The inauguration of President-elect Trump is upon our nation and the final address of current President Barack Obama was given January 10. During this final address, the masses on social media posted beautiful prose thanking him for everything he had done in his eight years as the leader of the free world. And while I respect their opinion, I was curious as to what America they were living in these past eight years?
With the election of our first African-American President, hopes were high for an improvement in the racial divide our country faces. Instead, the racial divide is the worst it's been since segregation ended, with hate speech and crimes from both sides continually escalating.
This was the individual we entrusted with helping bring together our nation and instead, he gave radical groups the attention and validation that lead to multiple riots destroying cities. Rather than offer his condolences to the fellow officers mourning their fallen brethren, he blamed them and their poor race relations for the deaths of their fellow civil servants.
He looked at national tragedies as an opportunity not to bring us together with loving words and remind us to hold each other close and protect each other, but instead, waged a war on our second amendment right. He turned senseless acts of violence into a political platform on the need for gun control, and turned a blind eye to the abundantly clear mental health problem in our nation, making guns the problem instead.
He promised that the brave men and women who had served our country would be taken care of, and yet, the veteran suicide rate is higher than it has ever been before. He promised to pull our troops from the middle east and ensure they were taken care of by the nation they swore to protect, and instead, we lose these brave members on our own soil due to inadequate mental health care.
He systematically cut the legs out from under all of our armed forces and the work that had been done preceding him by apologizing to nefarious foreign heads of state and refused to act in world conflicts that directly affected our allies. He apologized to countries that denied us access to their air space after 9/11 and apologized for the war on terror that we embarked on after September 11th.
He forced universal healthcare upon this nation and the working members of society were forced to compensate for the healthcare needs of those who were not. He promised this affordable health act wouldn't force people to leave their current healthcare plans, but then the IRS threatened a fine to those who didn't switch to the ACA. With the monthly premium for my family of six sitting at thousands of dollars, I'm patiently waiting for the affordable aspect of this healthcare act.
There is no doubt that Barack Obama is charismatic, has a beautiful family and his wife Michelle is a fantastic public speaker who truly worked towards improving the physical health of the children of our nation (and her arms are suhweet).
There were some positive points to his presidency as well -- marriage equality (love is love people, ELE), the eradication of Osama Bin Laden (although that initiative was started by George W), repealing the "don't ask, don't tell law", and the lack of any personal life scandals. But as a President, Mr. Obama was none of the things he promised to be. He didn't unite our country. He did not enact primarily positive change.
I'm nervous for this Trump presidency -- I don't think he's got the temperament to keep foreign relations in good standing and his inflammatory comments will work against him when he cannot find people willing to help him. But I think that the actions of Barack Obama and breaking so many of his campaign promises opened the door for Mr. Trump because people wanted the change that was promised eight years ago and felt a businessman and not a career politician would finally give them to us.
So no, President Obama, I will not miss you, and I will not look back fondly on the eight years you spent as the Commander-in-Chief. I wish you and your family well as you begin your time as civilians in the United States (and for the love of pearl, people, leave the Obama girls alone!), but I hope you know that while the chants of "four more years" and "we did it" make for good sound bites, they do not accurately represent the feelings of the past eight years as a middle class individual in America.