signed, sealed, delivered

He had my job.

All through high school, I had enough interest in politics and news and current events that I decided I was going to be a Senator and then President. And since I would turn 36 in 2008, I would be just in time to be the young exciting Democratic President that would sweep the nation and roll into the White House.

Funny story…

Did we get everything we hoped for? Not in the least. Mostly because of an implacable opposition determined to reject everything, eight years of scorched earth that I hope the Democrats are willing to replicate to save what we did get done. If not for record-setting use of the filibuster and complete destruction of norms, we have the first Democratic-appointed majority on the Supreme Court in decades, we have a public option for health insurance if not outright single-payer, Guantanamo Bay is closed, and the stimulus package in 2009 is considerably larger and maybe the money makes it all the way to everyone who needs it. Instead, we get what we have, which isn’t bad – twenty million more people insured, Iran’s nuclear program curtailed, some genuine movements on turning the tide of environmental degradation. You know, all the stuff Trump swears he’s going to reverse.

That’s why election week felt like a death in the family. Your world is changed, for the worse, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Today, though, the last day – this is the time for the cliche about “don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” Even if we weren’t able to reverse the slide that eight years of Republican neo-confederacy put us in, we arrested it for eight years, and that might be enough to save us eventually. We might don’t all make it, but if we fight for those who can’t, we might just get away with this one.

The 21st century was supposed to be the future. No more Cold War. The excitement of the Internet. A big bold bright future ahead. And then that didn’t happen, because too many people have too much to gain – and too much to feel good about – by keeping us back in the mud when we should be reaching for the stars. But at least for eight years out of those first twenty, we had a literate President, a smart President, a guy who could rub two words together without hurting himself. A President with dignity, a President with a wonderful family, a President who conducted his business with honestly and decency and did the best he could with the hand he was dealt.

You always knew the first black President would have to be twice as good to accomplish half as much. Fortunately for our nation, he was.

Thanks, Obama.

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