Monday in San Diego at the Association for Talent Development (ATD) Conference, former President Barack Obama said he got “worried about our country,” and claimed that “our values are not being upheld.”

Obama said, “When I get worried about our country, or the world, it is not around a particular issue.”

He continued, “I worry when our values are not being upheld.”

He added, “Our democracy, just like any organization, can’t work if, for example, we don’t insist on facts. Like, facts are really useful. We can’t make good decisions if we don’t at least agree on the facts. We can all have different opinions, but we have to believe that this is a table. I mean this in all seriousness. It is important for us to make sure, regardless of our political proclivities, that the values underlying this great country don’t get eroded because, situationally, in this particular circumstance, it’s convenient for us to abandon our values to get what we want. That kind of short-term thinking, which by the way, has happened on both sides of the political aisle on occasion, that kind of short-term thinking carries grave consequences because democracy is not something that happens automatically. It is something that has to be nurtured and practiced. And our kids do watch what we do. If they see, you know what adults aren’t honest, or they make excuses, or they try to get out of stuff, or they distort things or so on and so forth, over time, we’ll pay a price for that.”

(h/t NTK)

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