SIPA USA/PA Images. All rights reserved.The Obama presidency was one of inauguration and restoration. Barack Hussein Obama was the first black president and he was to the White House what Hamilton is to Broadway. Both brought a hip hop sensibility to unfamiliar terrain in a dignified manner that not only changed the way we think of those institutions, but served as a reminder of how powerful representation can be. In epitomizing the ‘best of black people,’ Obama was ironically also a throwback to the halcyon days of America. His elegance and regality conjured up comparisons with the Kennedy family. Gary Younge described the Obamas as the Camelot without the castle.
Whether it was bending down to let a young boy touch his head, cracking jokes at the White House Correspondence Dinners, or writing a 56-page article for Harvard Law Review, Obama restored grandeur back to an institution that had been tarnished by previous blemishes of senility (Reagan), irrelevance (Bush I), infidelity (Clinton) and treachery (Bush II). One might even say he made the American presidency great again. He was the black president many thought would never happen and a distinguished president many thought would never return.
The bittersweet irony is that his best might not have been enough. Disillusionment emerged from the failure of his inspiration to be transformational. Even though he had a vision, strategy and a mandate, he was nevertheless hampered by the choices he made, the constraints he faced and the backlash he provoked. His plan to rescue the economy catalysed Occupy Wall Street; his reforms on criminal justice spurred the emergence of Black Lives Matter; his actions on immigration mobilized the Dreamers. At the same time however, he had to face a recalcitrant Congress, an incorrigible Republican Party and an insidious deep state. And let’s not forget the immense backlash, whether it was in regards to his birth certificate, his upbringing or his supposed plans to create death panels.
