This was originally posted on blogger.

When I was in third grade, I remember writing to President Barack Obama as a writing assignment. The letter lies in my portfolio – evidently it never reached the White House. I told him that, “I’m black just like you and that I’m proud that you are President.”

I was a little confused about my ethnicity, but the point holds. Obama becoming the first Person of Color to hold the Office of the President was a big deal. I was young then, so it was hard for me to understand the significance of the moment. Now, I look back and wish we had more politicians as charming, intelligent, and dedicated as Obama was (not to discredit Donald Trump or Joe Biden).

Of course as I’ve come to Berkeley I’ve heard a number of criticisms of Obama. For all his talk about police reform or civil rights, what did he really do for Black justice? What’s with his excessive drone strikes or detention of child migrants at the US-Mexico border? Obama’s campaign was full of hope, unity, and courage, and to some his election signaled changing tides in America. But arguably, despite being of a different demographic, his presidency was more of what came before.

Having read his autobiography, I can tell that Obama regrets those short-comings too. Just as much as he emphasizes his ideals and the values he campaigned on, he also discusses the limitations of being President and the numerous influences on him. Being elected amid the Financial Crisis, Obama explains his choice of somewhat conservative economists in his cabinet; of Joe Biden, an experienced Senator, as his Vice President; how to best frame his platform (“spreading the wealth around”, David Axelrod reminds us, reminds Americans of communism – a big no) and how to tactfully avoid controversial topics of race (during the Presidential race, Obama had to cut ties with Reverend Jerimiah Wright because of his flagrant anti-White Supremacy preaching). In his book, he explains what it’s like to approach Vladimir Putin in conversation, negotiate with military generals, and deal with the endless possibility of terrorism on a day-to-day basis.

When I read A Promised Land I felt the weight of the President’s decisions… and I also felt the limitations of the Office. For instance, healthcare was a topic that Obama’s advisors told him not to touch, simply because it would upset Pharmaceutical companies (who funded Democrats as well as Republicans) and be confusing to average Americans who already have good healthcare. They went through with Obamacare anyways, but not without calling in favors, pulling “behind the door deals”, and watering down the Affordable Care Act until it could pass the Congress and the Senate. In describing these circumstances, Obama is somewhat critical of Republicans – whose best interests are to block everything the Democrats do, no matter of the good that may come – and leftist activists too, who blame the President for not going far enough.

The reality of being a politician is frustrating, and even as President you are driven by systems of power beyond your control. I was moved by one paragraph in particular where Obama explains his response to the 2010 oil spills caused by British Petroleum. After months of BP not being able to stop the leak, it had become a large-scale crisis affecting wildlife and humans in the Gulf coast – the worst possible situation. The Federal government was starting to take blame for the crisis. Activists were complaining of their negligence; that despite the might of the largest US agencies, the oil leak inflicted continuous damage upon the Earth. Despite admitting fault publicly, Obama writes his silenced frustrations (page 571): “The only way to truly guarantee that we didn’t have another catastrophic oil spill in the future was to stop drilling entirely; but that wasn’t going to happen because at the end of the day, we Americans loved our cheap gas and big cars more than we cared about the environment, except when a complete disaster was staring at us in the face; and the absence of such a disaster, the media rarely covered efforts to shift America off fossil fuels or pass climate legislation, since actually educating the public on long-term energy policy would be boring and bad for ratings; and the one thing I could be certain of was that for all the outrage being expressed at the moment about the wetlands and the sea turtles and the pelicans, what the majority of us were really interested in was having the problem go away; for me to clean up yet another mess decades in the making with some quick and easy fix so we could all go back to our carbon spewing, energy wasting ways without having to feel guilty about it.”

Sheesh! I was shook, reading that. It was a moment of pessimism, about the inevitability of human selfishness. But his warnings carry sway with the Coronavirus (now that the vaccine is widespread, who’s talking about the root cause of the problem anymore?), or climate change (we really don’t want to give up our gas-guzzling cars) or animal agriculture (slaughter-house footage is traumatic, but most of the time it’s out of sight, out of mind). Even the President of the United States, with his platform built on “yes we can!”, reminds us that the world sucks sometimes. It’s difficult to make change, and sometimes people are too anxious to see beyond themselves.

At the end of the day, the President operates in a system, just like the rest of us. We can’t expect one man to save America – not if we’re not doing the leg-work of shifting the hearts and minds of American people. Being a politician is, at its core, about making compromises and working with people whom you detest. Even those in the Democratic party are bound by their conservative constituents, or by campaign donations from Big Business. Sometimes, doing the right thing is political suicide. Though it may not be the President’s job, there is still ample space to spread ideas about what ought to be. Artists, writers, activists and religious figures share values, inspire debate and bring new ideas to the table. At some point, those ideas are brought to the ugly floor of Congress and watered down and trampled on – but at least they were there to start with.

This realization gives me a new perspective on how to judge politicians and people in general. For all the idealism someone might have, when they’re put in a political bind or have to keep their job for their families, their values may be compromised. Politicians may talk the talk but we can’t expect them to walk the walk because frankly, that doesn’t poll well. Sometimes it’s necessary to compromise something you believe for the sake of moving forward in the messy world.

I highly recommend Obama’s autobiography. For aspiring politicians, and anyone who wants to be part of the ecology of change. It’s a reminder that being President is just another job.