The audacity of Obama’s hope

Anti gun legislation advocates and supporters are harping on President Obama’s potential or likely use of his executive power to pass gun legislation sans Congressional approval. Threats of impeachment from the Right Wing Republicans and the rising up in arms from some nutty gun owners are posted in the Internet for all to see and perhaps, take sides on. The world must be watching quite incredulously as this nation whose leaders, like robots powered by lobbyists’ money, lose their spine, head and heart like never before, and for what – for another 4 or more years in power? What good is power when it’s shackled by dirty money?
Here’s a nation that still boasts of being the leader of the world, yet has allowed itself to continue to degenerate, not because it is lacking in resources, reasonable options and better alternatives but because it’s stuck in a political gridlock of twisted ideologies and blind loyalties. Congress wastes precious time debating aimlessly and endlessly on issues of supposedly national significance as this country reels in pain from its nagging economic woes, gun violence, poor and under-funded educational system, decadent infrastructures and a thousand other issues.
How did things get to be this bad in this country that used to be a haven for immigrants dreaming of making it big or at least, becoming the best they can be? What happened to the social reforms and the gains of the civil rights movements of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and others? Why had the rhetoric gone so vile and some government leaders gotten so rude and crude that they seemed emboldened to repeatedly disrespect the President of the United States with remarks laced with racial undertones?
What happened to candidate Barack Obama’s audacity of hope? That hope based on the belief that “the ideals at the core of the American experience, and the values that bind us together despite our differences, remain alive in the hearts and minds of most Americans?” The hope that “we might begin the process of changing our politics and our civic life to reflect the common good?” And the notion “that with a slight change in priorities, we could make sure every child had a decent shot at life and meet the challenges we faced as a nation?”
The whole world celebrated with the United States when in 2008, it elected its first Black President. He filled people’s imagination all over the world with hope of true peace as evidenced by the Nobel Peace Prize he received early in his term. This President was a welcome change, a breath of fresh air from the war mongers of the past administration. There was hope!
With the help of a Democratic Congress on his first two years, President Obama signed the most important piece of legislation of his first term, the Affordable Care Act. But it also marked the beginning of a brazen display of obstructionism in Washington, the rise to power of the Tea Party crazies, among them, Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann and the unbridled hate, dishonesty and arrogance that dominated the political rhetoric.
Worse than any of the bad changes that happened in this country over the past 4 years is the perversion of truth, the shameless manipulation of the conversation away from the real issue and the unbelievable brazenness of the Republican leader in Congress to declare to the people that the single most important thing he and his party want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president. He said it just like it is – no sugar-coating or mincing of words. Thus was born the worst kind of obstructionism in Washington. At no other time than this did Congress become so polarized that it made it impossible to pass any meaningful legislation just as soon as there was change of power in the lower house.
What kind of leaders will put their party and personal issues over the good of their country?
It’s the kind you see romping before you on TV, proudly affirming that they are, indeed, willing to see the country go over the cliff. They are the kind that screams at the President who threatens to trample their 2nd Amendment right to bear arms – a far cry from the proposed gun legislations that only take away the high capacity magazines used in the past mass shootings. It’s the kind who would rather take away from the poor’s Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid than tax the richest 10%.
But the candidate Obama promised us the audacity of hope and there’s no other kind of hope we would rather have. President Obama better find his fighting gloves, put them on and lead this nation back to the top where it belongs.