What Hath Obama Wrought?

What Hath Obama Wrought?

Richard Winchester

Just before the 2008 presidential election, Barack Hussein Obama, who by then knew the election's eventual outcome, told a campaign rally "[w]e're five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America!" Once he was inaugurated, Obama set out to keep that promise.

He still has about 18 months left to be POTUS, and there are indications that in his final days Obama will try to make even more fundamental changes to America.

Obama, however, has been president for six-and-one-half years, long enough to warrant at least a preliminary assessment of his impact on the country. Hint: it isn't good.

Obama promised to be "a transformational president," like Ronald Reagan and not Richard Nixon or Bill Clinton. He's been that, but for the worse.

Let's first assess America's national security and prestige abroad. Begin with his cancellation of placing U.S. missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic, followed by major reductions of America's nuclear arsenal, calamitous retreats in Iraq and Afghanistan, gutting the American military, purging potentially effective military officers, leading from behind in Libya, evaporating red lines in Syria, the Benghazi debacle, enabling Russian irredentism in the Crimea and Ukraine, caving to Iranian mullahs, inability or unwillingness to defeat ISIS, betrayal of Israel, and more, Obama's record in the international arena can only be seen as a series of unmitigated disasters. Florida senator and Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio put it succinctly when he noted that, under Obama, "our allies no longer trust us, our enemies no longer fear us." (Others have said essentially the same.)

Turning to domestic matters, perhaps the most general assessment of Obama's record as POTUS is that he's been the most dogged proponent of big government since the days of Franklin Delano Roosevelt or Lyndon Baines Johnson. He dislikes the Constitution for its limits on government. (I have no doubt this review of his domestic achievements will over-look some dastardly acts, but the following recitation should suffice to confirm the above assertions.) The $800+ billion bailout bill, which was supposed to go to shovel-ready jobs, and was soon accompanied by government take-over of two of America's big three automobile companies, along with billions of dollars wasted on crony capitalists, many of whom happened to be donors to the Democratic Party, went a long way to postponing economic recovery in the U.S. Passage of the miss-labeled "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" in the spring of 2010 -- which had to be sold to a gullible public with presidential lies, and then enacted by congressional slight-of-hand -- means, at bottom, government take-over of one-seventh of the American economy. (Don't forget also the fiasco when the Obamians tried to implement Obamacare, as well as Obama's repeated revisions of the original legislation, thereby violating the Constitution's provision of separation of powers, and the two tortured Supreme Court rulings needed to validate Obamacare.) A hallmark of the Obama administration has been a flood of regulations that have seriously crimped economic growth, and grievously weakened the American economy's private sector -- if there still is such a thing. (Is there any wonder that a smaller percentage of the adult populace is gainfully employed than at any time since the presidency of Jimmy Carter?) Obama acts as if illegal aliens should swamp people here legally. With the stroke of a pen, Obama undid the hard-won reforms of the welfare system in 1996; now the notion welfare state has an entirely new meaning in America. Just one manifestation of Obama's accomplishments in building a larger welfare state in the U.S. is that more Americans are receiving what used to be called food stamps than at any time in our history. Nearly half the population receives some kind of government benefit.

Alexis de Tocqueville observed that, "[t]he American Republic will endure until the Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." Politicians learned how to bribe the public with money from the public treasury long before Obama. But, since he was immaculated, Obama has taken bribery of the American people to new heights.

America's acknowledged national debt stands at $18+ trillion, more than half of which has been amassed since January 20, 2009. If government spending continues to exceed revenues at the rate it's been doing since 2009, how long will it be before the national government's credit rating is down-graded once again, and the U.S. becomes the new Greece or Puerto Rico?

Another facet of Obama's legacy is the weaponization of government agencies, such as the IRS, the DOJ, and the Department of Homeland Security, against his critics. Other presidents have used one or more federal agencies against opponents. But, to my knowledge, no modern-era president before Obama tried to deny that a major news outlet -- the Fox News Channel -- is a legitimate news outlet.

As the first African American -- at least on his acknowledged father's side -- to be twice elected POTUS, Obama was supposed to be a post-racial president. Actually, Obama talks and acts like a black racist. From the Beer Summit following his admittedly ignorant insult of the Cambridge, MA police force through the most recent incidence of white police-on-black violence -- notice, however, that he has been silent after the murder of Kathryn Steinle by an illegal alien who sought sanctuary in San Francisco -- Obama and other Obamians have gone out of their way to inflame racial passions.

The public's perception of the state of American race relations has deteriorated since Obama became POTUS, a fact recognized by all races. Large portions of the African American community believe white police officers prey on young black men, and some blacks engage in violence against whites. Instances of "the Polar Bear Game" or "the Knock-out Game" have become more frequent since Obama became POTUS. We may be witnessing the beginning of a race-based war on the police. Sadly, in all-too-many cases, such as the bloody assault by black hooligans against a white man on Cincinnati's Fountain Square this July 4th, cowardly city officials refuse to label the assault a hate crime. Similarly, the mainstream media (MSM) consistently refuse to report fully on instances of black-on-white violence; in the rare instance of white-on-black violence, the MSM's reportage is at full volume.

Obama's impact on America's politics constitutes a double whammy. Elected as a post-partisan POTUS, he has been the most polarizing president in decades. Bluntly put, American politics is more polarized than at any time since 1860. Assessments of his job performance differ tremendously by party identification. Although 80+% of Democrats rate his job performance favorably, only about 17% of Republicans agree.

Even worse, while Obama has been POTUS, grassroots Democrats have drifted far to the Left of where the typical Democrat was on most issues a generation or so ago. This process probably began in the 1990s, but it has accelerated since 2009. If you want an assessment of how Obama has affected Democrats' frame-of-mind when it comes to politics, think Bernie Sanders. He has also pushed many Republicans to the right. 

There's more, but the above should illustrate why Barack Obama has been an unmitigated disaster as POTUS.