Barack Meets Trump at the White House
By Kai EL’ Zabar
It’s hard to imagine the meeting between President Obama and president-elect Trump as the first step to the transition and transfer of power. Though President Obama as always was gracious and presidential in voicing that the American people have spoken. He voiced further that elections are the time for us to choose sides to express our interests as Republicans and Democrats. However, after the election, ‘we are not Republicans or Democrats but we are Americans first and we have to come together around the newly elected president.’ The President noted how gracious the Bush administration was towards him and that he has advised his staff to be the same towards Trump.
Yet as people watched and listen there were obvious two different perspectives. The graciousness of the Democrats Obama and Clinton sending the message of bipartisan collaboration while the Republicans are excited to get into office and begin to tear down all the policy that President Obama/ the Democrats have set beginning with The Affordable Care Act also known as Obama Care. And as Trump said, “I will reverse all of Obama’s executive orders.”
It’s difficult to imagine President Obama baring the burden of civility towards the man who led the brither issue. For years Trump accused Obama of not being an American citizen demanding that he produce his birth certificate. He continued this even after the certificate was presented. It was only during the Presidential Election 2016 that he came out and acknowledged Obama as the President of the United States.
It’s hard to accept that a man who has represented himself as everything that America has sought to rise above from racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, misogyny to the embrace of diversity is the president-elect of the United States. It’s hard for the people who recognize and see through all his recent pretense of being a changed man ready to be civil and level headed to feel good about him as the leader of the country in particular when they see the front runners for his cabinet — Rudy Giuliani and Newdt Gingrich; both whom agree with Trump on profiling, stop and frisk.
That other side is not ready. They are still working through the pain. The best advice came the day after the election from Democratic Presidential Candidate Madame Secretary Hillary Clinton, “This loss hurts but please never stop believing that fighting for what’s right is worth it.”
So Americans going forward must feel the pain, work through it and know that we have to be in it for the long haul, that what you believe in is worth fighting for but dropping out is not an option. As Americans we are expected to participate because we’ve got to be in the fight to win.
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