So.
As I've said in part i, not that many people are ready to get on board with me saying Barack Obama has been a great president. Certainly no Republican voter seems to be. And also a lot of Democrat voters and liberals in general say no. They're ready to say, oh, "he buckled on Guantanamo Bay", or "he should have pushed through single payer" or, "blah blah blah blah".
Very good. Very well attested.
However, let's take a look at what's going on here.
I'm going to just say it: when the Democrats made Obama the nominee for President for 2008, as much as I was happy and of course ready to go in support of him, I thought to myself... this guy can't win. This country is just too fucking racist to elect a black man to be President. It was hard for me to say, or think, that the party had made a mistake, but there was a part of me that said, at the time, that it's really important for us to win this election, this is a risk, I think this might really blow up in our faces and allow terrible things to continue to happen for 4 or possibly 8 more years, years that we don't have to give away.
Perfect example of my disaster orientation. I was wrong. He won.
And while Obama is certainly not the most liberal democrat out there, he certainly is repeatedly accused of being the most liberal. He is accused of a lot of things. And why oh why should I be surprised by this? I didn't think the guy could win over a majority of voters! How could I not expect that a huge percentage of people would still hate him, win or lose, and most especially win.
Barack Obama is... I don't know. I would compare him to another civil rights leader, for example, but I think anything I picked would cheapen his significance and currently unknowable effect on this country.
Jackie Robinson, for example. While his accomplishment is completely essential to American culture, and while no one will ever forget that name, and while it took inconceivable courage to do what he did, it took more courage to be the first black president of the United States of America.
(before we continue please acknowledge that some idiot conservatives try to say "oh he's not the first to have some kind of black ancestry", or, even an awesome guy like Morgan Freeman saying "he's not really the first black president, he's not actually that black", sorry folks, this is my blog, and Barack Obama is a fucking black man. In the time of segregation in the 1950s and before, Obama would have been strongly discouraged from going into white places. I don't think Andrew Jackson or Warren Harding would have been. I mean... I just don't. Sorry to burst everyone's bubble, but Dwight Eisenhower and Calvin Coolidge... I don't know if you have looked at their presidential photos, but they're not distinguishable from all of the other 42 president-guys. And they certainly wouldn't have been asked to sit at the back of the bus or leave a restaurant.)
I'm treading on some shit here that, maybe, a white person has no business doing so. But this is a blog. This is letters and words. And it's fucking mine, all mine. I'm not going to pull punches and I'm not going to hold back from saying the truth as I experience it. Fuck you.
Barack Obama... while he hasn't been an "activist" as president, and he hasn't pushed liberalism particularly hard, he is a groundbreaking figure, a figure that history won't soon forget, a figure that people of all races, creeds, genders can look to as someone who made a difference. And I think in time they will. While there's a bunch of assholes now who try to take away his accomplishments and deny his significance, in time they will be proved to be short-sighted and stupid, and I will be proved right.
Small comfort.
Dear President Obama,
I understand your importance and value. I have not overlooked your accomplishments. And I think, just this one little white guy, can go ahead and go out of his way, even at the risk of being "wrong" to someone or getting burned in a debate or argument, and say you're a great president and I'm very proud to have you as my president. Thank you very much. Thank you again. You have moved America forward, in a way I feel no other candidate or person could have done, in your position. Thank you.
And in a later post, but first here, I would also like to say that Michelle Obama has been an incredible example as well. And while it pisses me off to see Barack bad-mouthed in media, social media, etc... I can't believe how incensed I am to see terms like "Moo-chelle" used or... ugh... *shudders*. I would like to delete that term in quotation marks I just used, because it makes me sick and it makes me want to fucking punch a hole in my wall. But you need to see it. And I need to see it written out, by me, to let it sink it that this is HOW FUCKING RACIST America is and WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? I hated W. Bush but in all the many tirades, in all the even sometimes over the line cries against him, I never ever said a negative thing about Laura Bush. And why would I? Unless I was a complete and utter asshole.
Maybe I am, but it could be worse. Probably.
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