If Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today, he would be as pleased and proud as anybody that Barack Obama is ending his presidency this Friday on such a high note.
After all, Obama not only served with dignity and grace that were endearing and enduring in equal measure; he’s also leaving behind a legacy of transformative accomplishments. In fact, the New York Times published a series of interactive graphs yesterday, showing that – by almost every measure – the American people are far better off today than they were eight years ago.
Of course, the success of his presidency is made all the more remarkable given the unprecedented ways Republicans attempted to obstruct his policies – their lips dripping from day one with words of interposition and de-legitimization.
It’s a testament to Republican obstructionism that, despite objective measures to the contrary, most Americans believed throughout Obama’s presidency that he was leading the country on “the wrong track.” He expressed regret on 60 Minutes last night that he did not promote his successes more aggressively to counter the Republicans’ contrived narrative about him being a failed president.
Never mind that the Republicans failed in their declared intent to make him a “failed, one-term president.”
Yet MLK would be the first to remind us that we are still far from the Promised Land that inspired his famous dream. It speaks volumes in this respect that the man succeeding Obama on Friday seems a reincarnation of the institutional racists MLK marched against.
Indeed, President-elect Trump demonstrated what little respect he has for MLK by kicking off this weekend of observance with a Twitter tantrum that was replete with racist presumptions and stereotypes.
Specifically, after Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) said that Russian interference undermined the legitimacy of his election, the preternaturally thin-skinned Trump reacted by impugning Lewis’s character and life’s work:
Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to…mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results. All talk, talk, talk – no action or results. Sad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2017
This he said of a man who bears well-known scars from marching with MLK for civil rights. Lewis also happens to be the most revered black man in America today – as Obama himself would concede.
As for his district, far from ‘falling apart [and being] crime infested,’ Atlanta is the very manifestation of that “shining city upon a hill” former President Ronald Reagan envisioned in his farewell address. Moreover, no less a Republican bible than Forbes named his district “the ninth best place in America for businesses and career development, and among the best for job growth and education.”
On the other hand, I disagree with Lewis leading a growing number of Democrats in boycotting Trump’s inauguration. Not least because it smacks of the kind of petty, partisan politics I’ve spent the past eight years denouncing Republicans for orchestrating against Obama; such is hardly becoming of the heir to the moral authority MLK exercised.
More to the point, no matter the nature and extent of Russia’s interference, there’s no evidence that it affected the outcome of the election. Besides, this boycott will seem utterly irrelevant on Inauguration Day — given that both Obama and Hillary will be participating front and center in this orderly transfer of presidential power, showing due respect for the office, even if not for the man assuming it.
Meanwhile, Obama appears all too mindful that Trump’s election is an ominous fulfillment of King’s dream deferred. He even insinuated recently that having Trump succeed him amounts to America taking one step forward, two steps back on its march towards a “more perfect Union.” Of course, nothing betrayed the fatuous notion that his election ushered in a post-racial era quite like the Selma-like protesters — chanting “Black Lives Matter!” — who dogged his presidency.
But, hey, this is MLK’s day.
It is most noteworthy that he is the only private citizen (black or white) to have a federal holiday declared in his honor.
Hell, even Washington and Lincoln have to share one holiday on Presidents’ Day. And, with the August 2013 dedication of his memorial, MLK is now perched on the Mall alongside them in perpetuity. All of which might explain why Washington’s monument is glaring down on MLK’s….
Seriously, though, am I the only one who thinks the Washington Monument looks eerily like a stonemason’s homage to the KKK…?
There was considerable media coverage last week of workers rappelling down the Washington Monument to inspect damage caused by the recent earthquake. However, while most people seemed mesmerized by the acrobatic feat this entailed, I could not help noticing how much up-close images of the cone of the Monument resemble the hood of a Klansman.
Is it not a curious thing that this everlasting monument to the slave-holding Washington pays unwitting homage to this everlasting symbol of white supremacy?
(“Washington Monument’s KKK Imagery,” The iPINIONS Journal, October 11, 2011)
Whatever the case, this holiday is not just a testament to MLK’s greatness. It’s a symbolic down payment on the promissory note, which represents the unpaid, if not unpayable, debt America owes descendants of the blacks it enslaved.
That said:
This is the day which the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Related commentaries:
Washington monument…
Obama inauguration commemorates Lincoln…
Burris finally sworn in to replace Obama in Senate
MLK on the Mall at last…
Legacy Note: With over 5,600 posts spanning 20 years, I am easily the most prolific blogger on the most eclectic array of topics on the web. That makes The iPINIONS Journal an unparalleled archive of informed political and cultural commentary. Visit the ARCHIVES section in the sidebar or search by topic. You won’t find a more consistent, independent voice on world affairs.