My mom still has a framed newspaper trumpeting Obama’s historic win hanging in her home in South Carolina.
The night Obama won the election, me and my sister, fresh off our first times voting (man, to be young and naïve and feel like your vote fucking matters again…) rushed upstairs to wake up our mom. We celebrated. We were so fucking happy. The phone rang off the hook.
Something so historic, so genuinely good happening is hard to put into context. It’s harder still to put into context for white people, who certainly liked Obama, but did not understand the weight that had collectively be lifted off the shoulders of a community that truly believed it was not possible. It couldn’t be possible. A black President? Bitch, please. Never in a million years.
And then it fucking happened.
That feeling, that energy of that moment is something I’ve been chasing ever since. A candidate to get me that excited, that pumped, that euphoric when the win comes and it seems like change is, at long live last, going to be a reality.
But 2008 was so 12 years ago. And while I’m still chasing that feeling, and while I’d certainly love to be back in 2015, when it felt like the world wasn’t going to end at any moment, and that we still had a President we could respect even if we disagreed with him…fuck me, I do not want to go back to 2015. I do not want to return to the Obama era of politics. Obama himself probably doesn’t want to return to that shit. So why the fuck are so many candidates desperate to tie themselves to an era that, with each passing year, becomes less rose colored, and starts looking more wary and mishappen then it did before?
Probably the only candidate who’s not hopelessly hitching his wagon to Barack Obama’s legacy in some way is Bernie Sanders. I’m not going to say that the sole reason why he’s currently the frontrunner, but I will say that it’s refreshing to see a candidate who can at least keep Barack’s name out of their mouth for a few seconds. Even Elizabeth Warren can’t help but put Obama’s black visage in her campaign ads. Bloomberg is spending millions to show that him and Obama were BFFs. Joe Biden’s entire campaign pitch is essentially “I was Obama’s VP and I can make shit like it was when Obama was President because I was secretly more involved in his success than everyone thinks!”. Listening to Pete Buttigieg talk is like listening to Barack Obama talk, only without the charisma, energy, passion, thoughtful word choice and meaningful ideas explained in laymans terms.
Barack Obama is every candidate’s black friend, at a time when people are questioning just how successful the Obama era of politics really was.
It wasn’t that Obama wasn’t successful on things. He still passed the single most progressive piece of health care related legislation in history. The majority of the world didn’t seem to hate us. He signed the Paris climate change deal and enforced stricter emission standards on vehicles. He bought the economy out of recession. The unemployment and poverty rates dropped. He killed bin Laden. He signed a deal with Iran that eased tensions with the country. He bought troops home and at long live last bought about the more or less official end of Dubya’s war on terror. He signed the DREAM act.
He also didn’t close Guantanamo after saying he would. His signature piece of legislation was missing the part of it that would’ve helped set America on the path to universal coverage. He replaced the troops with a horrific and draconian drone policy. He deported millions of immigrants. He bailed out the banks and didn’t prosecute those responsible for almost destroying the economy. He was unwilling to use the power the people gave him when he had it and only tried to flex once Congress had neutered him. He was too naïve to realize how racist his Republican were. He tutted-tutted black people too often. The economy stabilized but wages stagnated and the economy didn’t add enough well paying jobs. He signed the Lilly Ledbetter Act but then routinely didn’t pay women in his administration as much as the men. He hired Timothy Geitner. He made Rahm Emanuel an actual thing.
Like any President, Obama’s legacy is painted more in shades of gray. The good may have outweighed the bad, but the bad is still there. It still deeply affects the country. Returning to the Obama era means returning to a status quo that, while nice, peaceful and more or less without so much anxiety, still represents a step backwards instead of a step forward.
Maybe that’s why Bernie has managed to break away from the pack. Everyone seems to be talking about “continuing Obama’s legacy”, when we’ve had around 4 years to decide what Obama’s legacy actually looks like. Even Elizabeth Warren, who seems to be a better option to Bernie in terms of appeal, has stumbled and staggered as she tries to shape her more progressive policies in a more palatable, “we’ll make things like they were with Obama” kind of way.
