Obama’s presidency: 8 years well spent?
Barack Obama will be remembered as the first African American president, who, like his predecessors, has had his ups and downs. Whether his legacy will be viewed upon favorably by historians, only time can tell.
January 25, 2017
PRO Obama’s presidency
History will remember Barack Obama as the first minority elected to the highest office in the nation. His key legislative accomplishments may be undone (Trump has already vowed to repeal Obama care), but his standing as a symbol of achievement to millions of Americans will provide hope and encouragement for generations to come.
Ultimately, a major part of Obama’s legacy will be his ability to demonstrate grace, humility and humor even when faced with hatred. When faced with unfounded criticism, Obama did not respond with bitterness and ad-hominem attacks, but with dignity and respect.
Obama has set a great example for all Americans, and he should be able to leave office free of regrets and proud of the job he has accomplished.
Character isn’t the only aspect of Obama’s presidency that sets him apart. His policies in society, economics and environment will have lasting impacts. When Obama took office in 2009, the economy was facing the worst recession since the Great Depression. By signing the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Obama preserved and created millions of jobs. Under Obama, 11.3 million jobs were created, and while the unemployment rate peaked at 10 percent in 2010, it is currently at 4.9 percent.
In addition, Obama will be remembered for his finalization of the Clean Power Plan created in 2015, which sets a standard for carbon emission in existing power plants, and consequently will lower carbon pollution by 32 percent by 2030. He was also an important leader in negotiating the 2015 Paris Agreement, in which 197 countries agreed to reduce carbon emission.
Furthermore, The Affordable Care Act, also referred to as Obamacare, has been a much debated issue, and while it is not a perfect plan, the number of people that it has benefitted outweigh its negative aspects. Signed in 2010, Obamacare provided healthcare to more than 20 million Americans who would otherwise not have been able to afford it. Since it was signed, the uninsured rate in America has decreased from 15.7 percent to 8.6 percent. By reducing healthcare costs, Obama care will also lower the budget deficit in the next 10 years by $143 billion.
Obama’s major accomplishments were primarily domestic, although he did make foreign impacts as well. Most notable are the assassination of Osama bin Laden and the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq involvement. In 2015, Obama made a deal with Iran which limited their nuclear program, ultimately stabilizing the globe by preventing Iran from advancing its nuclear weapons program.
Obama’s uninvolvement with foreign nations was one of the few low points of his presidency and arguably allowed for the rise of ISIS. Some also connect Obama’s inactiveness to his broken vow to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. But while Obama’s decision may have had some consequences, his choices were all with the intention of protecting America from entering another catastrophic war.
Obama may not have accomplished as much as he could have during his time in office. However, a lot of his efforts were hindered not by his own incompetence, but by the Republican Party that refused to compromise and instead spent all of their efforts trying to stop anything that Obama tried to accomplish.
CON Obama’s presidency
Eight years ago, Barack Obama entered the scene with the burden of the world on his shoulders, the nation suffering from an economic meltdown.
And he delivered. According to journalist Brad Tuttle of Time Magazine, Obama has managed to reduce the national unemployment rate more significantly than Ronald Reagan did after a recession. He also brought a solid net total of 11.3 million jobs in his term (Ronald Reagan created 15.9 million jobs in comparison). Yet at the same time, he is criticized for doing nothing to stop domestic companies from moving jobs overseas.
As for social policy, Obama did not deliver on his promise to unify the country–in fact, he seems to have done the opposite. More than ever, the country is divided on social, economical, and political issues. This isn’t to say that Obama is the cause of division. However, the very fact that Obama ultimately left the office with the country more fractured than before despite his inspiring speeches on working together, is a failure in one of his campaign’s main selling points.
And for immigration policies, Obama has drawn much criticism for deporting a record 2.5 million immigrants throughout his eight-year term, more deportations than any of his predecessors have done. In addition, contrary to Obama’s claims that felons and criminals are the only illegal immigrants being targeted, research by The Marshall Project reveals that since Obama’s announcement of new immigration policies on November 2014, about two-thirds of the 300,000 immigrants deported afterwards had no criminal conviction.
The main speck in Obama’s legacy, however, lies in his foreign policy.
Lyndon B. Johnson’s legacy was tarnished by his involvement in the Vietnam War, Jimmy Carter by his inability to deal with the Iranian capturing of 52 American hostages, and George W. Bush by his entering into two largely unsuccessful wars.
Obama recognized this. As a result,to avoid involvement in a disastrous war, he made it his priority to reduce American involvement. The Syrian Civil War, for instance, was a war that Obama chose to avoid, but by doing so completely, he let Russia take control and reinstill Assad into power after destroying the rebels in Aleppo.
Afterwards, Assad negotiated a deal to end the war, and America was noticeably left out. Indeed, Obama had broken his promise of removing Assad–even when Assad started chemical warfare, an action Obama deemed to be the crossing line.
It was this inaction that also led in part to the rise of the Islamic State. While Obama did not directly create it, the policies of his administration were slow to respond to ISIS’s initial rise, and so the problem exacerbated. Even now, with all of Obama’s energy concentrated on countering ISIS, ISIS still remains able to attack various parts of Europe and ignite acts of terrorism (though very few) on American soil.
As David Greenberg of foreignpolicy.com concludes, “in correcting for Bush’s overly aggressive foreign policy, Obama went too far in avoiding confrontations, and that in that halting and hesitant approach he wound up neither strengthening his country’s influence and status nor its power to bring about its ultimate goal of a safer and more peaceful world.”