Booing doesn't help anyone, voting does: Obama

Former President Barack Obama has warned of the "profoundly dangerous" consequences for democracy that a lack of mobilization among the Democratic electorate in the November 6 midterm elections could have.

"This November's elections are more important than any I can remember in my lifetime, and that includes when I was on the ballot," Obama said at a Las Vegas political rally, reports Efe news. "Politicians say (that) every time ... (but) this one is really that important."

Although the former president never mentioned the name of his successor - Republican President Donald Trump - during his remarks, his speech was loaded with messages referring to him and he condemned Trump for taking credit for the country's buoyant economic situation.

"When you hear all this talk about economic miracles right now, remember who started it," Obama said, adding that he was a politician who based his words and his policies on facts, an apparent allusion to Trump, who has had to back off of his own remarks on numerous occasions because they proved to be factually incorrect.

"Unlike some, I actually try to state facts. I believe in facts. I believe in a fact-based reality and a fact-based politics. I don't believe in just making stuff up," said Obama, constantly urging his listeners to get out and vote to make sure that the progressive changes he implemented - but many of which Trump and congressional Republicans are trying to undo - were consolidated.

"Booing doesn't help anyone. Voting helps," America's first African-American president said before the excited and enthusiastic crowd of about 2,000 on the campus of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.

Obama's presence at the campaign event for federal legislative candidates in Nevada was further enlivened by the performance of Colombian singer J Balvin, who got the crowd on its feet with his hit "Mi Gente" (My People).

The former President said that Democrats should get out and vote because it would be a "bad bet" for the nation to vote Republicans back into office, warning of "profoundly dangerous" consequences if Democrats failed to turn out on November 6 in this swing state and others around the country.

The Democratic former leader told the crowd that they wouldn't let their grandmothers tell them how they should dress, or their parents tell them what music they should listen to, asking them rhetorically that if they were so protective of these options then why don't they do the same for issues like protecting the environment?

He said that there was only one way to control abuses of power and that was the voters, adding that Trump's pressuring US Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the FBI to pursue political rivals is not what should be done in the US but rather is typical of some "dictatorships".

He said that his wife Michelle was not a candidate for President but she's out in public now telling people to vote because the antidote to a government for a few powerful people is a government with many people who are active and organised.

--IANS

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