Obama says GOP is stoking ‘resentment’ and ‘anger’ as it embraces ‘elitist economic agenda’
Asher Notheis
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Former President Barack Obama accused the Republican Party of stoking “anger” and “resentment” from its supporters, adding that the party has “an elitist economic agenda.”
Obama said he would like to see “a working-class version” of the Republican Party, rather than the “country club” or “big business” version. During a Thursday appearance on David Axelrod’s The Axe Files podcast, the former president said Republicans are struggling because the party has “embraced a cultural populism.”
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“We’ve developed, what we’ve seen is a Republican Party that has embraced a cultural populism, the kind of populism that we talked about earlier: resentment, anger, you know, exploiting people’s sense that things are rigged,” Obama said. “But what you don’t see is the Republican Party embracing … they still have very much an elitist economic agenda, with a cultural overlay.”
The former president said he would like to see a “smart” Republican candidate who can address the economic problems the United States faces, saying such a candidate should encourage richer people to pay more in taxes.
“I think there’s an opening for a smart Republican out there to talk about economic issues and say, ‘You know what, I wouldn’t mind the people who are doing really well paying a little bit higher in taxes,'” Obama said. “‘I may not want to spend it the same way Democrats do. I may have different theories about what’s going to give working folks more of a chance.'”
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During his appearance on the podcast, the former president and Axelrod, who served as a chief strategist for Obama during his presidential campaigns, discussed how people are divided, which has been pushed due to the evolution of technology and the media. Obama wondered if it was possible for the U.S. to get back to “a common story” instead of the division the country is facing.
Since leaving the White House in January 2017, Obama has worked promoting several campaign races for the Democratic Party, including for President Joe Biden, who served as Obama’s vice president during his two terms in office. In April, Biden announced he would seek reelection in the 2024 presidential election, with Obama praising the announcement, saying Biden will continue to deliver for people “once he’s reelected.”