Barack Obama

You've got ordinary people still trying to figure out how to eat and pay the rent.

That is driving a lot of this.

Part of what I think we have to spend more time thinking about is some old-fashioned values that aren't based just on money.

and how much you got, and material concerns.

I am somebody who believes that market-based economics is actually not only the best way to create enough stuff for everybody to be okay, but I also think it's tied to freedom.

State-run economics generally don't work very well.

But so much of our culture now, so much of what we teach our kids is geared around buying stuff and having stuff and posting it on Instagram and then- Right, it's winning to some people.

Right, winning is now defined solely by material goods, how much you got, and to some degree, fame.

That's become another currency, right?

Right.

And I do think part of-

what our conversation needs to be more about is, and it used to come out of the church or the stories we told our kids was this sense of, oh, you know what?

Character matters.

Honesty matters.

Community and family and loyalty and kindness matters.

Those are the stories that, that's part of our political project, right?

Is,

reaffirming that stuff.

I think you were asking how I navigated some of these conflicts and I'd get attacked from the right and I'd get attacked from the left.

One way I did that was trying to tell people what I really thought.