Historian says this prominent Democrat’s rhetoric clashes with his lifestyle

Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Victor Davis Hanson appeared on Fox News Friday and said a prominent Democrat advocates for causes that clash with his lifestyle.

At a Thursday night event at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., former President Barack Obama said that resisting President Donald Trump’s policies might require sacrifices. During an appearance on “Jesse Watters Primetime,” Hanson said that the mismatch between Obama’s public statements and personal actions undermines his credibility and damages his public persona.

“He had a bad campaign. Every once in a while, he would fly in from one of his four mansions on a private jet and tell very bright young black men that they were suffering from false consciousness and they didn’t know what was good for them,” Hanson said. “They needed to listen more to Barack and Michelle, and that’s not a good message. So he really hurt his brand.”

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This behavior, Hanson said, directly contradicts Obama’s calls for personal sacrifice and societal hurt, which ring hollow given his affluent lifestyle.

“I don’t think he’s going to recover. He’s kind of a character of himself. When he said that everybody’s going to have to sacrifice and have some hurt, I thought to myself ‘Are you going to sell the Hawaii estate or the Kalorama mansion or Martha’s vineyard?’ Just take a pic. You don’t need four houses,” Hanson said.

Hanson said that the broader Democratic Party leadership lacks direction.

“Well, the only one who comes close is [Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John] Fetterman, and they look at Fetterman and they said ‘I would rather lose than be ideologically centrist,’” Hanson said.

In his speech, Obama said Trump’s actions violate the core principles that unite Americans. He encouraged students to actively oppose Trump’s policies.

“It has been easy during most of our lifetimes to say you are a progressive, or say you are for social justice, or say you are for free speech, and not have to pay a price for it…And now we’re in one of those moments when…it’s not enough just to say you’re for something. You may actually have to do something and possibly sacrifice a little bit,” Obama said.

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