Si usted no se está Moving Forward, Eres Backward: Notas sobre nuestro presidente exitoso

por
dominique DiPrima

The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold The Affordable Health Care Act is widely viewed as a victory for President Barack Obama. Ha dado lugar a una gran cantidad de especulaciones sobre el legado del presidente número 44, and finally forced some pundits to acknowledge the gravity of President Obama’s achievement with his signature piece of legislation.

It reminds me of the Iowa Caucus in 2008, when then-Senator Barack Obama beat presumed frontrunner Hillary Clinton. And it’s not just because it was a surprise. I remember months of boxing my own community on the air prior to that victory. I believed we could win, I argued my point with Black politicians, celebridades, listeners pundits and professors. Very few people believed candidate-Obama had a chance. The justifications were endless: he didn’t have enough experience, it wasn’t his turn, we owed the Clintons (after all Clinton was the first Black president, derecho?) he couldn’t win, on and on it went. After the mostly white voters of Iowa gave our Black candidate an overwhelming victory, suddenly the game changed. Did we need someone outside our community to give approval before we could get behind our own? Did we need somebody whose “ice was colder” to validate our own cool? After Iowa folks started to get on the bandwagon, first the people, finally the politicians believed…Yes We Can…And we did!

Forward to 2012, as I watch African American pastors blast the president for his solidly common-sensical, non-religious take on same-sex marriage I feel as if I’m seeing reruns on Nick at Nite. As I listen to so-called Black intellectuals and media mavens attack the president for “not doing enough for “nosotros,” I see the wavy lines of a movie flashback in my mind. Why must we act as our own Trojan horses…Gleefully attacking ourselves from within destroying our own entrails while triumphantly proclaiming ourselves “independently minded?” Are we back to 2008’s “President Obama is not Black enough?” Evidently he is Black enough to be the target of more assassination attempts and attacks than any president in U.S. Historia. And amazingly he is doing a wildly successful job of “governing while Black!”

So when Justice John Roberts broke ranks and upheld the constitutionality of Obamacare (the bill nicknamed after a constitutional law professor,) and our pundits grudgingly noted that the president has managed to do something that presidents have tried to do for decades, it kinda made me mad. You needed a far right Supreme Court Justice to show you that your president is wildly successful? Really? Or is it just that you needed someone outside (far outside) your community to legitimize the facts?

Wildly successful. That’s how I define our president, and will continue to do so. His legacy is already that and given another four years, he will emerge as one of the most accomplished residents of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue – nunca. We must judge men by their achievements in the context of their times. Bill Clinton is held up as a model president, but he failed to enact healthcare reform even in good times. And he did not inherit the Bush Crash of ’08 (a nation on the brink of complete financial ruin,) at least two huge wars, and a Wall Street gone crazy with the deregulation Mr. Clinton himself allowed. It is in this context that President Barack Hussein Obama has signed the Lilly Ledbetter Act, overturned Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, created a consumer financial protection agency, enacted financial reform, passed the Affordable Healthcare Act, and ended the war in Iraq. And that’s just the first four years.

So as much as it annoys me that we need outside validation, I pray that the Supreme Court decision will be this election cycle’s Iowa wake-up call. This time the Democrats campaign slogan is “forward.” With their attacks on women, los pobres, oportunidades educativas, and voting rights Republicans and their current leader Willard “Guante” Romney have proven that they intend to take us back. Their “good old days” were our days of work with no pay and responsibility with no rights. Adelante. It could not be more simple or more on point. If you are not going forward, you’re backwards. And I pray…No I believe we will remember, before November!