Obama, Star Trek, and America's First Black President

On This Day in History: November 4, 2008

I don’t give a shit if you don’t like the guy. Comparatively speaking, Barack Obama was fucking awesome, and his election filled many with hope that America wasn’t irrevocably fucked. And yet, for four years, America was ever so fucked. And then they weren’t. And then here we fucking go again.

--On This Day in History Shit Went Down: November 4, 2008--

First, we need to talk about Jeri Ryan, who many know as “Seven of Nine” in the Star Trek franchise, and her unwillingness to take her husband’s shit. Wait, what? Yeah, she played a significant if indirect role in the election of Barack Obama.

Back in 2004, Jeri’s ex-husband, Jack Ryan, was a likely winner for election in the Illinois senate race. But then Jack’s divorce records were made public, revealing that he’d pressured Jeri to have public sex in various swingers’ clubs. But resistance is not futile, and Jeri said fuck that noise and divorced him instead. Jack denied the allegations but dropped out of the race a few days later and was replaced by the unexciting MSNBC host Alan Keyes. Obama, who had only been a state senator up to that point, annihilated Keyes in the election and became senator, and then four years later became the Democrat nominee to be president, narrowly beating Hillary Clinton.

The 2008 election was the war hero supporting the war in Iraq that had been going on for five years vs. a man opposing the war who proclaimed a need for change in Washington. McCain was hindered by being tied to George Bush, and a lot of people were sick of eight years of Republicans in power, especially since the economy imploded right before the election. I don’t think Sarah Palin as a VP choice did McCain any favors either.

Conversely, a lot of people were wondering if a Black man could win the presidency in the United States of Racist America. When Obama did win by a wide margin on November 4, 2008, many were elated. They felt this represented a hopeful future for their country. The massive attendance at Obama’s inauguration was a love fest. His supporters were overjoyed.

Of course, there was a substantial portion of the American population that was just fucking seething over the Obama victory. How dare a Black man occupy the White House? The Tea Party, aka the American Taliban, aka Y’all Qaeda became a thing only a month after President Obama assumed office, and Republicans made every effort to block Obama’s policies no matter what they were. For eight years the racism festered like an infected wound, becoming a major contributor to the election of the blatantly racist and vocal Obama critic Donald Trump to the presidency in 2016.

Those who cannot remember the past need a history teacher who says “fuck” a lot. Get both volumes of On This Day in History Sh!t Went Down. The holidays are coming and they make great gifts.

And don’t forget to

The story you just read is from Volume I. This is the cover: