Obama's Legacy

     With a Republican Congress promising to abuse power, and a new president poised to disgrace the office, I'm among the many who watch President Obama's departure with deep regret.
     History will see matters this way:
     Race was a consequential factor in the unprecedented opposition Obama faced. This was well known by political foes -- people at high levels in American government.  Yet they were willing to be complicit and even to abet.  Throughout his term, the president received criticism that was unprincipled, vicious and personal.
     Bigotry neared open display with the Republican presidential candidates of 2016. It broke through in the campaign of Donald Trump. To the last minute he clung to the lie that President Obama was African by birth. (Don't forget, he's bla-a-a-a-ck.) And Trump's white supremacist libel of Mexicans and Muslims will echo in American life long after the victory he was willing to seek at terrible cost to the integrity of our electoral process.
     With ceaseless and scurrilous attempts to undermine a duly elected president, the Republican Party of the early 21st Century posted a record of moral bankruptcy for which it will be forever known. This is the context that will make President Obama's legacy shine even more brightly. He met every adversity with dignity and courage and grace. He was matched in this by his wife Michelle, who has won widespread admiration through the sheer quality of her persona.
     His legacy of elevated leadership will dog the Lilliputians who've taken over. They may be able to compromise his policies, but they cannot erase his example.
     And the example will be alive yet awhile in both the Obamas. The President is a young man. He displays no inclination to fade away.  While former presidents have traditionally left the leadership field to their successors, leadership is highly unlikely to be the hallmark of the Trump administration. President Obama would do the nation further service by finding ways to remain vigorously engaged in public life. Michelle Obama is amply equipped to take an ongoing role in her own right, and to enlarge on the material contribution she has already made.
     For the time being, our government has passed to people who are capable of very low behavior. The dangers they pose are not limited to law and policy, which can in the longer term be corrected. The deeper danger will be temptation to lose faith in the possibility of integrity and higher purpose in our leaders.
     The legacy of the Obamas is to remind us that the possibility need not be lost.