Obama Says Democracy Is A Garden That Must Be Carefully Tended

Since leaving office, former President Barack Obama hasn’t had a problem offering a candid thought here and there. On Wednesday, he spoke at the Qualtrics’ Experience Management Summit in Salt Lake City where he discussed his presidency and what it took to run the country. This resulted in many interesting quotes, but one, in particular, stood out.

At one point in the interview, Obama compared working in a democracy to carefully tending to a garden. This remark came after talking about how facts, competency, and rule of law are not partisan ideals, according to East Idaho News.

"Things like rule of law, democracy and you know, competence and facts; those things are not partisan, but they also don't happen automatically," Obama said, as reported by NBC. "There has to be citizens who insist on it and participate to make sure it happens. Democracy is a garden that has to be tended."

In a way, Obama seemed to be making indirect digs with this and other statements throughout the interview at President Donald Trump but never mentioned him by name.

“I’m old fashioned and believe in values like facts and reason,” Obama added during the sit-down, a comment which reportedly elicited applause.