“Is this inauguration like all the others we’ve seen, or is there anything special about it?”
On the evening of Jan. 20, that’s the first question Chris Matthews asked me on MSNBC’s “Hardball.” Earlier in the day, while watching the inauguration of Barack Obama from a seat in front of the Capitol, I’d asked myself that same question. And the answer, I’d already decided, was clear.
The inauguration of Barack Obama represents a transition in government far more profound than any we’ve ever experienced before, because of both who he is and what he stands for.
On the issues, the change from former President George W. Bush (how sweet it is to write those words for the first time) to President Barack Obama (even sweeter!) is much more dramatic than the shifting hues of gray a new administration usually brings. The difference is as stark as night and day. With the stroke of noon on Jan. 20 – even before John Roberts bungled the oath of office, forcing Obama to take a mulligan the next day – we went from a president who launched an illegal war to one who would end it; from a president who ignored universal health care to one who would deliver it; from a president who denied the existence of global warming to one who would lead the fight against it.
Obama didn’t mention Bush by name, but everybody knew whom he was talking about in his inaugural address when he said that “without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control.” And when he declared: “Our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions – that time has surely passed.” Our new president didn’t wait long to show evidence of his determination to act.
On Day 1, President Obama moved to remove one of the worst scars from the face of America. He signed an order to suspend the kangaroo courts set up by the Bush administration at Guantanamo Bay and to review the status of each of the 245 prisoners still being held there. The next day, he signed executive orders to close Gitmo within a year, to shut down what remains of the CIA’s network of secret torture prisons around the world, and to ban the CIA’s use of so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques,” Dick Cheney’s euphemism for torture.
Overnight, we went from a lawless nation back to a law-abiding one. That in itself is a tectonic shift. But what makes the arrival of Barack Obama so sublimely different is his inauguration as America’s first African-American president. That change was a long time coming. There was much pain, suffering and injustice along the way. Still, once the seeds of equality were planted, it’s remarkable how firmly they took root. Obama was elected president 54 years after the Supreme Court’s decision ending segregation in public schools, 45 years after Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech and 43 years after passage of the Voting Rights Act.
Imagine: On Jan. 20, a black man stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, built largely by slave labor, and became president of the United States. Later, he and his family spent their first night in the White House, also built by slave labor. We’ve come a long way, baby. Obama’s presidency is a giant leap forward many of us never thought we would see in our lifetimes.
What great things President Barack Obama says about us, as a people, and what a powerful message he sends around the globe: that we are, indeed, a nation where every citizen has equal rights and equal opportunities. Only in America, as Obama noted toward the end of his inaugural address, can “a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.”
Whether you’re a Republican or Democrat, the inauguration of Barack Obama is a milestone all Americans can be proud of, and a time all Americans join in wishing him success. Well, almost all Americans.
On his radio show, right-wing bloviator Rush Limbaugh told listeners he disagreed with fellow Republicans “who have caved in and who say, well, I hope he succeeds.” Not me, countered Limbaugh. “I hope he fails.”
How un-American can you get? These are tough times. If Obama fails, the economy fails, the republic fails and America fails. Only Limbaugh is too small-minded to understand.
