Obama and Hillary Clinton Will Be Missed

It is not unlikely that the day Barack Obama leaves the White House for the final time, unable to pass on the keys to Hillary Clinton, there will be a wave of nostalgia. Yesterday, having spent months attacking the Republican candidate’s vulgarity and aggression, Obama received Donald Trump in the White House, putting on a brave face despite the knowledge that the result may mean all of his work as president has been in vain. In the wake of the election, Obama stated that the country needs “a sense of unity, a sense of inclusion, a respect for our institutions,” while at the same time urging Trump to unite and lead the American people.

Obama’s personal image remains unaffected. The president’s approval is way over 50 percent, and he has not been tainted by scandal during his time in office. However, this was ultimately not enough to convince sufficient numbers of voters to opt for Hillary Clinton, whose success would have cemented a presidential legacy forged in the face of Republican majorities in both houses.

Feeling even worse than Obama, however, will be Hillary Clinton, who has, once again, had to suffer the pain of not being able to “shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling.” Despite this, the defeated candidate used her concession speech to urge her supporters to continue the fight, encouraging them to “keep doing [their] part to build that better, stronger, fairer America.” Given that Clinton received over half of the popular vote, the result has not been the complete rejection of her ideals, unlike what many have exaggeratedly claimed. However, this has not prevented her from accepting the result, from the necessity of moving on, or from the need to give Trump the chance to lead – a very different attitude to that of the new president-elect who, during the campaign, threatened to reject the election’s outcome if he did not emerge victorious.

Clinton and Obama have not limited themselves to the usual speeches about trust in the country’s institutions, nor to a sort of sad exercise in civility in the face of a candidate who has played on the division in the country, which Clinton has now recognized as larger than she thought. Both are asking their supporters to remain alert and vigilant and to continue fighting for their rights while standing by the tradition of uniting behind the president-elect, despite the terrible attacks that previously emanated from his campaign.

Although none of this will help Clinton or Obama with their political careers, it does serve to feed the idea that leaders are responsible for the preservation of their country and the basic consensuses upon which their societies are built. It is for this reason that they cannot allow their followers to sink into despair in the face of what lays before them. In life you win or you lose, but you always defend the causes in which you believe. One defeat does not render null and void the ideals that each of us believe are worth democratically fighting for.