Former U.S. President Barack Obama accepted a “Profile in Courage” award from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston last night and only offered only a glancing reference to Thursday’s repeal vote and the efforts by President Donald Trump to unwind his legacy.
Obama used the opportunity to highlight the Democrats who voted for the ACA, his signature domestic achievement, and then lost their seats in Congress, noting that they chose to look out for Americans as a whole, rather than taking the politically convenient route.
“These men and women did the right thing, the hard thing, and theirs was a profile in courage, and because of that vote, 20 million people got health insurance that didn’t have it before,” Obama said.
Obama expressed his “fervent hope” on Sunday that members of Congress would look beyond party lines when considering the future of the country’s healthcare system. His remarks came days after the Republican-controlled House of Representatives narrowly passed a bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, the 2010 law that enabled 20 million more Americans to get health insurance.
The 44th president was joined at the gala by a host of former administration officials, including Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry, and former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy.
Obama noted that we live in “a time of great cynicism about our institutions” and yet he remained optimistic.
“I have said before that I believe what Dr. King said – that the arc of the moral universe bends, but it bends towards justice,” Obama said. “I have also said that it does not bend on its own, but it bends because we bend it, and we put our hand on the arc and we move it in the direction of justice and freedom and equality and kindness and generosity. It does not happen on its own.”
The Profile in Courage award takes its name from Kennedy’s 1957 book profiling eight U.S. senators who risked their careers by taking politically unpopular stands. Kennedy, a Democrat, was assassinated in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. The 100th anniversary of his birth will be commemorated on May 29.
Previous award recipients include Presidents Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush, former U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt, U.S. Senator and former prisoner of war John McCain and U.S. Representative and civil rights leader John Lewis.
