The legacy of Barack Obama

Barack Obama's presidency has been over for a month now.

Many worried that being the first African-American president would make him a target of assassination attempts. While there were threats, as well security breaches at the White House, Barack Obama survived all  8 years without anyone shooting at him or even getting close enough to physically harm him in any way. This is a testament to the Secret Service's security measure as well as America's overall acceptance of an African-American leader.

Some might still dispute America's acceptance of having an African-American leader by pointing out the racially charged memes, jokes and comments about him, as well the continued abusive policing against African-Americans, and most of all, the election of Donald Trump man whose main appeal is anti-immigrant resentment.

While it may be a while before the USA is ready for Mexican-American or a Muslim-American president, overall, the USA has proven ready for an African-American president by voting for him twice.

But there's more to Barack Obama than just being the 1st African-American president. For one thing, he was a president, meaning he had major decisions that affected the lives of many. Let's talk about them

1. Health Care

Health care has long been one of the biggest expenses that people worry about.  Millions are one injury or illness away from being totally bankrupt.  Medical procedures don't come cheap, doctors want to be paid for all the education they received, and medications aren't made for free. 

Some believed that a "single payer" health care system is a solution. However, "single payer" is just a euphemism for government monopoly in health care.  Government Monopolies restrict choices in ways that not even the most heartless corporations could. 

So "single payer" wasn't going to be a feasible solution.

However, there were massive concerns about the following

• insurance denying coverage to new enrollees who had pre-existing conditions 
• insurance charging men & women different rates
• insurances not covering certain procedures
• younger people not buying insurance, depriving insurance companies of revenue

Any law that just stated "no denying insurance based on pre-existing conditions, no gender disparities in insurance rates, everyone buys insurance" would've passed easily.

But politicians being what they are, like to add exceptions, privileges and other nonsense to the laws they made. Politicians want to satisfy their donors who want special treatment.   So what could've been a simple-worded law became a thousand-plus page law.

This type of stuff pisses off a lot of people, They can see that there is something to hide. 

Learn more about how corrupt this law-making procces is at
http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2011/06/your-senator-doesnt-want-to-read-bill.html

Supporters of Obama's plans call their opponents "racists", as if disagreement is racist, as if a few opponents who post racist memes represent those who have legitimate concerns about a thousand-plus page bill.

Obama promised if you like your coverage, you can keep it, That promise was broken. 

Also, premiums went up. After all, if insurance companies have to cover more situations, they'll need to charge more. Services aren't free. Before  ACA was passed my yearly increases in health insurance was relatively tiny compared to the rate increases that occurred after ACA became law.

Based on all the health insurance (Kaiser Permanente) and bank records I have kept, here are my health insurance rates over the years

2007 - $86.00
2008 - $90.00    (just a $4 increase)
2009 - $96.00     (just a $6 increase)
2010 - $104.00    (an $8 increase)
(note: ACA aka Obamacare goes into effect)
2011 - $126.25  (whoah, notice the steeper increases..... a $22 increase)
2012 -$157.82    (again, another steep increase     . this time by $31)
2013 - $197.27   (again, another steep increase................ about $40 increase)
 2014- $227.31   (again, another steep increase        up by about $30)
2015 - $231.28    (increase finally slows down)
2016 - $234.06
2017 - $243.94

However, being that ACA did end insurance restrictions on pre-existing conditions, and did add subsidized services, many people were helped by ACA.

Therefore, Donald Trump's attend to abolish ACA face serious backlash, even from some of his voters who wanted ACA reformed instead of abolished.

Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders wants more mandated government benefits without thinking much of the costs of the employers.

https://townhall.com/columnists/jeffjacoby/2017/02/15/what-obamacares-drafters-could-have-learned-from-a-hairdresser-n2286409

The subject was the burden imposed by the Affordable Care Act on small businesses — especially those with fewer than 50 employees, the threshold at which the law's employer mandate kicks in. Audience member LaRonda Hunter, the owner of five hair salons in Forth Worth, posed a question:

"We employ between 45 and 48 employees," she began, explaining that she wanted to open more salons and employ more people. "However, under Obamacare, I am restricted, because it requires me to furnish health insurance if I employ more than 50 people. Unfortunately, the profit margin in my industry is very thin, and I'm not a wealthy person. . . . My question to you, Senator Sanders, is how do I grow my business? How do I employ more Americans without either raising the prices to my customers or lowering wages to my employees?" 

