[The American Mirror] While most Americans are gathering with family and community this weekend to celebrate the most exceptional country in the history of the world, Mr. Hope and Change is halfway around the world talking doom and gloom -- and criticizing his successor.Barack Obama visited Indonesia this weekend, and in a series of appearances, attacked love of country and the policies of Donald Trump.
The Guardian reports:
The former US president said some countries had adopted "an aggressive kind of nationalism" and "increased resentment of minority groups", in a speech in Indonesia on Saturday that could be seen as a commentary on the US as well as Indonesia.
"It’s been clear for a while that the world is at a crossroads. At an inflection point," Obama said, telling a Jakarta crowd stories of how much the capital had improved since he lived there as a child.
But he said that increased prosperity had been accompanied by new global problems, adding that as the world confronts issues ranging from inequality to terrorism, some countries ‐ both developed and less developed ‐ had adopted a more aggressive and isolationist stance.
"If we don’t stand up for tolerance and moderation and respect for others, if we begin to doubt ourselves and all that we have accomplished, then much of the progress that we have made will not continue," he said.
"What we will see is more and more people arguing against democracy, we will see more and more people who are looking to restrict freedom of the press, and we’ll see more intolerance, more tribal divisions, more ethnic divisions, and religious divisions and more violence," Obama asserted.
While former presidents rarely criticize their successors at home, Obama took the unusual step of going to a foreign country to do it.
