“Sometimes I carry with me that perspective, which tells me that my particular worries on any given day—how I’m doing in the polls or what somebody is saying about me … for good or for ill—isn’t particularly relevant. What is relevant is: What am I building that lasts?”
This was a fantastic interview but when you think of 8 years of our current president and how opposed Congress was of anything he wanted to do and how the last 8 years were simply voting along party lines and not what’s best for our country. Then you think of all of the executive orders he was forced to make because nothing was happening in the other branches to support him in getting done what he promised during the campaign and most importantly, how all of those executive orders can be reserves by the incumbent Donald Trump once he takes office.
There are a lot of things that will last a lifetime thanks to Obama’s work but there is a lot that will simply be thrown out, most of which involved the health and education of our children, the rights of our fellow men and women of all colors and orientations and the environment protections that keep our Earth in a better place than it was before 2008. Those advancements are basically null and void with a single stroke of the pen.
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One semi-related note, The first election I was legally allowed to vote in was 2004 and I’ve voted every 2 years since then including every general election for President. Every time, I’d vote for the candidates that best represented my views. 2016’s election was the first time I voted within a single party. While my votes were processed into a machine, I felt that I had failed democracy but by voting for a candidate on another party that I mostly agreed with, I’d be voting for a vote against a party that mostly shared my ideals.
We are supposed to elect representatives that represent we the people. For the last 10 years, I’ve only seen a room full of hundreds of people who vote within their party only and not give a shit about the people from their district. If I vote for a center Republican who supports gun rights and environmental policies, once they’re in D.C, what they promised me all goes to Hell. It’s a very depressing time in American politics.