Here was a real-world example of Obamacare's impact. By compelling companies with 50 or more workers to offer health insurance to everyone they employ, the law creates a powerful disincentive for business owners to expand beyond 49 employees. A business owner like Hunter faces an impossible dilemma: either give up on growing her enterprise, or try to make ends meet by charging customers more and paying workers less.

2) Drug & crime policy

Obama once smoked marijuana and even cocaine during high school. He eventually quit as most people do. He was lucky he wasn't caught or he would've been locked up for a long time.

However, those who are unlucky enough to get caught end up being sentenced to years in jail unless they "snitch" on who else was involved in that drug's distribution, which can be very dangerous thing to do. Plus many users and low level pushers don't have much information to give to the police, whereas those ranked higher get smaller time since they have much more information to give to police.

Barack Obama hinted at reforming the justice system. The problem was he moved way too slow.  He was worried about being seen as "soft on crime", something that hurt the Democrats in the past. Being that Mike Dukakis lost because of the "soft on crime" label in 1988, Bill Clinton passed harsher sentencing laws in the 1990s to show everyone that Democrats can be tough on crime too!

However, by the 2000s, there has been many news stories of low-level offenders being stuck in jail for decades. Many activists have been lobbying for criminal justice reform. However, the trauma of the 1988 elections was still on Obama's mind as he refused to aggressively push for a more lenient drug policy the way he did for his health care policy.

Only within the last few months of his presidency did he start pardoning and/or commuting sentences many low-level offenders, people who waited and suffered 8 years of Obama doing nearly nothing!

http://reason.com/blog/2017/01/19/obama-squeezes-in-one-more-round-of-comm

One last act of mercy before hitting the road: President Barack Obama today announced one more final round of federal sentence commutations.

He's going out big: He granted 330 commutations to people in federal prison primarily for drug-related crimes. That's the most he's granted in one day. Combined with his Monday announcement commuting sentences for 209 people, that's more than 500 people granted mercy in his final week. His overall final total stands at 1,715 (and 212 pardons), meaning almost a third of his commutations came at the very end. And the overwhelming majority of his commutations came in the final two years of his second term (check out the chart here).

 The saddest part of Obama's legacy was that he was too timid to do what he knew was the right thing: 

• to push a more lenient drug policy, 
• to end the militarised drug enforcement policy!
• to legalized marijuana on the federal level

3) foreign policy

Barack Obama, was a longtime critic of the Iraq War.  He was an opponent back in 2003 when nearly everyone was ready to go to war and overthrow Saddam Hussein. All the big name Democrats (ie. Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Joe Biden, and more) were supporting President Bush's plan to invade Iraq and overthrow Hussein once and for all!

However, at the time, Obama was an Illinois state legislator representing Chicago's South Side. He represented a population that was skeptical of a militarized foreign policy, and therefore took no political risk to oppose the war.

By the time he became a national celebrity, the country's enthusiasm for the war in Iraq faded.

And by 2008, Barack Obama was seen as "ahead of his time" for his initial opposition to the war, whereas Hillary Clinton was seen as just another follower instead of a leader. Therefore Barack Obama became the nominee and Hillary got the consolation prize as Secretary of State.

Obama kept his promise to withdraw troops from Iraq, while sending more troops to Afghanistan to fight Al Quaida. The troops finally found Osama bin Laden in nearby Pakistan.  With that, Obama showed that he wasn't a foreign policy wuss.

However, things were getting worse in Syria and Libya, and there was calls to "do something", with Hillary Clinton, with her hawkish tendencies, leading the call!

US sent warplanes to support Libyan rebels ready to overthrow Muamar Qaddafi! Qaddafi was overthrowned, but just like what happened in Iraq after Hussein's overthrow, there was a power vacuum and chaos!  There was an attack on the US embassy in Benghazi and the US government wasn't honest about the circumstances.

Obama announced support of the rebels wanting to overthrow of Syrian dicator Bashar al-Assad. Assad is still in power, but there is massive chaos in what was once a 2nd-world country with a stable middle class. No there are million refugees escaping towards what they hope to be safer grounds!

The situations in Syria and Libya shows the limit of American intervention.

