On his MSNBC broadcast last evening, host of the Ed Show, Ed Schultz's quote:
This guy who campaigned on hope and change has delivered the mail. Period.
Highlighted years of frustration by Democrats and fair-minded people everywhere at the media and Republican Party’s ridicule and demonization of President Barack Obama and his effort to mend the ill-served and worrisome nation that was handed to him on January 20, 2009.
It should be made absolutely clear that with the eventual successful rollout of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in enrolling 7.1 million individuals, through its online exchange, as well as securing protective healthcare benefits overall for at least 100 million people, President Obama has fundamentally changed the trajectory of this nation in its curvature toward social justice, and he has done so despite obstructionism, despite sabotage, and despite the abetting of the destructive Republican Party, by the corporate media, in their effort to undermine the President’s accomplishments and highlight his criticism.
Before the 44th President, through his partnership with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic branch of the 111th Congress, passed the much-maligned healthcare law, it had been almost 100 years since the nation began its quest for national healthcare reform.
On June 28 of 2012, following the ruling to uphold the PPACA by the Supreme Court of the United States, the New York Times assessed President Obama’s place in history as it relates to the important legislation:
For Barack Obama, who staked his presidency on a once-in-a-generation reshaping of the social welfare system, the Supreme Court’s health care ruling is not just political vindication. It is a personal reprieve, leaving intact his hopes of joining the ranks of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson and Ronald Reagan as presidents who fundamentally altered the course of the country.
Despite the Sturm und Drang surrounding the passage of the ACA, a healthy dose of skepticism could have been applied to the notion that the majority of people in this nation would decide to subjugate their natural human instinct for self preservation and deny themselves and loved ones the benefits of healthcare in the interest of succumbing to the destructive political motivations of the Republican Party.
The 2012 presidential election would validate this skepticism and settle, as the New York Times speculated, contradictory views as it related to the appropriate role of government in the lives of everyday people.
For all its weight, however, the [Supreme Court’s] judgment does little to settle the bitter debate, spanning decades, over the proper role of government in American life. That debate rages on, with the next acid test only four months away — an election that will give voters the chance to render their verdict on Mr. Obama’s ambitious legacy.
Five audacious words:
“Change we can believe in,” raised the hackles of the adversarial media as well as the opposition Republican Party, an anger palpable not only through their frequent detailing of
"arrogance" coming from the “upstart” Obama, but through their assessment of the future president as
“naïve”.
The Affordable Care Act meant more than the promise of tens of millions of people gaining access to healthcare, it also rendered the Republican Party impotent and signaled its inability to effectively serve its constituents as well as the people of this nation. Additionally, it served to validate the abilities of the first African American President. The article continued:
What the Supreme Court’s decision does do is preserve Mr. Obama’s status as the president who did more to expand the nation’s safety net than any since Johnson. It preserves a bill intended to push back against rapidly rising income inequality. And for a self-consciously historic figure, it allows Mr. Obama to argue that he has delivered on the most cherished goal of his 2008 campaign: “Change we can believe in.”
Historians assessed the passage of the ACA.
Historians will compare this to F.D.R.’s Social Security and Lyndon Johnson’s Medicare, said the historian Robert Dallek, who has written about both presidents. “This is another step in humanizing the American industrial system.”
In political terms, said Douglas G. Brinkley, a professor of history at Rice University, “It’s the cornerstone of what could turn out to be one of the most extraordinary two-term presidencies in American history.”
If President Barack Obama had not saved the economy, or the automobile industry, and had not achieved many of the other historic accomplishments that significantly aided in the trajectory of this nation curving more in the past 5 years toward social justice, issues such as those important to women and gays and education for the poor, he would still have, with the passage of the ACA, and its already powerful impact on the lives of tens of millions of people, cemented his name in history as one of America's great presidents who has brought long ranging and impactful change to his nation.
On this basis alone, the Republicans and the media's continued attempt at undermining his success have utterly failed.
Thank you, Mr. President….