Obama: Trump Is a ‘Symptom’ of ‘the Powerful and Privileged Who Want to Keep Us Divided’

EXCERPT:

OBAMA: "Each time we painstakingly pull ourselves closer to our founding ideas that all of us are created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, the ideals that say every child should have opportunity and every man and woman in this country who is willing to work hard should be able to find a job and support the family and pursue the small pieces of the American dream, ideals that say we have a collective responsibility to care for the sick and the infirm and we have responsibility to conserve the amazing bounty, the natural resources of this country and of this planet for future generations. Each time we have gotten closer to those ideals, somebody somewhere has pushed back. The status quo pushes back. Sometimes the backlash comes from people who are genuinely if wrongly, fearful of change. More often it’s manufactured by the powerful and the privileged who want to keep us divided and keep us angry and keep us cynical because it helps them maintain the status quo and keep their power and keep their privilege. And you happen to be coming of age during one of those moments. It did not start with Donald Trump. He is a symptom, not the cause."