Obama warns of democratic test, ‘we rise or fall as one’

CHICAGO, IL - JANUARY 10: President Barack Obama delivers a farewell speech to the nation on January 10, 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. President-elect Donald Trump will be sworn in the as the 45th president on January 20.   Scott Olson/Getty Images/AFP
CHICAGO, IL – JANUARY 10: President Barack Obama delivers a farewell speech to the nation on January 10, 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. President-elect Donald Trump will be sworn in the as the 45th president on January 20. Scott Olson/Getty Images/AFP

CHICAGO, United States (AFP) — President Barack Obama warned Tuesday that the United States faces a stern test of its democracy, in a speech to the nation that was both a fond goodbye and a call to arms.

Capping his eight years in office, Obama returned to his adoptive hometown of Chicago to recast his “yes we can” campaign credo as “yes we did.”

He also called on supporters to pick up the torch and forge a new “social compact”.

“Democracy does require a basic sense of solidarity,” he said. “For all our outward differences, we are all in this together,” he said. “We rise or fall as one.”

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