Bernie has stormed ahead, saying the same shit he always says, in the same way he’s always said it. The rest of the field has a vision of a present; Bernie seems to have a vision for the future. How are we gonna pay for it? Who knows? Who cares? At least it’s a vision.
At least it’s change. At least it’s hope. His opponents keep saying no he can’t. Bernie keeps saying…well…you know.
These appeals to return to the days of yore don’t work on Democratic voters. They work on Republican voters, who always imagine that regression is better. It comes from a place of fear; sure, the past might’ve been shit, but at least you knew that past. You understand it. You were shaped by it, molded by it. The future represents the scary unknown. Democratic voters want something to believe in, something that progresses things forward. They have the audacity of hope, if you will.
People like Joe Biden and Mike Bloomberg and Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar are willing to walk behind the shadow of Obama’s legacy. And to quote Dusty Rhodes, when you’re a walk behinder, and you’re not a leader, then the view never changes, bay-bay.
The view never changes, bay-bay. The view never changes.
The view has to change. A return to the status quo is not enough. I love Barack Obama. But I don’t want his legacy dragged out and trodden on by men and women who only wish to not upset the apple cart, who prefer mediocrity. I don’t know if Bernie can do it. If Warren is still in the race, I’ll cast my vote for her. I’ve got my issues with Bernie to be sure. But at least he’s willing to split from the past and willing to speak of a future that is better than what we have.
That is what separates him from his opponents. It’s what separated Obama from Clinton and Edwards and Biden. Clinton, Edwards and Biden all advocated for a return to Clinton era policies. Obama differed just enough to make it clear he wanted something new. Something different.
All people want right now is something different. I love Obama. Most people like or at least respect him. But maybe we should just let him chill and be a rich dude for a bit. It’s to build on top of that foundation.
Bernie seemed to realize this. I wonder if anyone else will before they lose.
Agree on all of this. Obama was an inspirational and memorable leader, but I’m not sure he was a good president.
That being said, I can *TOTALLY* understand people’s burning desire for a competent government run by people who aren’t blithering idiots. It shouldn’t have to be a partisan issue, but here we are.
This piece is good Deadsplinter!!!
It is human nature to seek out nostalgia and comfort of their past. It brings warm fuzzies of youth and promise and every generation seeks to capture that feeling as they age.
I find Obama the most intelligent POTUS of my life and don’t think he was naive about anything. POTUS is/should be limited by what Congress does. An executive should not be allowed to dictate their will but steer the ship and he had a shit legislature to work with. Any and all failures lay at their feet.
There is also the game that needs to be played to even become POTUS. Every campaign is filled with promises that a candidate know they will fail to fulfil. I can’t imagine what he had to deal with but I think it is close to the stories of Jackie Robinson joining the Dodgers. I believe that many of those he hired and appointed came from party leaders since he only had a few years of experience at the time and took the path of least resistance to create a coalition.
Sanders is the most progressive in the field and I think one reason he doesn’t bring up Obama is that they didn’t share too many policy ideas. Obama was more liberal than WJC but closer to him than with a Social Democrat. If Sanders was bringing up Obama in the primaries it would most likely be negative and that will not go over well at all. It might even hurt in the general, people don’t like being told they made a mistake.
I think Dem voters would eat up a return to Obama and half of the party is showing it with support of the Mayo Stew of Pete, Mike, Joe et al. I honestly believe that Sanders will garner more support in the general because he will bring out some of the apathetic voters that have given up because we see the Rs & Ds the same. He will also get many of the ‘economically anxious®’ that went for Donnie in ’16. We do have to acknowledge that Bernie speaks to the nationalists and protectionists that we need to keep an eye on rising up recently.
Progressives stand on the shoulders of the giants that came before and build upon their success and correct the failures. We must have an eye on the past to move forward. Repeating history and all that. We also cannot throwaway the good for not being perfect. All of our past leaders and heroes have a shit load of baggage when reconciled with today’s values but we can’t throw them away becuse of it.
Thoughtful, rational and articulate. Thank you.
100% agree.
The only quibble I have is that he had a Democratic Congress for the first two years and still dicked around with half measures, which everyone them promptly ran away from during the mid-terms.
Other than that–dead on.