It was the easiest call in the world…and also the best one.
Former President Obama was named the 2017 winner of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award on Thursday for carrying on his fellow Democrat’s legacy.
“President Kennedy called on a new generation of Americans to give their talents to the service of the country,” Kennedy’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy, said in a statement. “With exceptional dignity and courage, President Obama has carried that torch into our own time, providing young people of all backgrounds with an example they can emulate in their own lives.”
Caroline Kennedy and her son, Jack Schlossberg, will present Obama with the award May 7 at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.
“Humbled to be recognized by a family with a legacy of service,” Obama said in his official Twitter account.
The award is presented annually by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation to public servants who have made courageous decisions of conscience without regard for the personal or professional consequences. It is named for Kennedy’s 1957 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Profiles in Courage.” The book tells the stories of eight U.S. senators who risked their careers by taking principled stands for unpopular positions.
John F. Kennedy would be proud of the 44th President, a man who actually honored and respected the Oval Office, as opposed to what we have now. Considering the chaos created by our current contemptible Commander-in-Chief–including but not limited to today’s call for an investigation into the supposed surveillance of Trump Tower–wouldn’t you want to have Obama back?
Obama’s award should mark the first step in the former President being recognized by the American people as, yes, one of the greatest Presidents in history. It is not too early to rank Obama on the list of accomplished Presidents–and it’s certainly not too early to rank him at or near the very top.
Like a vandal who sprays graffiti over works of art, Donald Trump is attempting to desecrate all of Obama’s formidable achievements–from health care to human rights, from equal justice to the environment. The motive is so obviously racial: it turns the stomachs of Trump and Steve Bannon that someone they regard as a social inferior performed in a manner that was objectively superior.
I’ve noted before that progressives must be as vigilant in guarding Obama’s legacy as conservatives were in guarding Ronald Reagan’s legacy. The importance of this task cannot be overstated. Obama is the spiritual father of the anti-Trump resistance: during his eight years as President, he fought against the same ignorance, vulgarity, bigotry and deceit that anti-Trump protesters are fighting against today.
If progressives don’t tell the story of Obama’s achievements–how he tried to heal the country’s festering racial wounds; how he resurrected a dying economy; how he expanded health care coverage; how he nominated wise men and women for the federal courts; how he defended the rights of the LGBT community; how he protected our planet from the menace of carbon pollution–who will? The mainstream media won’t. Republicans damn sure won’t.
Barack Obama was the man who made America great again. That reality singes Trump’s soul. Good. It ought to. The 44th President more than deserves the honor of the Profile in Courage award, an honor Trump, that Profile in Claptrap, will never have. It must drive Trump mad–a very short drive, granted–that he will never enjoy the international respect Obama enjoys, that he will never be regarded as a force for justice, that he will never be viewed on the pages of history as anything other than an icon of ignorance and a symbol of sickness.
Congrats to President Obama on this award. May 7 will be a miserable day for the malcontents who never respected this man…and a great day for everyone else.
UPDATE: James Comey–who basically helped Trump seize the White House–is now standing up to Trump over the latter’s dubious assertion that Obama tried to have Trump Tower bugged? More from PBS and MSNBC.
