Thursday in Berlin, at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Barack Obama told the protesters over the victory of President-elect Donald Trump to not “be silent.”
Obama said, “One of the great things about our democracy is it expresses itself in all sorts of ways. And that includes people protesting. I’ve been the subject of protests during the course of my eight years. And I suspect that there’s not a president in our history that at some point hasn’t been subject to these protests. So I would not advise people would feel strongly or are concerned about some of the issues that have been raised during the course of the campaign, I wouldn’t advise them to be silent. What I would advise, what I advised before the election and what I will continue to advise after the election is that elections matter.”
“Voting matters,” he continued. “Organizing matters. Being informed on the issues matter. And what I consistently say to young people, I say it in the United States, but I’ll say it here in Germany and across Europe, do not take for granted our systems of government and our way of live. I think there is a tendency because we have lived in an era that has been largely stable and peaceful, at least in advanced countries, where living standards have generally gone up, there is a tendency, I think, to assume that that’s always the case. And it’s not. Democracy is hard work. In the United States if 43 percent of eligible voters do not vote, then democracy is weakened.”
(h/t Politico)
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN