"It's not about me. It's about you." What if Obama really means that?
He says this often and I'll extend this to mean that it's not about his Presidency either.
Many of us would agree that a good deal of the Right-Wing opposition to Obama is about race and culture.
I suspect that Obama would as well.
Given that, I think that many of our disappointments with Obama as President have their origin in the fact that the first minority President in the history of the country is walking a tightrope and knows what is really at stake.
Is it not possible that Obama recognizes that the development of a more egalitarian and inclusive body politic will take longer than his Presidency? Perhaps he sees this presidency as the beginning of something larger and more profound and is not an end in itself.
The most important achievement of this presidency would be simply to prove to Americans - and American Corporations - that there is nothing to fear from a minority president. 'They' are not taking over … 'They' are not foreign subversives. 'They' are not a culture of takers, dependent on the state. If he walks away having only dispelled some of the fear and xenophobia rife in American politics, he will have succeeded.
I share a lot of the misgivings expressed here on DU about Obama as President. On the other hand, if I look at him as the first President of a new political culture in America, I understand that an overly-aggressive and confrontational approach by our first black President might just backfire. There is a lot more at stake than a piece of legislation or even just one Presidency.
Maybe Obama is looking beyond his own legacy.
As he says: "it's not about me".
