To the Editor:
As Barack Obama visits Martha’s Vineyard for the last time as president, it may be a good time to reflect on his legacy. Despite enthusiastic support from the media, Hollywood, and the Nobel Prize committee, facts suggest that history will be tough on him. He is our first black president, and that is noteworthy, but he should be judged on his accomplishments rather than the color of his skin. This is my review of his record.
President Obama promised to undo the mistakes the previous administration made overseas, but that has proved elusive. Our foreign policy is disorganized; our allies are confused, our enemies emboldened. From the ongoing bloodbath and refugee crisis in Syria to a lawless Libya and Yemen, to Russia and Iraq, events have spun out of control. Clearly, his “lead from behind” policy failed. ISIS thrives even after Mr. Obama declared them a junior varsity terror squad in a post-terror age. With multiple attacks in the U.S. and abroad, our president still cannot admit that “radical Islam” is the primary source of global terror. His controversial Iranian nuclear agreement was a dangerous deal with the devil, which will not deter their bomb program while funding their terror networks in the Middle East and beyond.
Things are not going well within our borders either. The president’s divisive style appeared early in the 2008 campaign, and continued as his supporters mocked and intimidated those who did not agree with them. A divide-and-conquer strategy yielded two victories, but at a heavy cost. Ignoring a long history of bipartisanship on major legislation, Mr. Obama imposed Obamacare in his first term without a single Republican vote. As predicted, it is unpopular with most Americans. Insurers are dramatically raising rates or are pulling out altogether (15 of 24 Obamacare co-ops have closed, leaving hundreds of thousands without any coverage).
In his second term, Barack Obama promised to rule by the pen and the telephone, implementing controversial policies and secret deals without congressional debate or approval. This strategy has eroded trust between the people and their government. The first batch of internal DNC emails posted by WikiLeaks show how the party rewards big donors with special access to the president and other top officials. (Obama broke all records in 2012 by raising over $1 billion.)
The perverse culture in Washington has alienated and frustrated average Americans, leaving us with a growing sense of helplessness and cynicism. This goes a long way toward explaining the popularity of outsiders like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. Not surprisingly, nearly 75 percent of Americans think we are on the wrong track.
Mr. Obama leaves a trail of blown budgets and record debt. He has drastically increased the size of the federal government. Regulations have exploded, costing the economy $1.9 trillion annually. Median income for the middle class has steadily dropped since 2008, while the ranks of the poor continue to grow. Women have lost ground, with over 2 million more slipping into poverty. The president’s progressive agenda has weakened the recovery, a hollow recovery, now the longest since the Great Depression. The economy is averaging only 2.1 percent growth, and the labor participation rate has fallen steadily during the Obama years to a meager 62.7 percent.
Power is centralized in the White House, where dissent is unwelcome, which has led to a number of unusually partisan decisions and scandals, from the Fast and Furious debacle to the crisis at the VA, Hillary Clinton’s private email system, political targeting by the IRS, and the Benghazi coverup. By politicizing government, President Obama has further battered our faith in it. We learned from an explosive New York Times story just this May how the Obama administration resorts to Orwellian tactics to manipulate the press. The corrosive effect of his hyper-partisanship will haunt us long after he has left office.
A new Rasmussen Reports poll finds that 60 percent of voters think that race relations have gotten worse under Barack Obama. Our public schools are failing yet another generation of minority children. Violent crime is rising dramatically in our big cities (Chicago had more than 2,000 shootings and 315 murders through July 4). The country seems battered and dangerously adrift as the Obama presidency winds down. How did it get this bad in just eight years?
By any measure, this uniquely polarizing man has failed to live up to his promise of hope and change. Instead, Mr. Obama leaves the nation vulnerable and divided. His successor will have a lot of work to do to heal the wounds and bind the nation back together again.
Peter Robb
Holliston and Oak Bluffs
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