How to Celebrate Progress in a New Political Era

The Obama administration has seen eight years of battles and victories, successes and faults, and for these both praise and blame. More than anything, there is a tremendous amount of blame circulating through media, advertisement and everyday conversation. I find both the political sphere and the Opinions page of The Exonian to be too often filled with criticism, and too rarely opinions that offer an optimistic viewpoint on an issue. Too often we are blind to the progress that has been made before we point out its failures.

It is time to start gauging a leader’s worthiness by the significance of their right moves, rather than the number of their wrong ones.

Just in case you forgot, the Obama administration tracked down and ended the reign of terrorist Osama Bin Laden, gave insurance to millions of Americans with the Affordable Care Act, passed the Stimulus in 2009 to spur economic growth, signed the Wall Street reform, ended the war in Iraq, raised minimum wage to improve the condition of lower class workers, negotiated a nuclear deal with Iran, improved America’s image abroad, worked to defeat climate change at the United Nations and for all this, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. So much good has come to America in the last eight years, and I think before we embark on the shaming of another president, we need to be able to see the strides that we have already made.

In a keynote address that Obama gave at the Congressional Black Caucus Dinner leading up to this election day, he said, “By so many measures our country is stronger and more prosperous than it was eight years ago. We know the progress we have made, despite the forces of opposition, despite the forces of discrimination, and despite the politics of backlash.” Obama was correct and astute to point out the issues that have been resolved and the many ways in which this former government has protected the American people.

There is no denying the inevitable tragedies that have occurred throughout the terms of the last administration, because for every victory there is a requisite downfall. The country stands in solidarity with the tragedies in Benghazi, the Sandy Hook shooting, the Boston Marathon bombings, the terrorist attacks on Paris, the Orlando Night Club massacre and many more devastating events throughout recent history. Of course there have been setbacks and of course there is still progress to be made, but that is no justification to say that the Obama administration has achieved nothing.

It is so easy to blame, to point fingers and to hate a person in the public spotlight every day whose life is unfolded for you right out in the open. Being the president is an extremely vulnerable position. If you make one wrong move, you are under eternal scrutiny by the people. Of course each president is going to make mistakes, some more than others, but these mistakes cannot and should not be the determining mark of their effectiveness as a president. It is time to start gauging a leader’s worthiness by the significance of their right moves, rather than the number of their wrong ones.

Let’s put things into perspective for a moment and notice the tremendous strides that our country has made while Obama has been in office. Let’s recognize all the people with new, well-paying jobs and affordable health insurance. Let’s recognize all rivers that run bluer and all the soldiers who got to return to their families. There is so much to love about living in this country. Most outstandingly, we have the beautiful right to speak our minds. Slander, whether against our president or not, is abuse of that right.

All I have heard throughout this entire campaign season, is how neither candidate is equipped to do a good job. The truth is that one of these candidates is going to be our president, whether we like it or not. It would be wise to begin to shift our energy into noticing the positive qualities that a new president could bring to the table, instead of presenting only the reasons why they would fail. This perspective would helpful for all of us moving forward, as it applies to life outside of the election as well. There are too many upstanding qualities about this country to waste it away in trashy Twitter fights about how we are all doomed for disaster.

We need to start spending less of our energy denouncing the government, and more energy recognizing and celebrating its successes.