President Obama Inspires Crowd at Hamilton
More than 5,000 people listened as Obama engaged in an hour-long casual conversation with Hamilton President Steven Tepper in the Margaret Bundy Scott Field House as part of the College’s Sacerdote Great Names Series.
The former president opened by sharing that he hasn’t spoken in public recently. He spends the majority of his time split between work with his Obama Foundation training the next generation of leaders and finishing the second half of his presidential memoir. “In case any of you feel sorry for yourself, this is like 50 term papers,” he said.
That comment drew a collective laugh from the many students in the crowd and led to a broader discussion about what it takes to be a good communicator. Obama said that one must have strong convictions, and articulating them effectively requires a willingness to both share your own experiences and listen to others.
“What made me a better communicator was listening to stories of the people I was meeting.”
He admitted that when he first embarked on the presidential campaign trail in 2007, armed with facts and policies, his message was dry. “What made me a better communicator was listening to stories of the people I was meeting,” he said. “By knowing their lives and what they’ve gone through — losing a job, not having healthcare, their aspirations for their kids, the challenges they had gone through … their fears, their hopes — weaving that into a broader story about how we can work and live together, that’s what worked for me.
“When you listen … you have a capacity to also reach people who don’t agree with you on everything, who don’t think exactly like you or have the same priorities or perspectives, and you can reach a broader audience,” he said.
Tepper next asked the former president to share his thoughts on why many Americans seem to be losing trust in government. Obama said that for most of his lifetime, Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, shared a broad consensus around basic notions of democracy as embodied in the Constitution and Bill of Rights, such as rule of law, separation of power, an independent judiciary, freedom of worship and the press, and an assurance that if one goes before the law, there will be an impartial process to make decisions.
“I do believe that our commitment to those principles has eroded, in part because the government itself got really big and felt distant and unresponsive,” he said.
While Obama acknowledged that he disagrees with many of the policies of the current White House, a larger issue is more troubling. “I’m more deeply concerned with a federal government that threatens universities if they don’t give up students who are exercising their right to free speech,” he said. “The idea that a White House can say to law firms, if you represent parties that we don’t like, we’re going to bar you from representing people effectively. That kind of thing is contrary to the basic compact we have as Americans. Imagine if I had done any of this stuff. Imagine if I had pulled Fox News’ credentials from the White House press corps.
“It’s unimaginable that the same parties that are silent now would have tolerated behavior like that from me or a whole bunch of my predecessors. I say this not on a partisan basis,” he added. “This has to do with something more precious, which is ‘who are we as a country and what values do we stand for?’”
To put issues of the day in historical context, Obama reminded the audience that in many ways the idea that “might makes right” has been the default rule for most of human history. Democracy is a relatively new concept, and an international order where countries cooperate instead of fight is still a bit fragile. He acknowledged that in building our democracy, mistakes have been made along the way and many issues remain to be addressed, but “overall, this system we set up, has created the healthiest, wealthiest, most peaceful era in human history,” he said.
Obama further observed that another reason our commitment to democratic ideals has dissolved is that many Americans have become comfortable and complacent. “It’s been easy during most of our lifetimes to say you are progressive or say you are for social justice or say you’re for free speech and not have to pay a price for it,” he said. “Now we’re at one of those moments where it’s not just enough to say you’re for something, you might actually have to do something and possibly sacrifice a bit. If we say we’re for equality, are we willing to risk something for it? We believe in freedom of speech, do we still stand up when we disagree, when it’s hurtful, when it infuriates us?”
As for strategies for how we as a society can begin bridging divides, the former president recalled another time early in his presidential campaign. Social media was in its infancy and young volunteers on his team were employing Meetup to arrange gatherings of supporters in their local area. People from all walks of life met to learn more about Obama’s position on issues while at the same time getting to know each other. Today, he said, we have siloed communities online that never meet and only reinforce ideas that everybody agrees with. “The more we can encourage, I believe, space, institutions, practices that just get people talking to each other and working together on something in the real world, the more likely we are to break down some of that polarization and rebuild trust,” he said.
The introduction of widespread use of social media and smartphones coincided with Obama’s time in the White House. Although those technologies changed the way we communicate, he sees Artificial Intelligence as having a far broader and disruptive implication across professions.
“I would argue right now, you are better off with a liberal arts education,” he said, noting that what machines can’t do — tell a good story, show compassion, inspire a child, build a sense of teamwork — are the uniquely human skills we need now more than ever.
Photo: Adam J. BrockwayObama closed by giving the audience advice regarding resilience. Each president has the opportunity to design a rug for the Oval Office, and his had several quotes stitched into it. One was a quote that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. used: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” What Obama found inspiring about this is the message that things do get better. Change may not happen as fast as one might like and sometimes there are setbacks.
“Progress is slow and it’s hard. Do not get discouraged because you don’t fix everything all at once. … resilience, more than anything, is what’s needed — understanding that if you work hard you’re still going to fail sometimes,” he said. “The right thing isn’t always going to be rewarded, but it’s worth trying. If you try, not only do you usually end up getting better outcomes, but you are going to live a better life.”
