with the values of the Democratic Party or the policies that President Obama’s maintained as president, Democrats need to stay focused on the task at hand. Resisting the radical Trump agenda and getting progressive Democrats elected up and down the ballot across the country.
Democrats need to end the circular firing squads. President Obama is the most consequential person in the progressive movement in at least a generation. You could easily argue that no person alive today has done more for the progressive movement.
It’s perfectly reasonable to feel disappointed by President Obama’s decision on this one. We’re not thrilled about Obama doing paid Wall Street speeches either. It doesn’t look good and it doesn’t send a good message about Democrats. However, we need to remember that we have a corrupt person in the White House right now who is profiting off the presidency. Donald Trump is literally making taxpayers pay him tens of thousands of dollars to rent the Secret Service golf carts at his private club. There is no bigger issue for Democrats than this corrupt president.
Barack Obama served this country with grace and integrity, period. And if he decides to make some questionable choices in his post-presidency life we’re better off not suffering friendly fire over it.
The future of our democracy is literally at stake. The Trump presidency is the biggest crisis to face American democracy in generations and we need to keep acting like it. That doesn’t mean that Barack Obama’s decision is a good one. But it does mean that Democrats need to save their fire for more important targets.
