From the Left: Do You Think Barack Obama Is a Good President?

It’s funny how the most subjective questions lead to the most ideological debates. Everyone can respond to the initial question with a different answer. Yet if you were answering that question to someone who disagreed with you, there may be a debate on your hands that you didn’t ask for. All you did was answer a question and now you have to defend your position on each and every decision made by President Obama for the past 7 years. I contend, that it doesn’t need to be that hostile.

If you ask me the initial question, I say he’s done a great job with what was handed to him. He’s accomplished what he could with what he’s got in Congress. As a progressive, he has moved the nation forward. Now you may or may not agree with me. But that’s why we have opinions. It’s ‘OK’ to disagree. That’s why we vote. We just don’t have to be so divisive about everything. You can have your opinion and I can have mine. And that’s my point. Now, how do we take our disagreement at face-value and move forward.

Politics have always been contentious. That’s just the nature of the game. Group A believes the best way is left. Group B believes the best way is right. Group C is way out there. It’s the exact way the founding fathers would argue day-in and day-out about the best way to drive the country in its infancy. But if independence and freedom are the foundation of our country, compromise is the mortar that holds it together.

The Connecticut Compromise is exactly what the country needed. The election of 1800 when Alexander Hamilton endorsed his political adversary Thomas Jefferson is exactly what politics should be about. It’s about both sides coming together and uniting for a common interest. Or about someone being the bridge between both sides.

Politics today are not the way they were in the 1780s. I’m not so sure we could get the Connecticut Compromise through Congress today. I’m not so sure it matters from which party the President originates. I’m not so sure that Senators and Representatives understand what their job description actually consists of. It’s about problem solving.

It’s not about fighting for your party. It’s about fighting for your constituents. It’s amazing how everyone puts differences aside when there is trouble. If a tornado is bearing down on you and your neighbor’s home, you stop what you’re doing and let them know. It’s terrible that it takes a metaphorical (or sometimes literal) disaster for compromise to happen.

So when the question arises, 'Is Barack Obama a good President?' You can answer ‘No.’ That's ok. But know that Congress didn't exactly come up with any Connecticut Compromises during his Presidency. He did his best with what he was given. And we gave that to him.

#JimmyD