In his State of the Union speech this year, President Obama outlined his vision for a Year of Action: acting where he could without Congress to bring about needed reforms designed to put the nation on a path to progress. Ten months later, these far-reaching efforts have affected economic, social, and environmental policy. Already, President Obama's executive actions in 2014, when considered alongside his other key legislative accomplishments, situate him as a uniquely dynamic figure in the history of U.S. leadership. Yet the opposition led by Congressional Republicans is stuck in familiar historical grooves. Caricaturing Obama as an emperor trampling the rule of law, Speaker Boehner has decided to sue a presidential simulacrum. The truth is that President Obama's executive actions are not only legal, they embody the spirit of the Constitution's Reconstruction amendments and that particularly democratic moment in our history.
Invoking constitutionality often conjures images of the 18th century and the Founding Fathers. While the President's opponents -- notably the hyperpartisan corporatist wing of the Supreme Court -- are quick to refer to themselves as Constitutional "originalists," they gloss over the original intent of those who authored Reconstruction amendments in the aftermath of the Civil War. The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution allowed for the Union's program of Reconstruction in the Confederacy. They empowered the Federal government to enforce the end of slavery, equal protection under the law, and voting rights for citizens without regard to race. With pressure from Radical Republicans, President Lincoln brought about an era of unprecedented democracy as former slaves took participatory roles in their government as Congressmen and even Senators.
This is part of our "better history" that President Obama has referenced. "The goal of Reconstruction," writes Richard Wormser for PBS, "was to readmit the South on terms that were acceptable to the North -- full political and civil equality for blacks and a denial of the political rights of whites who were the leaders of the secession movement." In 2014, after more than a century of partisan realignment, the Democratic Party is committed -- or at least more committed than the GOP -- to an expanded notion of political and civil equality that includes women, minorities, and the LGBT community.
While even the most critical issues we face today lack the gravity of chattel slavery and its stain on American history, there are some more general parallels between the historical context of Reconstruction and our present moment. Today, the President is working to implement full political and civil equality for the groups just outlined. In particular, he has taken action to end pay disparity for women and prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation for federal contractors and to expand opportunity for young men of color. Also important is the President's raising the minimum wage for federal contractors, as equality under the law means little without economic empowerment. Instead of violating the Constitution, these executive orders and actions dovetail with the goals of the Reconstruction amendments.
In bringing about the potential for a new egalitarianism, the Year of Action echoes Reconstruction. Candidate Obama's comment about "fundamentally transforming" America was much maligned, and is used regularly by the right-wing to whip up their supporters into a hysterical frenzy. Yet anyone who witnessed the social, economic, and political decay of 28 years of Reaganism should be able to recognize that the longevity of our system of government depended on just such a transformation. Now, the heirs of the Confederacy are recycling the attacks against Lincoln for a new generation and hoping we won't notice. A pamphlet titled "Abraham Africanus I" speculating on Lincoln's monarchical, Satanic tendencies is hardly distinct from the fever dreams broadcasted daily on conservative talk radio.
As with Reconstruction, the progress we have won through hard work is reversible. The President's actions do not have the permanency of legislation. Reconstruction was brought to an end when corrupt Republicans collaborated with the Southern aristocracy to maintain power. We must remain vigilant and elect those Democrats who will stand with President Obama instead of undermining his project of change.