The situations in Syria and Libya shows the limit of  "doing something",

IF the US government is going to "do something", it should either do it with maximum strength! If not, don't even bother "doing something"



Obama could've done more to withdraw troops from trouble spots and should've told allies in Europe, Asia and Middle East that  it's time to pay their own defense and handle their business without US help!

http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2011/07/defend-america-1st.html
http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2011/10/make-rich-pay.html

It's ironic that the very erratic Donald Trump actually gives a rare note of sanity when he stated that the US has been taken advantage of by its allies who don't pay a fair share of their defenses!

At the same time, Trump is going to fall into the same trap as Obama did! Trump talks about "bombing the **** out of ISIS" and is asking for Russian help!  In other words, another quagmire for the US!

4) race relations

Obama's victory in 2008 was seen as a sign that America's race relations was improving, that race was no longer an obstacle to achievement!

Yes, there were haters who thought Obama should go back to Africa, even though he had never lived there and only visited there a few times in his life!  Donald Trump was experimenting with pimping racial resentments by demanding Obama show his Hawaii birth certificate, even though he already did!

But still, Obama won the popular vote and the Electoral College votes in 2008 & 2012.


However, one man's success doesn't mean everyone is equally benefiting.


Being that Obama didn't do enough to reduce the militarization of police, the police still do what they do, which is to over-react and go overboard when faced with opposition. And police still get the benefit of the doubt in court, allowing bully cops to get away with almost anything.


Incidents in Ferguson and Baltimore caused protests, riots and a movement called Black Lives Matter (BLM).  BLM felt that despite Obama's presidency, that most of American society still treat African-Americans with disrespect.

BLM was different from previous civil rights movements.  Whereas the civil rights movement of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton were male dominated and revolved around religion, BLM was a secular movement with more female leadership, and even LGBT leadership.  Whereas previous civil rights movements emphasized that the protesters dressed conservatively, BLM fashion statement was "anything goes, white man not going to like us either way".


BLM did their traditional marches, but also alienated potential allies by blocking traffic and screaming in coffee shops & libraries and shaming non-black patrons for not doing enough.

Meanwhile, there have been movements on college campuses against "cultural appropriation", "microaggressions" ( I HATE that word as you may learn at this link),  Halloween costumes as well as demands for "safe spaces".  Much of it is focused on forcing unearned guilt on European-Americans for doing anything, for even just existing.

Yes, Obama did take a strong stance against political correctness on campuses, demanding that students listen to opposing viewpoints. He also noted that people shouldn't take things so personally!

However, Obama should've also defended "cultural appropriation" being that he grew up in multi-cultural Hawaii as well as spent a few years in Indonesia!  Come on, a person from that background will know how silly this whining about "cultural appopriation" is, which is why he never criticized "cultural appropriation". But it would be classic if he said "hey, cultures always mixed, it's OK if Iggy Azalea does hip-hop or an Anglo wear a sombrero".

So unlike what the conservatives say, I don't blame Barack Obama for the "worsening race relations" because a president can only control so much!

Yes, Barack Obama wants "white America" to understand the pain of racism, but he never defended the excess of political correction, never defended the tactics of the Phony Justice Warriors.



Meanwhile, there is a Conservative Correctness movement of Donald Trump, Ann Coulter, Richard Spencer and Tomi Lahren, that screams rants against BLM, refugees and "illegals" that are truly poisoning race relations. These Alt-Right Fascists are the flip-side of the Phony Justice Warriors! I think those morons are just made for each other! Obama has nothing to do with either!

5) limits of political appeal

Barack Obama is a historic figure and will continue to be a political celebrity! He will be in high demand for a lucrative career in making speeches and writing books. 

At the same time, his appeal has its limits!

So while people love him, it doesn't mean they have the same love for his political party!

The Democrats have been in decline in both Congress and the state legislatures nationwide!

Meanwhile, his endorsement could only do so much to help Hillary Clinton.  She is her own person, a person isn't appealing beyond  her base of worshippers (who tend to be liberal women over the age of 40, as well as Hollywood/Manhattan limousine liberals).  She alienated younger liberals with her hawkish tendencies and her Wall Street ties.  They wanted radical change and were excited by Bernie Sanders, a man old enough to be their grandfathers.  

Democrats need to step their game up! Riding on Obama's coattails is no longer an electoral strategy! Time for new leaders to step up!