Michelle Obama beyond the White House
What should Michelle Obama do with her considerable talents once the Obamas leave the White House?
I hear that question a lot, especially since the U.S. First Lady (a role no other nation in the world so reveres, enshrines — and enshackles the occupant) pretty well delivered the two best speeches of the 2016 presidential campaign.
Take a minute please, to acknowledge the irony: With her husband, President Barack Obama a worldclass orator, with feisty Vice-President Joe Biden lacerating Donald Trump, with the arguably soon-tobe successful Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton trying her sometimes polished, sometimes dogged best; and of course with the visceral, raw and all-too-often ugly speeches of the Republican nominee whipping up his base, a middle-aged woman never elected to office ate them all for breakfast when it came to speechifying.
This is a woman who, despite being an accomplished lawyer and executive, made it clear her role as a mother came first during the eight years her husband served as president. A woman who took on significant but mild-mannered initiatives like childhood obesity, eating good veggies and the right of girls to be educated. A woman who never much liked politics in the first place.
Yet in just two speeches, Michelle Obama managed to make a stunning political impact and remain wholly authentic, a singular feat in political life.
She slayed in the first speech at the Democratic National Convention in July, firing up the base with that now iconic mantra: “When they go low, we go high.”
She also gave her audience an inspiring history lesson by poignantly reminding them that in the White House, “I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves. And I watch my daughters, two beautiful, intelligent, black young women, playing with their dogs on the White House lawn.”
And just last week, Obama delivered a speech no less inspiring for all its despair — a searing, personal, and persuasive attack on Donald Trump and his appalling (not to mention self-admitted) predatory sexual behaviour toward women.
In response to the audio tape in which Trump bragged about assaulting women, Obama said, connecting with a multitude of women: “I have to tell you that I can’t stop thinking about this. It has shaken me to my core in a way that I couldn’t have predicted . . . the shameful comments about our bodies. The disrespect of our ambitions and intellect. The belief that you can do anything you want to a woman.”
She called his attitude “disgraceful” and “intolerable.” And she made it a bipartisan issue: “It doesn’t matter what party you belong to . . . no woman deserves to be treated this way.” As more and more women came forward to accuse Trump of sexually harassing them, every word of her riveting speech rang true.
She spoke to women about the terror of men attacking them but also the pernicious fear — am I pretty enough? — that haunts so many girls and women. It’s a fear that would be normalized by a potential president who ranks women’s looks and brags he can do anything he wants to them.
Obama’s speeches came from the same heartfelt place, the epicentre of it all, from a mother raising two daughters into womanhood and seeing not only their promise, but the damage that outright misogyny and an emphasis on sexual attractiveness can do. It goes on and on and on: Women throughout their lives asking themselves if they measure up when it comes to their looks.
I often tell young women that looking back on pictures of my younger self I am shocked that I wasted so much time on this one question.
But I did, because men who thought like Donald Trump were the first to tell you that you were ugly, when in fact you were just smart and mouthy and getting in their business.
I vowed to raise a daughter who didn’t have to worry about those things. And I failed, because despite her beauty she sometimes devalued her looks, as did her friends. She had a father who, when people commented on her loveliness, chose to proudly respond: “She’s smart, too” or “You should see her play baseball.” So many good men out there don’t think, let alone talk, like Donald Trump.
Michelle Obama spoke her truth as a woman and a mother, not as a politician beholden to anyone. But she also fully used her influence, her importance and her ability to do so. As their eight-year journey is ending, she has finally come into her power.
There will no doubt be fallout from the final debate, more twists in the next few weeks.
But when historians have their day with this interminable ugly election, they better include two brief shining moments: when Michelle Obama spoke her mind and stirred a nation.
So what should she do when her time in the White House is over?
I’d say take her time, think about what she wants as opposed to all those years of growing her daughters, helping her husband, serving her country. If she does nothing but rejuvenate for a few years, that’s fine, too.
If she wins, President Hillary Clinton could make Michelle Obama a worldwide ambassador for women and girls.
But first she should send her the biggest damn bunch of flowers ever with a note: “Thanks Michelle. I couldn’t have done it without you.” Judith Timson writes weekly about cultural, social and political issues. You can reach her at judith.timson@sympatico.ca and follow her on Twitter @judithtimson.