Why aren't Democratic presidential candidates loudly invoking President Obama's many victories and clamoring that they are the one to further advance what he has started?
I have to say I am very pleased with the way things are headed in our country under President Obama. Sure, I would like progressive change to happen faster and more broadly and to feel like this change is a permanent part of the American landscape. But in six-and-a-half years, so much has been advanced for the better.
Then why are we not hearing presidential candidates say, “I will work hard to move the country in the same direction that President Obama has set for us”? What are they afraid of? I would vote for a candidate who boldly proclaims they will bear the Obama torch forward. I suspect many voters would be motivated also by a vigorous embrace of our current president and his victories.
Vast progressive improvements have occurred, one-by-one, since President Obama took office in 2009. Here is a big list of the mileposts that we may have forgotten, or perhaps that we now take for granted. President Barack Obama:
* Saved the US auto industry with a rescue plan that has them up and humming again, with 400,000 new American jobs created
* Turned around the Great Economic Meltdown that George W. Bush placed in his lap. Obama instituted policies that created millions of new jobs and reduced unemployment numbers from George W’s double digits, to the current 5.3%, the lowest since 2008
* Repealed the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ban on gays and lesbians in the US military
* Ordered Justice Department attorneys to fight — all the way to the Supreme Court — bans on same sex marriage and the anti-LGBT “Defense of Marriage Act.” They did, they won, and now civil benefits are being extended to same-sex couples nationwide.
* Replaced an African-American Attorney General with another African-American Attorney General to keep our Justice Department laser-focused on Civil Rights and reducing racial inequities and injustice in law enforcement
* Advocated and signed health care policies that give over 7 million impoverished Americans access to health care, and another 13.3 million affordable health insurance. Plus, 30 million children are now covered under government health care programs.
* Continues, after every slaughter of innocents, to plead for new gun control legislation, like mandatory background checks
* Signed The Fair Pay Act for Women of 2009. Worked hard recently on similar legislation, but was blocked by Republicans
* Placed Two Women on the Supreme Court. If you are counting, Justices Sotomayor and Kagan number “Woman Three” and “Woman Four” out of 112 justices in our nation’s history.
* Vigorously fought cold-hearted efforts to reduce food stamps (SNAP) for the nation’s most impoverished and hungry
* Increased paid paternity/maternity leave for federal workers to six weeks, plus another six weeks of unpaid leave. Also he has advocated similar plans for all American workers
* Guided the Federal Communications Commission as they approved keeping the internet open, accessible and equally available to all.
* Banned the Bush-Cheney torture techniques. And returned America’s integrity as an upholder of the Geneva Conventions on humane prisoner treatment
* Closed secret detention facilities throughout the world. Has pushed to close Guantanamo Bay
* Ended the Iraq War
* Ended the Afghanistan War
* Normalized relations with our neighbor, Cuba
* Worked to reduce nuclear weapon proliferation world-wide
* Capably balanced multiple shifting interests during the Mid-East and African “Arab Spring” in 2010 and 2011
* Reshaped US foreign policy away from mindless and costly and enemy-producing aggression …………and toward diplomacy and non-military options
* Increased opportunities for veterans and availability of care for veterans nationwide
* Expanded treatment and benefits for the mentally ill.
* Proposed two years of free community college for anyone
* Oversaw a tripling of US wind energy and US solar energy production
* Broadened clean water regulations
* Increased US oil production by 70%, and dramatically lowered our dependence on foreign oil
* Increased funding by 10 percent for America’s National Parks and National Forests
* Asked for a review of capital punishment policies after high-profile failures
* Reduced sentencing guidelines for drug offenders. Hence, the Federal prison population is down for the first time in decades
* And reduced the federal budget deficit by nearly one-half
Have I agreed with all President Obama has done? Nope. (Drilling in the Arctic comes to mind.) Is there more work to be done? Certainly! To name a few — Corrosive wealth inequality, ongoing racial injustice, inadequate gun laws, drone warfare, climate change and the evil criminalizing of immigrants.
Still, we are a better country because of Obama’s tenure, living closer now to the promises of our American ideals.
So candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders and others are out stumping, offering their ideas for our country. Many of those proposals are excellent. Often though, their ideas are the next logical step in the movement our current president has begun (universal health care, cutting middle class taxes, tuition-free public universities). So why not just say it? Why not announce “I want to be the heir to Barack Obama’s legacy” and seize the crown?
In 17 months, one of the greatest presidents in our history will be concluding his dignified run. Millions will shed tears that day as he leaves Washington, D.C. He has been patient and level-headed, courageous and eloquent. We have been moved forward as a country. I am still waiting for a candidate to stand on President Obama’s broad shoulders and proclaim that they see what he has seen.