By Will Moriarty | Webmaster
One thing people from all sides of the political spectrum can agree on is the fact that Obama’s presidency has not played out the way 2008 voters expected. In many ways, things went in the opposite direction. Obama did not really have much of a shot at pleasing Republican voters during these past three years, but he definitely could have created more of the change that he promised liberal voters. These past three years, President Obama has been all too willing to accept policies that either make no progress or push the country backwards.
Obama seemed like he was trying to do as little as possible while making it look like he was doing everything. He made big claims of creating a single payer healthcare system, fighting institutionalized economic inequalities and corporate manipulation, and reforming and scaling back military practices. Although he passed bills to help with all of this, none of them created much change. His first executive order as president has been completely ignored, as Guantanamo Bay is still running. He allowed the Health Care reform bill to be stripped of a single payer option. Even with the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform, financial institutions have been continuing greedy, unethical business practices. Recently, Merrill Lynch moved more than a trillion dollars worth of toxic derivatives to its commercial banking section, Bank of America, in order to have it be insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Even though this would financially cripple the government, the Federal Reserve not only allowed for the move, they encouraged FDIC to cover it.
The biggest place I thought there would be change under the Obama administration was the war. I had the impression after his first executive order and his 2009 Cairo speech that he would continue down a path of decreased military presence and increased diplomacy. Since then, we have seen drone strikes more than quadruple, blatant violations of Pakistan’s national sovereignty and an increased military presence in the South Pacific.
However, even though I have been less than impressed with Obama’s recent performance as president, I still want four more years of a Democrat-run White House. I have been disappointed with him because he has been too willing to make concessions with the Republican dominated Congress. Every problem I have had with his presidency would only be enhanced by a GOP win. What I hope is that a more moderate candidate like Romney wins the primary, so Obama might be forced further left in order to gain votes. Many people want a Republican to win this fall because of the negative results of these past three years, but for me, the past three years show we need to elect a president who can follow through on his or her promises.
