Thanks, Obama.

As I’ve said in an earlier post, I did not vote for Barack Obama – not once. 

It was never because I didn’t like him, or respect him. I just didn’t like his platform, his agenda. It wasn’t him, it was never personal. I thought it was great that a black senator, someone young and articulate, could energize the younger vote. I was just conservative, and didn’t agree with liberal policy.

I still push back on a good chunk, 50% or more, of liberal policy. But the last four years have resulted in the suspension of reality, not just tradition. As I mentioned before, I am not willing to subjugate my humanity to support the political tenets I believe in. People come first. Basic logic. Lizard-brain stuff.

So yes, there have been many times during the past four years when I’ve looked in the rear-view at Barack Obama and admitted to myself, as well as others, “I was never once ashamed to have him as the President, even when I didn’t agree with him.”

Feeling nostalgic for a politician I never voted for; weird.

He recently released his autobiography, volume one I guess, and I have not gone out and bought it, or watched him on his promotional tour. Oddly, I think I will probably read it someday. I think it will be interesting now, with some distance for context. But today I saw a headline that I clicked on. It said, “Obama Tells Kimmel That Navy SEALs Can Drag Trump Out of White House.” I’d like to see that, I thought to myself. So I clicked.

Obvious to most, that line was delivered tongue-in-cheek, not as a call to action. But inside the article reporting on Obama’s conversation with Kimmel on his late night talk show was this quote:

I wish the transition was going better, because we lose time during these crises. When I came in, we were in the middle of a big crisis, the financial crisis. George W. Bush, he and I had obviously big policy differences, but he’s a good man, he’s a patriot. And he ordered everybody on his team to work seamlessly with us on the transition. Could not have been more gracious, could not have been more helpful. And that actually helped us be able to get a head start on trying to stem what could have been a great depression instead of a great recession.

Damnit.

You know what? I don’t care if you think W was the biggest numbnuts president in history (present company excluded). I don’t care if you think Obama was a mannequin from Central Casting called in and groomed to overthrow the country by deep state Leftist activists. Of course, if you believe either of these things you need professional help – or you need to leave the country, immediately. But it doesn’t matter because what matters is: some things are way bigger than ourselves.

Our nation is bigger than any one of us. Our future as a people is more important than any one of us. Our coexistence on a finite marble of dirt and compressed gas is more important than any one of us. Some things we do for ourselves; other things we do for others, the greater good. 

It’s called civil service, not Monopoly. When you ascend to leadership in government you are supposed to hold the people’s – all the people’s – interests first, high above your own. We used to just know this – we knew it and we expected it.

I never voted for Obama, and I think I might regret it in hindsight. I never voted for Trump, either, but I’m very much ok with that decision.

However we bridge the divide, the ever-increasing chasm between literally two halves of our nation, we absolutely, positively must bridge it. There are so many things we will never agree on. So maybe we should start small.

Maybe we should start with tacit agreement to consider others alongside our own needs. And to hold our leaders accountable to consider others above all.