The Hope and Change Con?

A study finds 60% of Americans don’t have enough savings to pay for unexpected car repairs or medical emergencies

The media machine is so heavily focused nowadays on Hillary’s scandals and Trump’s shenanigans that we’re overlooking a milestone: the curtains are drawing on what is arguably one of the worst presidencies in US history. Eight years ago, the entire world watched with bated breath as Barack Obama assumed office, pledging to end the “failed policies” of his predecessor and uproot the “failed system” that produced such policies. Today these expectations have been completely turned on their head — it would be grand farce if it weren’t so tragic.

For instance, Obama was the ‘peace candidate’, the one who would end wars and heal the nation. But, as the NYT discovers, Obama has now been at war longer than any other president in US history. Likewise, Obama’s victory as the first American-African president was an acclaimed milestone for race relations. But today race relations have been set back decades and Islamophobia and anti-Semitism are surging exponentially.



Consider Obama’s record on human rights: one of the first steps he took upon getting into office was to backtrack on his own fervent vows to investigate and stop CIA torture in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo. Over 100 detainees had died in US custody, several in truly horrific circumstances. For instance, Gul Rahman was beaten, stripped, shackled to a wall at very low temperatures where he froze to death. Manadel al-Jamadi was beaten, shackled, and with five broken ribs, couldn’t breathe and died. An investigating army general concluded there was “no doubt” war crimes had been committed — the real question was would there be an accounting?

Not only did the Obama Administration promptly give blanket immunity to torture practices, but, as Wikileaks reveals, went to great length, in close partnership with Republicans, to ensure other countries drop their own investigations. And they secured John Kiriakou — the CIA agent who blew the whistle on torture — two and a half years in prison. These actions — more befitting Stalinist Russia than a Nobel Peace laureate — may draw to mind Noam Chomsky’s famous observation that Obama lacks a “moral center”.

Obama’s war on whistleblowers is another stark contradiction of his promise to create an “unprecedented level of openness in government”. The Obama Administration has prosecuted eight whistleblowers — more than double the amount under all previous US presidents combined. Moreover, whereas all previous whistleblower sentences together amount to a mere 24 months of jail time, Obama secured a whopping 526 months for his lot. The bulk of this is due to Chelsea Manning. And it doesn’t include the tribulations of Julian Assange and Edward Snowden.

We see this same disparity in Obama’s claim of running “the most transparent administration in history”. Around 65 per cent of surveyed White House journalists believe Obama is the “least press-friendly” president. The administration has been very aggressive in harassing the press, and prosecuting reporters, even going so far as monitoring their phone calls. NYT reporter James Risen dubs the administration “the greatest enemy of press freedom that we have encountered in at least a generation”. Leonard Downie Jr., executive editor at The Washington Post considers it “the most aggressive I’ve seen since the Nixon administration”.

The litmus test though for any president is the economy — how has Obama done on that front? “By almost every economic measure,” he commented this June, “America is better off than when I came here at the beginning of my presidency.” Americans would beg to differ.

The US is experiencing its weakest economic recovery since the Second World War. For 10 years in a row now, US real GDP growth has been less than three per cent (the last time this happened was a four-year run during the Great Depression). Interestingly this makes Obama the only president in US history not to deliver even a single year of growth exceeding three per cent. Obama’s average is estimated at 1.55 per cent real GDP growth — making his the fourth-worst presidency on record.

To appreciate how truly dismal these growth figures are, consider that by the time Obama exits he will have added around $8 trillion to the US national debt. Not only is this double the figure of George W Bush — whom Obama famously criticised as “irresponsible” and “unpatriotic” for his debt management — but it is also more debt than all the US presidents before Obama put together.

And on the ground the figures are abysmal. Joblessness today — as measured by labour force participation — with more than 94 million Americans without work, is near a 38-year record low. The middle class has been eviscerated over the past decade. Median household incomes have stagnated and are well below 1999 levels. The Pew Research Center finds that for the first time the middle class is no longer the majority class. The homeownership rate — which peaked in 2004 — has plunged to its lowest level in 50 years; a stunning 32 per cent of young adults today live with their parents, the highest percentage since the Great Depression.

Poverty is skyrocketing. A study finds that 60 per cent of Americans don’t have enough savings to pay for unexpected car repairs or medical emergencies. Young adults are increasingly turning to casual prostitution arrangements (‘sugar dating’) to pay off rent, bills and student loans, a trend reminiscent of the Soviet collapse. Several major cities are wrestling with homelessness; last year Los Angeles, Portland and Hawaii declared an official state of emergency to combat it. One in seven Americans today is on food stamps, another near record. The national suicide rate has climbed to its highest level in 30 years — Americans are now twice more likely to die from suicide than homicide.

Of course, there is no question that Obama inherited a grand mess from Bush. But it is equally apparent that over eight years, things have got far far worse and he hasn’t implemented any meaningful policies for change. And, truth be told, this was expected — Obama’s economic team included luminaries such as Timothy Geithner (who oversaw the massive Bush-era banking bailouts) and Larry Summers (well-known for disposing of the Glass-Steagall Act). Small wonder that Obama’s bitterly disillusioned mentor, Cornel West, describes his former protege as a “mascot of Wall Street oligarchs”, a “puppet of corporate plutocrats”.

So what went wrong? Eight years ago, Obama emerged as the exact opposite of the buffoonish Bush; more than just charming and eloquent, he was genuinely likeable. Was the “Hope” and “Change” all a con? Obama’s fans maintain he was constantly handicapped by the Republicans. Left-leaning folks like Chris Hedges, Alexander Cockburn, Ralph Nader, etc. vigorously disagree. Noam Chomsky particularly claims no disappointment in the least; he believed Obama was an “opportunist” right from the start.

In the books, Obama will likely be remembered as the triumph of spectacle over substance, a politician who perfected the art of the sell, the Hollywoodisation of the White House. Indeed his presidential campaign was so magical it won top advertising awards: the Ad Age’s 2008 Marketer of the Year award (ahead of Apple!) as well as two awards at the prestigious Cannes Lions International Advertising Awards. Imagine that!

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2016.

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