Another inauguration, fondly remembered
"Our Constitution is a remarkable, beautiful gift. But it's really just a piece of parchment. It has no power on its own. We, the people, give it power - with our participation, and the choices we make. Whether or not we stand up for our freedoms. Whether or not we respect and enforce the rule of law. America is no fragile thing. But the gains of our long journey to freedom are not assured."
- Former US President Barack Obama, in his farewell speech in Chicago, January 10
US President Donald J. Trump ascends the US presidency with a dubious record. Several US polls show he enters the presidency with the lowest approval since polls studied this issue. Welcome to governance by mean-spirited tweet.
Let us instead dwell on more pleasant matters.
On a chilly day on January 20, 2009, I was in the mall in Washington, D.C. I used to live in California at that time. I had flown especially to be witness America's first African American president to be sworn in.
We knew parking would be impossible, so our band of intrepid Bangladeshi expats took the metro.
The packed metro comprised of almost wholly African-Americans. I realised that for them, this was not just a joyous ride to celebrate a partisan victory.
For African-Americans, it was a pilgrimage. Everybody was dressed as if going to church, the mood was solemn, with a touch of quiet pride. They were going to be witness to a vindication of their centuries-long struggle for equality.
Obama's place in US history is secure. He is the most consequential president since Reagan. Not since Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s has a Democrat had such a profound impact on domestic and foreign policy in America.
We had to get off the metro early, because several stations close to the mall had closed. They just couldn't handle the crowds.
Small wonder. There were 1.8 million of us, an all-time record for a US president's inauguration. We never got near the actual podium, and watched the ceremony on large screens. It made not the slightest difference. After the inauguration, the massive crowds almost led to a stampede. Yet there were no scuffles, harsh words. We all left with a smile on our faces, a soaring sense of satisfaction and empowerment.
For millions of Americans, former US President Barack Obama's election reaffirmed America's progress towards a future of an inclusive, plural nation that was a responsible, rational player in the international arena.
Obama has not been without flaws, but he leaves the nation's highest office as an iconic figure.
One of his lasting achievements was presenting the most enduring rebuttal possible to egregious racist stereotypes of African-Americans as lazy, unintelligent, thuggish, filled with dark rage. Even his critics will be hard-pressed to dispute that he had a fine mind. His razor-sharp intellect, an astonishingly thorough grasp of the issues, reasoned and cerebral diction, and a rare gift of the gentle but well-directed barb debunked that stereotype with satisfying finality. In a delicious irony, it was his critics, who seemed to froth in the mouth with outrageous, demonstrable untruths (Obama is Muslim, born abroad, Marxist) who seemed lazy, unintelligent, thuggish, filled with dark rage.
Obama stayed above it all. In all of eight years, not a single ugly word passed his lips. He was always measured, considerate, gracious gentleman in a political world that resembled a zoo.
Obama's place in US history is secure. He is the most consequential president since Reagan. Not since Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s has a Democrat had such a profound impact on domestic and foreign policy in America.
Obama came to power when the US, and the world, was at the brink of economic catastrophe. He successfully steered the country out of the brink of an abyss. His tenure marks sustained economic growth with millions of new jobs. He achieved what Democratic presidents have wanted to do but failed since the days of Harry Truman in the 1940s – he passed a health law that brought health coverage to 20 million more Americans. He made a historic climate deal with China with a profound, positive impact. He stood up to Israel and signed a multilateral accord with Iran. He ended over five decades of a boycott with Cuba. And he did this despite an opposition Republican Party that fought him tooth and nail.
However, the election of Trump means the Republicans, Obama's bitter enemies, are in power in the White House, the Senate and the House. But Republicans are discovering that undoing Obama's work is easier said than done. They are already struggling with getting rid of Obamacare.
To be sure, there have been failures, too. Activist and intellectual Cornel West rightly takes Obama to task for two failures: The unconscionable drone killings of innocents abroad and the failure to bring to book Wall Street's architects of the economic meltdown at home.
All the same, Obama's achievements remain formidable.
Obama once told The New Yorker editor David Remnick, in an email, that he loved African-American singer Ray Charles' rendition of an iconic patriotic song "America the Beautiful."
"It captures the fullness of the American experience, the view from the bottom as well as the top, the good and the bad, and the possibility of synthesis, reconciliation, transcendence," Obama wrote.
This prompted New York Times critic Wesley Morris to write: "It's entirely possible to read that quote and catch a chill because Mr. Obama could easily have been writing about himself."
The writer is a contributing editor for Siliconeer, a monthly periodical for South Asians in the United States. He has been writing for US-based South Asian media for over 25 years.
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