We are constantly told about the great times under the presidency of Barack Obama. He is compared to his successor, Donald Trump. However, does Obama being a better human being than Donald Trump – the spawn of Satan – make him a great individual? You would not compare people like Martin Luther King Jr. or Nelson Mandela to someone like Adolf Hitler. Yes, Trump succeeded Obama, but the comparisons need to stop. Obama may be the lesser of the two evils, but he is no saint.
Liberals of America will show you Obama’s great success story, and his record as president to make you believe he is the hero that we need… that we deserve. But let us actually look at his record as president. Let us not limit his record to the people of America. After all, the presidency does affect the rest of the world, since America is the largest colonial power at the moment.
Obama’s success as president is very much limited to the United States of America. One of his greatest accomplishments was introducing the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare”. America’s health system is proven to be absolutely diabolical, and it needs change. Although, they still fail to implement universal health care (like every other country with a brain), Obamacare was a big step forward to provide health care to the people of America. To pass such a radical act was a huge success for Obama and this was meant to be the beginning to a new America – one that put the lives of its citizens over dollar bills.
Although the Affordable Care Act is great for the people of America, for now, it is not enough. More effective action needs to be taken to provide healthcare for all, one that is not insurance based. It is great that so many people are now protected by Obamacare, but it has now been used to cover up the cracks in the shocking state of America’s healthcare system. Traditional Democrats are failing to push for a move towards Medicare for all. Trump and the Republicans are trying to tear down Obamacare. Instead of moving America’s healthcare system forward, it has actually stalled it.
When Obama took over in office there was a “great recession”. Under his leadership, he was able to take America out of the recession into a period of prosperity. He managed to reduce the rate of unemployment and make people’s lives somewhat better. He made great strides to the economy of the country.
For myself, the biggest disappointment during Obama’s reign as President was his foreign policy. There were very limited changes in comparison to previous presidencies. His supporters will say that he managed to eliminate Osama Bin Laden (sceptical eyes), bring an end to the invasion of Iraq and limit America’s colonial power in Afghanistan. The biggest success would be his Nuclear Power Deal with Iran, in which he managed to limit Iran’s nuclear activity – all great feats for us non-Americans, until you look deeper into his foreign policies.
Before limiting America’s involvement in Afghanistan, Obama ordered an increase in the number of troops. He himself believed that the Taliban were not a threat to the Government. Therefore, his reasoning to send more troops to Afghanistan was for security and to finally bring a successful end to this war. Did he achieve this? No. In fact, the war dragged on longer than necessary, with the people of Afghanistan paying the ultimate price.
The bloodthirsty nature of his foreign policy is shown by the number of drone strikes he carried out. During his presidency, he oversaw 563 strikes, mainly in countries like Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. Compare that to his predecessor who oversaw only 57 drone strikes. His supporters cannot use the argument about advancement in technology as an incentive, since more strikes were carried out during Obama’s first year in office, than during the entirety of Bush’s presidency. Drone strikes are proven to be lethal weaponisation as it does not consider innocent life. It is reported that between 384 and 807 civilians have died due to drone strikes during his presidency. These are innocent lives that America proclaims to be fighting on behalf of, and protecting. We are told of these evil people abroad, but the murderers are the ones coming to these lands with their unmanned machines.
We are constantly told stories of the horrors of Trump’s America against immigrants, and rightly so. These stories are highly disturbing, and the manner in which ICE are brutally rounding up people is inherently wrong. America has literal concentration camps all around their country. Saying that, Trump’s ICE is a continuation of Obama’s ICE. In fact, Trump’s deportation numbers are not even close to Obama’s at the moment.
Obama’s deportation numbers were above 385,000 for each of the first three years of his presidency. It reached a peak the following year at 409,849. For this reason, Obama was called the ‘Deporter in Chief’. After that, the numbers dropped to below 250,000. Although Trump’s deportation numbers are not as high as Obama’s early years, the increasing number in each year is highly worrying. Footage of people, including children, living in squalid cages is just the sickening reality.
Since the election in 2016, and Donald Trump becoming president, many people have been reminiscing about the good ol’ days of Barack Obama. What these people fail to realise is that Obama was not great for the world. He did terrible things. We do not need another Obama. What the world needs is a change to the way things are. A breath of fresh air. The change we were expecting in 2008 when Obama was running for office. The lessons we can learn from Obama is that it does not matter if the individual is a person of colour, or a woman. If that person is spewing the same neoliberal nonsense that has been propagated for the last fifty years, then we are not going to get the change we need. I am strongly in support for a female president/prime minister, or a person of colour. However, I do not want any individual. I do not want another Barack Obama, Theresa May or Margret Thatcher. I want people who actually believe in change. People who are willing to fight for what is right. I want the next leaders of the world to be people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who are not only willing to stand up to the current way of thinking, but actually change it for the better.
Aleha
28 Of Barack Obama’s Greatest Achievements as President of The United States – GOOD
Obamacare Pros and Cons: 10 Good Points of Each Side
Obama’s Economic Policy: Achievements, Problems and Prospects – The Balance
Barack Obama Was a Foreign-Policy Failure – Foreign Policy
Iran nuclear deal: Key details – BBC News
Obama’s covert drone war in numbers: ten times more strikes than Bush — The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
Trump isn’t matching Obama deportation numbers – Axios
Latinx Activists Are Demanding Democrats Reject Barack Obama’s Deportations, Not Just Trump’s – Buzzfeed