I first opened “A Promised Land” — former President Barack Obama’s latest book and my Christmas gift — two days after the attack at the Capitol building. Now, looking over my notes from those first few chapters, there is more cynicism in my scribbles than I’d care to admit.
I was six years old when Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States. His administration is the first of which I have any memory, and as a bi-racial kid from Kansas, he was one of the few real-life “heroes” I could look up to. His impassioned calls for solidarity and compassion still ring in my mind: “There is not a Black America and a white America and a Latino America and an Asian America. There’s the United States of America.” This famous line from Obama’s 2004 Democratic National Convention speech, included in “A Promised Land”, reminds me of days spent watching his leadership make history from my living room television. His example had given me courage, and as he often mentions in his book, “the audacity of hope.”
Then Donald Trump was elected.
Trump’s administration starkly juxtaposed the one I had known before. Rampant xenophobia, racism, sexism, and partisanship wore on my idealized image of America year after year. Obama writes that the famous line from his 2004 Convention speech was an aspiration, but one he believed was achievable. With the recent assault on the very foundation of our democracy, however, I wondered: If America really is the place that Obama painted, how did we get here?
It was with this question that I opened “A Promised Land,” searching for an explanation from the man I so dearly respected, but whose promised land seemed like it may have only ever been a dream.
The 701-page volume follows Obama’s professional career, from briefly outlining his early life to detailing the difficulties of his Senate and presidential bids. His writing gives an all-access look at various moments of his presidency: the Affordable Care Act, BP oil spill, Arab Spring, and fight against climate change. This in-depth, 29-hour long saga doesn’t require the eyes of a history or policy buff, or even someone who remembers the details of Obama’s presidency. For each disaster, victory, or anecdote that Obama recalls from his time in office, he provides the reader with both his own perspectives and any historical and situational context needed to help readers understand.
Even more valuable than the recap, Obama’s words give a voice to both those who passed through his life before his time in office and the politicians with whom he regularly engaged while in the White House. People like Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, John McCain, Claire McCaskill, and Joe Biden become a cast of characters brought to life by the unique humanity so rarely present in the news cycle. We also get to take some minuscule comfort in the caricatures of people like Mitch McConnel, Lindsey Graham, and even Donald Trump, a reminder that they have been causing many Americans grief for longer than just the last four years. Obama’s commentary, such as “Lindsey’s the guy who double-crosses everyone to save his own skin,” fits well in our current political moment.
In the book’s opening pages, Obama claims that he wants his words to reach young people. He skims over his youth, describing his lack of effort and the trouble he sometimes got into, later having it used against him during his campaign. Yet, nothing was enough to truly derail his efforts. I wonder if the same will be true for my classmates with political aspirations, as our generation has grown up with nearly all of our lives documented by social media. We’ve also been forced to fight for our rights and become aware of our government’s impact at a much younger age. As Ted Kennedy tells Obama when he questions whether or not to make a run for the presidency: “You don’t choose the time, the time chooses you.” It’s an interesting notion and certainly relevant for young people living through this historical moment.
Obama isn’t perfect, and there are, of course, moments that cause you to wince and groan. The book includes a description of Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak having a “Roman nose” and a mischaracterization of Tunisia as a “repressive but reliable ally.” But these are only part of Obama’s written candor, present in the occasionally questionable quotes, the self-doubt and headfirst forward charges, the questions to God and the moments of spirituality. In these instances, Obama doesn’t put on a mask of political perfection or glorify the job he carried out. There is no heroic triumph: only a human given a massive responsibility and carrying it out as best he can while refusing to give in to the belief that things can’t change. His narrative ends after the killing of Osama Bin Laden, with Obama reviewing and planning for the months ahead. The work continues for him, just as it does for us.
As I closed the book, I returned to the question with which I started: how did we get here after being so close to what looked like the promised land? After eight years of Obama preaching the human connection, did Trump emerge as the chosen one because people considered those bonds artificial? I don’t want to believe that, but the comments of “Go back to Africa” and “Go back to your country” that I’ve heard increasingly over the last four years certainly curbed my belief in anything better. As I read, it seemed to me that Obama’s vision of a promising America was really just a picture of people overcoming the challenges that “America” presents. But maybe that is the point.
To deny the very real divides that separate us is to overlook the underlying rifts and important differences in perspective and belief that make up this nation. That being said, though, Obama’s conviction — that we should consider our similarities as more than just footnotes to our differences — was the start of a revolution. Just like the revolutions by which Obama claims to have been inspired while navigating his life, learning to balance our intrinsic commonality and crucial polarity has been and will continue to be messy, but I don’t believe it to be impossible.
As people continue to talk about the crumbling of our democracy, there is one scene from “A Promised Land” that sticks out to me. Obama is informed that he needs to contact Mike Mullen so that the US can officially begin military operations, “except the state-of-the-art, secure mobile communications system … apparently wasn’t working.” Instead, he ended up making that important call from his cell phone. I’m not suggesting that we do away with necessary security measures, but the image is compelling — our Commander in Chief issuing orders from an old cell phone. It is a reminder that the high-functioning, complex system that we have created may sometimes glitch. But our democracy doesn’t and will not fail because it doesn’t rest in the formal complexities; it rests in the hands of leaders — true leaders — like Barack Obama. That restores in me at least some hope for tomorrow.
