Obama on the Hoofbeats of History
by Josh Marshall //Talking Points Memo
We all remember that week last month when the country seemed to be marching with history. The Court upheld the Affordable Care Act against what is likely its last serious legal challenge, effectively embedding it deeply into the structure of American social policy. The Court then (in what was unfortunately a weakly argued majority decision) made marriage equality the law of the land nationwide. Then on the heels of these events came the President's speech (transcript here) in Charleston, South Carolina - actually a eulogy for Clementa Pinckney, one of the victims of the Emmanuel Church massacre on June 17 but in fact a commemoration and meditation on the meaning of the whole event. (James Fallows' is one of the best appreciations and treatmentsof it.)
It was a momentous week. I had wanted to write something about it at the time. But I couldn't quite form my views on it. It seemed more like something to take in than to talk about. In one short string of events so much of the President's legacy which had been up for grabs, contingent and uncertain, was suddenly confirmed and driven home in ways that allowed little doubt. Not all of these wins were Obama's of course. He did not even support marriage equality in 2008 let alone run on it. The Court's decision and the sea change in public opinion which made it possible and perhaps inevitable were the products of decades of activism stretching back into years when no one had ever even heard the President's name. But we're talking here not about a single person or political leader but of the aspirations of those who elected him. And judged through this prism, the rush of events in late June come together as a unified picture.
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