Former President Barack Obama calls for fresh strategy to get back to power
By T N Ashok
NEW YORK: Why are democrats in USA still sulking in the shadows whining and not gotten over the shock defeat of Ms. Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential elections when her rival Trump stole the democrats’ voter bases and not satiated them yet on their demands in the middle east or on the economy.
Time for ruminating over whether Joe Biden should have quit the race early in order to give time to Kamala Harris undertake a proper campaign is over – people are not interested or were ever interested in messages like Democracy is in Danger, but more earthly bread and butter issues. Bread and Eggs on the table and Trump seized it and changed his tack to win over democratic blocks – Arab voters, Palestinians, Indians, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans, Japanese, Vietnamese, Phillipinos and most importantly the Latino Voters, who constitute the biggest chunk of the non-white voter’s base in the country.
It’s projected to be substantially higher in 2026 despite the government’s efforts at denaturalization of citizens, largely targeted at Mexicans and South Americas. Its history that Ms. Kamala Harris had only three months for her campaign to win in 2024, too short and too little, but not standing up to the demand firmly to stop arms supplies to Israel, perceived as a genocidal nation causing collateral damage to tens of thousands of innocent civilians in the Gaza, caused Arab voters to shift without thinking how Trump could stop the war on day one.
Election rhetoric often sells even if it’s bereft of truth or logic or any rationale or simple common sense on the impossibility of certain statements being carried out. So that applied to Trump’s statements on stopping the War in Ukraine and Gaza. War still rages. Israel is pushing its War Agenda to unprecedented levels inviting unnecessary and unwarranted antisemitism from people who had been coexisting peacefully, at least ostensibly under the shadow of resilience.
Democrats should be out there and fighting for people’s rights more forcefully as the Republicans did when Trump was blindsided with court cases and bombarded with stays, keep your mouth shut orders from courts. Yet he campaigned vigorously to vote banks of the democrats which made him win – not enough having right wingers or whites on your side, the nation is predominantly getting more populated with an huge ethnic population, harnessing your strength is the mantra.
Gavin Newsom, the California governor, showed he had some steel when he opposed the ICE’s hunt and capture methods of collaring immigrants at workplaces and there was a massive upsurge on logical and concrete legal grounds when latinos poured out in the streets to protest.
Newsom is jockeying himself for a position in the 2028 races – is he the right candidate, as he is white, and do African Americans trust him as much as the Latinos, who populate his west coast state of California, even though his Californian model has not found much approval resulting in his popularity ratings sliding.
So, who is the democratic alternative? Former transport secretary Pete Buttigieg, who served from February 3, 2021, until January 20, 2025. He was succeeded by Sean Duffy from the Republicans.
He campaigned vigorously and was seen at lectures talking anywhere now, when the country is rocked by moves like ending birthright citizenship and denaturalisation of legitimate citizens on specious grounds. Putting some 20 million naturalized at the crossroads who are not able to plan their future properly for their families in an atmosphere of uncertainty.
Harris, Pete, Shapiro all seem to be out of the race as they are ostensibly outdated and not in sync with the changing scenario in America which is threatening to become more authoritarian. Lurking in the shadows, licking the wounds of defeat of 2024 is not the answer, but going out there and doing what you should do seems to be the approach as ex-president Obama has suggested very strongly in a fundraiser recently.
Cut the back story. Fast forward to the present. What did Obama actually say ? Former President Barack Obama issued a call to action for Democrats at a private fundraiser in New Jersey on Friday evening, urging those frustrated by the state of the country under President Donald Trump to “stand up for the things that you think are right.”
“I think it’s going to require a little bit less navel-gazing and a little less whining and being in fetal positions. And it’s going to require Democrats to just toughen up,” Obama said at the fundraiser, according to excerpts of his remarks exclusively obtained by some leading news network in the U.S.
“You know, don’t tell me you’re a Democrat, but you’re kind of disappointed right now, so you’re not doing anything. No, now is exactly the time that you get in there and do something. Don’t say that you care deeply about free speech and then you’re quiet. No, you stand up for free speech when it’s hard. When somebody says something that you don’t like, but you still say, ‘You know what, that person has the right to speak.’ … What’s needed now is courage.”
