Obama’s Place in History: Why Obama Became Unpopular
It might seem surprising that a President with Obama’s personality and good will to just about every segment of society, should end up with so many who absolutely detest him. Amongst modern politicians it is rare to find someone who has so much empathy with the rich and poor, the religions of every ilk, every age group, every ethnic group, and rose so fast to almost cult status. And yet more and more became angry with him. Why?
Basically Obama refuses to side with the self serving interests of any group, and that generates anger each time he does this. His focus always seems to be on doing the right thing ethically—not politically, and not via popularity. This is not to say his interpretation of ethics is always right. But he is someone who does not put down opponents with adjectives, but invariably sticks to a reasoned out defense of his own decisions. Endless insulting adjectives have yet to steer him off his own measured analysis of issues. When it comes to insults he rarely, if ever, returns tit for tat (which invariably reminds me of the old wisecrack “If I give you a tat will you give me a tit?).
Precisely because Obama relates so well to so many diverse groups he feels their pain, understands their plight, and tries hard to level the playing field so the maximum number of citizens can achieve some success and contentment with their lives. He clearly wants various groups to develop respect and tolerance for each other rather than focus so hard on protecting their own self-serving agendas. Perhaps this is not surprising: he is a genuine mongrel himself.
It takes a good person to do the right thing, and a strong person to do the right thing even at a personal cost. Obama may not be as widely popular as when he first became President because he actually has stood steadfast in his efforts to give those without rights the same rights others have, and those without a level playing field a more level playing field. When Obama stated it was an ethical obligation for a country, as rich as ours, to give all people access to good health care, he carried through with Obama Care. While any overhaul as vast as this needs a lot of tweaking, he is the first President to establish that good health care is a legitimate function of government for all citizens. His place in history will be elevated on this basis. Obama has made it highly unlikely that universal good health for all citizens is going to go away.
When Obama, through his personal support for the right of everyone to choose who they wish to marry, he helped give the correctness of this position a strong push, and made this act of justice become fact almost overnight. His place in history will be elevated on this basis. Groups, once gaining justice with their own rights, rarely lose them. It simply sticks.
When Obama, out of nowhere, became the first black President, he accomplished something no one 10 years ago would have thought remotely possible for many years to come. His place in history will be elevated on this basis. He has probably buried forever the notion that blacks operate on some sort of different genetic parameters compared to other ethnic groups. Obama clearly appreciates human diversity. Some hate him precisely for that.
Since Obama somehow managed to stop the economic depression created by Republican and Democratic policies for decades, his place in history will become elevated still further.
When Obama gave support for measures which would help stem climate change and set America on the course for new forms of energy, he became virtually the first President to take these issues seriously. This will again elevate his place in history, unless climate change proves to be the fraud non climate scientist ‘experts’ of the Sarah Palin mentality so claim.
When Obama firmly set out, as one of his goals, to fix a broken immigration system, he again became the first President in a long time to seriously address the issue. Through his goal of tightening border security, and letting those immigrants who have lived in this country for some time be put on the path to citizenship, he not only is doing the right thing, but putting a stop to a form of slave labor in this country—and this will again elevate his place in history. Slave labor is never justified under any circumstances, so whatever the resolution, those who work in this country, as individuals, deserve living wages. To what extent immigrants are allowed to stay in this country is another matter.
When Obama stood strong that the the lowest paid jobs should receive living wages and pushed for the minimum wage to be raised to $10.10/hr he again raised his place in history. There is no humanitarian reason why some individuals in our society have to work two jobs to make a living, or why senior citizens have their purchasing power protected via cost of living increases, and those at low paying jobs do not have their purchasing power protected via cost of living increases. It hurts the economy to have millions of people with diminished purchasing power. If he succeeds in establishing this point, that also will elevate his place in history.
