Shortly after Obama's election I began to become disappointed with many of his policies, appointments, and approaches. While there were signs of hope early on, it soon seemed to devolve into business as usual. Early on I began writing down some of the things that disappointed me. Little did I know how far reaching my list was to become.
In my opinion, as an overview of Barack Obama's presidency, although he has done some good things, in most cases they were severely compromised by his lack of fighting for them, or they have been severely undermined by the fact that the structure of the government and its priorities and its support of corporate greed and destruction have not changed and remain upside down, which he has for the most part supported and promoted.
Obama and his supporters have complained that the progressives want too much too fast. That's not it. Legitimate complications and conflicts among politicians is one thing but backroom shady deals with big money interests putting their profits ahead of the welfare of the people is something else. And he has consistently done that.
A line from a Martin Luther King speech strikes me as perfect for the Obama administration.
"True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. "
As Obama throws crumbs to us in the form of a smattering of social and environmental progress, he reinforces dramatically the "edifice" that creates the woes that compound social and economic injustice, increase hate in the world, and destroy the planet.
The real importance of this compilation is that facts are needed to counter the phenomenon of Obama floating through his presidency while good-hearted Democrats were asleep. With his charisma and message of hope and change, the vast majority of Democrats who were not inclined to take the effort to really see what was happening, relied on the mainstream media for their information, and remained Obama supporters.
In the "liberal" media Obama was heroic, struggling against an insane Republican party. We were sold the idea that Obama did what he could, fighting against the Republican resistance. Fact of the matter is that Obama was adamantly pro-war, pro-empire, pro-corporate, and pro-American Exceptionalism.
This Democratic torpor, the Obama Denial Syndrome, was the first stage of the malady that gave rise to the next stage, Trump Denial Syndrome, which led Democrats to spend the first 3 years of Trump's presidency focusing on Russiagate, a fantasy packaged by the Democratic Party and the Deep State, instead, again, of focusing on what is really going on, on what Trump is really doing. Also many seem to harbor the idea that if we can just get rid of Trump and replace him with a Democrat, then we can get back to the good old days of business as usual.
So, let's look at the reality of Barack Obama's good old days.
