Barack Obama, My President
As Barack Obama takes the oath of office as the President of the United States, he becomes my president. I did not vote him and would rather another man were taking office today, but a majority of my fellow citizens and the electors from the various states voted otherwise.
Unlike some who helped elect the president, I don’t feel proud of my country merely when my candidate wins election to the highest office in the land. By the same token, I don’t love my country any less because the man I opposed won that very office. Indeed, I love it more that a man whose race would have earned him opprobrium in many parts of this country the year he was born could become our chief executive.
As former Vice President Cheney put it:
I have the same feeling that I think many Americans have, that it’s really remarkable that — what we’re going to . . . swear in the first African American president of the United States. When I came to town in 1968, we’d had the Martin Luther King assassination, Bobby Kennedy assassination, riots in the cities, major, major disturbances, a lot of it racially motivated around the country.
And in fact, things have changed so dramatically that we’re now about to swear in Barack Obama as president of the United States. That’s really a remarkable story and I think a record of tremendous success and progress for the United States.
Obama’s election is a sign of the greatness of this country, that we can correct our faults as a nation, helping forge a more perfect union.
While we herald his achievement and honor the office he now holds, we will criticize, when appropriate, his policies. We will not be like those who spent the last eight years (or significant portions thereof) in a constant state of animosity to the President of the United States. Claiming he is not our president, as many did in the preceding eight years, would mean denying our American citizenship.
Barack Obama is now our president. That doesn’t mean he should be immune from our criticism. No President should
Ever since this blog was launched, we found ourselves more often than not defending the president, particularly when he was unfairly attacked. Now, we have a new role, that of the loyal gay opposition.