Now that Obama's first 100 days have come to a close, I've found myself reminiscing about the spirit of excitement that lingered in the air last November. On election night, I celebrated with several hundred of my closest friends in Times Square, and later on, in Harlem. This excitement persisted through January, as Americans speculated about what would change on "day one" and afterwards.
In reality, however, the Obama presidency is less about dancing in the streets and more about compromising on controversial issues. Many gay and lesbian activists have been disappointed with this administration's lack of active support amidst victories in Iowa, Maine, and Vermont; other feminist activists have been less than thrilled over some of Obama's cabinet appointees. Given such high expectations for the new Democratic president, it is not surprising that his actual presidency would be a bit of a letdown - after all, this is no easy job and Obama has only been doing it for a few short months. But what if he continues to disappoint, particularly on feminist issues and civil rights? Can we support our new president while simultaneously holding him accountable for our issues?
Legendary activist and scholar Angela Davis sheds a little light on these questions in a video recently posted by the Barnard Center for Research on Women.
In a lecture she gave just before the election, Davis celebrates the victory of Obama's groundbreaking candidacy. This victory, she reminds us, is only possible thanks to the struggles of countless activists over the past several decades. "But even as we celebrate this victory," Davis argues, "we should be wary of the tendency to pronounce this the final victory, the ultimate triumph."
Even before the election, Davis had the foresight to predict that Obama would need to be reminded of his campaign promises. Radical Americans should, in fact, take responsibility for his victory and his decisions, and we should push him to go beyond his promises and work even harder for social justice and equality.
Davis's arguments carry increased significance for me today, when the world's economic crisis has made survival even more difficult for those who helped elect President Obama in the first place. You can find videos of Davis's speech on the Barnard Center for Research on Women's Facebook page (look for the one titled "Angela Davis: Obama's Collective Victory"), along with some other great videos on trans politics and new reproductive technologies. Watching Davis's speech may challenge you to rethink your own relationship to the Obama administration.
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This was a fear I had about Obama during his campaign and then into his presidency.
Granted, I acknowledge it's been a short period of time, but I fear that he is unable to deliver on the grand promises he made in his campaign. How does this make him different from any other politician? It doesn't really. But the fanaticism with which people follow Obama has declared this as a "final victory" rather than an incremental victory as it should be. Instead, Obama must now deliver, and deliver he has failed.
As a gay-rights activist, I am extremely disappointed in his recent takes on gay rights, DOMA, DADT, Prop8 (his administration's comments), which ultimately leave me feeling cold, but then again his speeches were pro-queer-rights with an undertone of nonacceptance (think his take on marriage). Whether this is a product of appeasing to right-wing-esque voters, I don't know, but what I do know is that one specific campaign promise is to repeal DADT, something his administration is now flip-flopping about. (Including his refusal to stop investigations into GBLT individuals in the army -- something he as president can do -- which would leave them be until the DADT act is resolved).
Regardless, on feminist, gay, and other civil rights fronts, Obama has promised great things, and the least we expect is movement in the general direction. It's up to us to continue to pressure his administration to remain accountable to those promises and to the cause of civil rights.
Because if we don't, then he may just be an ineffectual as the other presidents before him.