Thank you, Barack and Michelle Obama

When Barack Hussein Obama was running for president in 2008, I swore that if he won, I would dance with joy on the shingled roof of my house. Fortunately for my wife and the residents of Greenfield, Massachusetts, I was stricken with the flu on Election Day. I was able to stagger to the polls to cast my vote but was otherwise bedridden on that momentous day.

Like many Americans, I was convinced that his election would signal a new progressive era for our country, especially after the years of incompetence and catastrophe brought about by the Bush-Cheney regime. And like many Americans, I was dead wrong.

Little fault lies at the feet of our soon-to-be-departed president. In a decision I can only define as unpatriotic, Republicans in Congress vowed to never cooperate with him. For them, winning was, and still is, more important than serving. When they regained a congressional majority in 2010, Republican conservatives did nothing for this country except obstruct every move Obama made to benefit all sectors of American society. After which, they had the nerve to complain that the president never reached out to them.

Republicans reminded me of a dog that bites every time you attempt to pat it. When you finally come to your senses and push the dog away, the pooch mutters, “What a mean man. He won’t pet me anymore!”

The accomplishments and failures of the Obama administration have already been dissected by the chattering classes of the media. He saved the auto industry, stemmed the Great Recession, added jobs, took out Osama bin Laden, reached a nuclear deal with Iran and more or less ended the Iraq War, one of the gravest mistakes in our modern history. His failures include his confusion over how to deal with Syria, although it seems that whenever the United States meddles in the Middle East, all we do is further mess it up. If he is well-advised, hopefully President Trump will take that lesson to heart.

In my opinion, Obama made the same mistake as Bill Clinton. Both started their presidencies with divisive issues: Clinton with gays in the military and Obama with his health-care initiative. While both laudable proposals, these presidents needed to choose a more broad, inclusive issue that all Americans could have gotten behind. I wish from the get-go, Obama would have created jobs and addressed income inequality. Had he done so, the reactionary Tea Party movement would have been cut off at the knees.

But where Barack Obama truly shone was in his eloquence and how he handled the volatile challenges of race and diversity. Obama’s speeches were grand and lofty affairs, especially in view of his successor who is unable to communicate beyond 140 characters. Obama always held the grand vision of not only America, but what it meant to be an American citizen. He knew that we were all in this together, a value his countrymen and women would do well to emulate. Likewise, no president in my living memory has tackled racial issues as directly as Obama. In doing so, he gave voice not only to people of color but also to white Americans who felt that the movements of social change had left them behind. He was matched by his extraordinary wife, Michelle, perhaps the only First Lady who brought tears to my eyes whenever she spoke. Her magnificent speech at the 2016 Democratic convention remains the only one I chose to remember.

Over the past eight years, this exemplary married couple was subjected by the most vicious, racist and at times, perverse accusations regarding their citizenship, religion and integrity. But never once did they respond with anger or the thirst for vengeance. Both were too mature for stooping so low. The Obamas stand in contrast to a vulgar egomaniac who becomes unhinged when subjected to a comedy skit.

I realize that impassioned rhetoric is not enough to govern. History, however, has proven that inspired eloquence can lift the hearts of those who hear it and give them the strength to carry on the vision of the speaker. In the years to come, we will look back on Barack and Michelle Obama and respect them for attempting to bring out the better angels of our nature.

In conclusion, I want to thank the Obama family for restoring grace and dignity to the office of the presidency. They have inspired millions and will remain in the hearts and minds of Americans like myself.

Brown is an artist, writer and former public school teacher living in Arroyo Seco.