Wednesday, March 2, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Looking
Outward
Dan Glode
Columnist
The Obama legacy
What is also true is that
the legacy of slavery, Jim
Crow, discrimination in
almost every institution of
our lives — you know, that,
casts a long shadow. And
that’s still part of our DNA
that is passed on. We’re not
cured of it.
— Barack Obama
I watched President
Obama’s last State of the
Union speech with some
regret, as it was his last. I
also got angry looking at
Paul Ryan’s condescend-
ing expression throughout
the entire speech — or per-
haps it was more disdain
on his face. It is a take on
how far we have come over
the past seven years of his
presidency, or, perhaps how
far in some ways we have
regressed as a nation.
It was a reminder to me
that, as Obama said, racism
is part of our DNA.
I remember the jubila-
tion in some quarters when
he got elected in 2008. Even
The Economist, a conserva-
tive weekly British news-
magazine said: “America
can claim more credibil-
ity than any other Western
country to have at last
become politically colour
blind.” Over the next seven
years their optimism (and
mine) has been replaced
with the ugly fact that rac-
ism does play an important
part of the American politi-
cal process. No one (at least
in public) uses the “N”
word, for sure, but the dis-
parity in treatment is clear
and our ugly past comes
to the fore in sometimes-
subtle ways when we look
at how Obama has been
treated.
I guess the layman’s way
of phrasing Occum’s razor
is correct: The simplest
explanation is usually the
correct one. The simplest
explanation is the president
has been a victim of racism.
After he got elected it
seemed the country got
increasingly polarized
and intolerant. The politi-
cal dialogue became more
ugly. Obama is transforma-
tional by any standard, but
the time he has been presi-
dent shows just how deeply
people feel about the barri-
ers we hoped he had erased.
By all objective mea-
sures his presidency has
been very successful —
perhaps the most success-
ful since FDR. He inher-
ited an economic calamity
unparalleled since the Great
Depression. At no time
during Ronald Reagan’s
presidency was the unem-
ployment rate as low as it
is now. Reagan thought a
federal deficit of 3.4 per
cent of GNP was wonderful
when he left office. Ours,
under Obama, is better at
2.5 per cent. In addition 17
million people now have
healthcare who previously
did not. Our military is the
strongest in the world. We
now have a nuclear treaty
with Iran, and we are part
of a worldwide agreement
on climate change.
That took real diplo-
macy, not chest beating
arrogance.
I personally applaud
his approach to foreign
affairs. It’s been thoughtful,
restrained and not reactive.
Watching the Republican
candidates be muscular and
talk of the need for “boots
on the ground” makes me
thankful that Obama under-
stands those boots have
someone’s sons and daugh-
ters in them and the use of
that force cannot be as a
result of some emotional
reaction to a perceived
slight. We gained back
much of the international
prestige that George Bush
squandered, under Obama.
When Obama took
office, Mitch McConnell
said it was job number
one to get rid of him. The
job wasn’t to deal with the
economic calamity, the wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan, cli-
mate change, job creation,
etc. The job was to get rid
of the president. One tell-
ing incident was when Jan
Brewer, the governor of
Arizona, shook her finger in
Obama’s face back in 2012.
One Republican representa-
tive, in Congress, publicly
called him a liar. He has
been portrayed as a monkey
in one publication. A very
sizable percent of the popu-
lation thinks he is a Muslim
from Kenya. The list goes
on. These things would not
have happened to a white
president.
I have not always agreed
with him, by any means.
His White House has done a
terrible job of letting people
know of his accomplish-
ments in spite of a recalci-
trant Congress. He could
have done more to rein in
21
banks. But he never had
the criminality of the Nixon
administration, the weak-
ness of the Carter admin-
istration, the scandal of
Iran Contra of Reagan, the
indiscretions of Bill Clinton
and the absolutely abysmal
presidency of George Bush.
He has been decent and
honest and straight-forward.
He has borne the chal-
lenges, albeit at a lofty
level, of racism as it has
been a sea anchor he has
had to pull the last seven
years. He knows it, accepts
it, and moves on. That
alone makes him remark-
able in my book. I think Jon
Stewart was right when he
said, “We have made enor-
mous progress in teaching
everyone racism is bad.
Where we seem to have
dropped the ball …is in
teaching people what rac-
ism actually is.”