Obama is the first President in a long time to put an end to endless wars that cannot be won. Limiting American involvement, in aiding other countries fighting internal terrorism, to non combat roles, is a huge change in American Foreign policy. Using paid American mercenaries to fight freedom battles via voluntary armies is an embarrassing abuse of our own citizens, especially when these kind of wars helped the Cheneyites of our country become quite wealthy. The average American family is not helped by defense budgets which dwarf our domestic needs. This reversal of policy by Obama will also help elevate his place in history.
Obama has correctly focused on our primary economic shortcoming as the rapidly growing disparity between the very rich and everyone else. He has understood this situation, has addressed it as wrong, but for whatever reasons, he has been unable, or slow, to move forcefully on the problem. There is a lot of money behind the power to keep the system rigged in favor of the wealthy. In this area, what Obama genuinely seeks, is stuck in neutral.
Rather than try to identify every positive policy Obama has championed to give everyone rights that others already have, and level the playing field for the less fortunate of our citizens, the above examples serve to elevate the point being made. And that point is this: With every one of the policy changes listed above, there will be some who will become irate. There are some who are not interested in fairness for all, but want to retain privileges for themselves at the expense of others, and these privileges have been long standing. Breaking cultural and economic barriers is not easy, and are rarely cheered at the time being implemented. It takes time for any pat on the back.
Perhaps his last two years as a lame duck President with a hostile Congress will put an end to further changes by Obama. History is likely to be kind to Obama but that is a difficult accomplishment to define. All of the above achievements are based on the realities of today. The future is determined by evolutionary time, not our current sense of time. None of the issues which are going to determine the future are being addressed by either political party. Human overpopulation, the major force behind all the problems now facing human societies everywhere, is not even on the table. Responsible reproduction is not even a topic of discussion, let alone acted on. Climate change is vaguely on the table but the human activities which are behind climate change have taken many decades to begin to have an impact and cannot be reversed quickly. In a global economy, no economic prosperity can be achieved for the masses of people without global minimum wages. And no society, no matter the form of government, can avoid chaos with such a huge disparity between the wealth of a few and the wealth of the many. Neither party has gotten any handle on this yet.
At any rate, it just seems that human overpopulation is destined to trigger yet another major evolutionary correction. We already have caused a major species extinction rate which is starting to rank up there with the 5 or 6 times this kind of extinction rate occurred in past evolutionary corrections. Climate change is about to follow. And let’s not forget that the kind of vicious and senseless violence pitting different groups of humans against others is going to spread as everyone begins to fight for survival. The trough size cannot appreciably grow, but the number of those trying to feed from the same trough is growing in an exponential fashion. Humans do not have the intellect to really predict the future, and that being so, it may be meaningless to talk about how history will judge Obama. If the human species survives an evolutionary correction, only then can there be any historical judgement.
This past election was more like a brawl in a ghetto playground. The winners are left standing, but absolutely nothing has been solved. And each side prepares diligently for the next brawl, as if who wins the brawl changes much about life in the ghetto. This is kind of a sad state of affairs.
Thus, if we are to be painfully honest, the immediate future for humanity looks very scary. The long term future for the evolutionary process looks right on track as it always has been. All any of us every got was the opportunity, by chance, to be a participant in the this process. Humans have an inherent ethical sense (the Golden Rule) and this has improved over time just as physical traits improve. There is no reason to fear that evolution is going to leave a sense of ethics behind. Evolutionary advancements of the major kind, are rarely lost, but after corrections, come back stronger than ever.
Obama is more like Lincoln that any other President. Lincoln too, was figuratively crucified during his time as President. Only with hindsight did he rise to the level of appreciation he now receives. Secretary Steward once remarked, after watching Lincoln stand firm for the right, as best he understood the right, that “he (Lincoln) is the best of us (in the cabinet)”. Whenever a leader fights for what is best for all, his support goes down as more and more of those fighting for what is best for themselves become furious that the needs of those less fortunate are are being met via sacrifice from everyone.
