In 2008, I was terrified when President Barack Obama won the election.
In 2012, I cried when he got re-elected because I didn’t know what another four years was going to be like.
In 2017, I cried watching his Farewell Address. Because, for the first time in my life, I am scared of what a Republican might do while in office.
I am the product of two conservative parents. I am a self-proclaimed daddy’s girl, and with all the time I spent with my dad, I developed many of his views on politics.
Obviously, as I grew older, I began to educate myself. Now, I consider myself to be fiscally conservative and socially liberal. However, when given the choice, I usually go – reluctantly – with a Republican candidate because most Democratic candidates are too liberal for me.
To me, ever since I was able to vote, it has been choosing the lesser of two evils.
President Obama was not the lesser of the two evils both times he ran for office.
However, as much as I disagreed with most of what he did while in office, he grew on me.
No matter how you may feel about President Obama, you cannot deny that he is charismatic, funny, witty and for the most part a class act.
Has he done some questionable things in my mind? Yes. Has he abused some of his presidential powers in my mind? Yes.
But, despite those things, my fear of having someone like him – someone I perceived to be “too radical” – in office slowly went away.
I may not agree with much of the Affordable Care Act, but there is no doubt it has done some good for health insurance. Now my preventative care check-ups are free, and the Act has made birth control more affordable and accessible for women.
President Obama has staunchly stood behind and supported the LGBTQ community – a community of which I am a strong ally.
And, although many will argue that the economy has natural ebbs and flows, there’s no denying statistics. The country’s unemployment rate was 9.3 percent. Throughout his eight years in office, the unemployment rate has steadily declined. As of this month, the unemployment rate is approximately 4.7 percent.
Of course, there are many other ways President Obama improved the country, and there are ways he made some things worse, in my personal opinion. But, the aforementioned accomplishments are the ones that stand out most in my mind.
Having President Obama in office has become sort of a comfort to me because I came to know what he was going to do and how he was going to act. Despite what many radical conservatives said, he did not suspend the Constitution. He did not get us into World War Three. He did not completely dismantle the country.
Now, we are moving onto a completely new administration, completely new political players, a completely new President – and I do not know what to expect.
This is not meant to be a commentary on President-Elect Trump, but there is a part of me that is apprehensive because I do not know what to expect. I don’t think any of us do. This is also a strange feeling to me as I have never been worried when a Republican was in office. Having a Republican in office was a comfort to me, probably because of how I was raised.
Regardless, Inauguration Day is coming quickly, and before we know it, President Obama will no longer be in office.
I know 2008 me would have never expected I would be writing an article like this today.
And, as odd as this is for me to say, I’m going to miss him.
Thank you, President Obama.