Obama’s comments come as the Democratic Party searches for its path forward in the second Trump term and beyond. Many in the party’s base have called for a more forceful response from Democratic leaders at a time when the party is locked out of power.
As Democrats debated who should lead the party, Obama encouraged them to channel their energy into the governor’s races in New Jersey and Virginia, saying the off-year elections could be “a big jumpstart for where we need to go.”
“Stop looking for the quick fix. Stop looking for the messiah. You have great candidates running races right now. Support those candidates,” Obama said, calling out the New Jersey and Virginia elections, according to the excerpts of his remarks.
“Make sure that the DNC has what it needs to compete in what will be a more data-driven, more social media-driven cycle, which will cost some money and expertise and time.” Per the former president.
Obama spoke at a private fundraiser hosted by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and his wife, Tammy Murphy, at their home in Red Bank, New Jersey. The intimate dinner drew in $2.5 million through in-person and online donations for the Democratic National Committee, per informed sources.
A portion of donations will be allocated to Democratic efforts in the governor’s race in New Jersey. The Democratic nominee, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, and DNC Chair Ken Martin were on hand for the event.
Obama described Sherrill and former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic nominee for governor in Virginia, as “powerful spokespersons for a pragmatic, commonsense desire to help people and who both have remarkable track records of service.”
“The most important thing you can do right now is to help the team, our candidate to win,” he said. “And we’ve got to start building up our coffers in the DNC.” Obama also argued that Democrats need to focus on how to “deliver for people,” acknowledging the different views within the party about how best to do that.
You want to deliver for people and make their lives better? You got to figure out how to do it,” he said. “I don’t care how much you love working people. They can’t afford a house because all the rules in your state make it prohibitive to build. And zoning prevents multifamily structures because of NIMBY,” he said, referring to “not in my backyard” views. “I don’t want to know your ideology, because you can’t build anything. It does not matter.”
While no democrats have spoken vocally since Trump’s ascension to power doing what he did , Obama has spoken selectively and shown the way forward for the democrats. Obama has criticized the president’s tariff policy and warned the White House was infringing on Americans’ rights. Last month, Obama warned the country was “dangerously close” to a more autocratic government. But economists have only mildly claimed that Trumps Tariffs will hurt locally more than outside even though he has claimed he never intended to execute but use them only as bargaining chips.
At the closed-press fundraiser on Friday, the former president has been quoted by some in the knowledge of what happened, as saying, Obama has not been “surprised by what Trump’s done” or that “there are no more guardrails within the Republican Party.” He repeated his calls for institutions, including law firms and universities, to push back on intimidation efforts by the Trump administration.
“What’s being asked of us is to make some effort to stand up for the things that you think are right. And be willing to be a little bit uncomfortable in defense of your values. And in defense of the country. And in defense of the world that you want to leave to your children and your grandchildren.” “And if we all do that, if we do our jobs over the next year and a half, then I think we will rebuild momentum and we will position ourselves to get this country moving in the direction it should.”
Already polls show that Trump’s Tariffs or deportation or ending birthright citizenship or denaturalization or the more recently Epstein files and the Client List non-disclosure has not gone down well with the public, especially among young republican voters who were braying for Attorney General Pam Bondi’s dismissal for not disclosing information at a summit organised by the GOP’s MAGA base Turning Point in Tampa, Florida.
Whatever leadership that the democrats throw up instead of throwing up on Trump’s policies causing much discomfort, someone of steel and guts needs to arrive on the scene like Mamdani or the one running for the Virginia governorship like Abigail Spanberger – whatever, the November 2026 is crucial for the Democrats to clinch the Senate or the House if they want to survive as a political party against the daily onslaught of Trump’s policies, which is making life difficult day by day on every front for both newborn, yet to be born, and naturalized citizens who have spent more than three decades chasing an American Dream that seems to be crashing down like the scaffolds in New York streets. (IPA Service)
