When she's not producing documentaries for Netflix or touring the country with Oprah to sell books, former First Lady Michelle Obama continues to offer her political opinion on the latest and greatest updates from the 2024 campaign trail. Unsurprisingly, she doesn't like the way things are going for Democrats — and the fateful date of November 5, 2024, is keeping her from getting sleep.
"What are we doing about education? Are people going to vote? And, why aren’t people voting? Are we too stuck to our phones? I mean, these are the things that keep me up, because you don’t have control over them, and you wonder, where are people, where are we in this, where are our hearts? What's going to happen in this next election?" the former first lady asked rhetorically during an interview with Jay Shetty for his "On Purpose" podcast.
"I am terrified about what could possibly happen," Obama shared. "Because our leaders matter — who we select, who speaks for us, who holds that bully pulpit, it affects us in ways that sometimes I think people take for granted," she said without specifically saying which candidate scares her the most. But she didn't have to name names.
"The fact that people think government, meh, does it really even do anything? And I'm like, 'Oh my God. Does government do everything for us. And we cannot take this democracy for granted,'" Obama explained while forgetting the United States is a republic. "And sometimes I worry that we do," she continued in her verbal love letter to overreaching government. "Those are the things that keep me up."
Former First Lady Michelle Obama says fears about the 2024 election are some of what keeps her up at night:
— The Recount (@therecount) January 8, 2024
“What's going to happen in this next election? I am terrified about what could possibly happen. Because our leaders matter.” pic.twitter.com/NcNZeyzP1G
At least one simple truth has apparently not been considered by Michelle Obama: a government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take away everything you have. If the federal government and occupant of the Oval Office were constrained properly to the Constitution, it would matter a heckuva lot less who the president is. But, as Obama made his style — just ask his pen and his phone — big government touching many aspects of daily life has wide-reaching implications for Americans.
A big government is a good reason to stay up at night, just not for the reasons Obama is fretting about. Her concerns seem to be about her lack of "control" over the presidency and the spreading fears among Democrats that Joe Biden's re-election campaign is imploding in real-time.
Rather than the confidence the former first lady may have had heading into the 2012 election, Joe Biden has all the scandals of Obama without any of the charisma, or whatever.
The American people evaluate Biden harshly, giving him failing grades for his handling of the economy, immigration, and national security. Among the coalition Biden relied on in 2020, he's not doing any better. Young voters, black voters, and Muslim voters are outspoken in their growing opposition to his administration, and that's why Biden has turned his into an angry campaign of fear. While it remains to be seen if the president's current strategy will work in November, he's at least succeeded in terrifying Michelle Obama.