U.S. Midterms: The
Sins of Obama - Real and Imagined (Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland)
"Obama -
who had promised to lessen inequality - has indeed been a disappointment. He
also has bad luck, because this year has been a bad one around the world.
Russia brazenly attacked Ukraine and annexed the Crimea; Muslim fanatics are
easily dismantling Iraq - which Americans had propped up - creating on its
ruins their self-proclaimed Caliphate; and most recently, Americans have begun
to fear that the Ebola epidemic, which has already killed 5,000 in West Africa,
also threatens them. For all these misfortunes Obama is blamed, even if it
remains highly questionable whether he could have done anything to prevent or more
effectively counteract them."
Washington: "I'm very excited that I could come here
and endorse the future Senator from Iowa, our friend Bruce Bailey!" declared
Michelle Obama during a political rally in Iowa. It is a statement that has
become yet another confirmation of the old truth that the word "friend"
is one of America's most abused.
If we don't know a person's name, can they actually be our
friend? The candidate's name is in fact "Braley,"
which the first lady acknowledged after nearly 15 minutes when the crowd began
correcting her. "Braley? I must be getting old!" was
her comment.
The incident in Iowa has another, gloomier aspect: this was
one of the more memorable events in the current campaign, which will end with Election
Day on Tuesday - November 4. Many journalists and columnists agree that these
are "the most boring elections in their lives."
The candidates for Congress - both Democrats and Republicans
- haven't offered Americans any new ideas; they have simply criticized their opponents.
Republicans have an easier task, since Barack Obama is evaluated positively by only
40 percent of voters.
At first, the president declared: "I'm not on the
ballot this fall, but my policies are." However, his party criticized him
for it, and since then, unwanted by anyone, he has locked himself away in the
White House and hasn't participated in the campaign (he appeared in several
closed-door fundraisers as a celebrity, where wealthy Democratic sympathizers gladly
paid tens of thousands of dollars to eat dinner with him).
This is peculiar since two years ago Obama won re-election under
far worse circumstances. Unemployment has since fallen below 6 percent, the
economy has been growing at a pace of about 4 percent for the last two quarters
and the budget deficit, for the first time since the beginning of the crisis six
years ago, is about to fall below three percent.
If Obama has done so well, why the bad
feelings? The simplest answer is that voters have simply lost patience.
If after four years they were able to forgive Obama and understand that rebounding
after the biggest slump in 80 years would not be speedy, after six years they
have had enough. Yes, general economic indicators are promising, but only the
wealthiest Americans are benefiting. The New York Stock Exchange is passing
all-time records, while the wages of the middle class - average Americans - are
(taking account of inflation) still lower than before the crisis.
So in this respect Obama - who had promised to lessen inequality
- has indeed been a disappointment. He also has bad luck, because this year has
been a bad one around the world. Russia brazenly attacked Ukraine and annexed
the Crimea; Muslim fanatics are easily dismantling Iraq - which Americans had
propped up - creating on its ruins their self-proclaimed Caliphate; and most
recently, Americans have begun to fear that the Ebola epidemic, which has
already killed 5,000 in West Africa, also threatens them. For all these misfortunes
Obama is blamed, even if it remains highly questionable whether he could have
done anything to prevent or more effectively counteract them.
Does that mean that the president is being criticized
unfairly? There is one point he is surely guilty of: he has contributed to a
dramatic division of America, although in his 2008 campaign he promised to
unite it.
The research
of scientists Keith Poole and Howard Rosenthal shows that the current
Congress is the most polarized since 1880. Republicans always vote as a single unit
against Democrats (and vice versa). However, the polarization applies not only
to professional politicians but to ordinary citizens. In 1960 five percent of
Republicans and four percent of Democrats said that they would not be pleased
if their sons or daughters married a sympathizer of the other party. Now 49 percent of Republicans and 33 percent of Democrats admit to
such feelings.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
Political sympathies invade even issues that should be
entirely apolitical. Fifty three percent of Democrats and only 12 percent of
Republicans think that 12 Years a Slave
- a film about slavery in the southern United States in the 19th century - deserved
to win an Oscar. Sixty eight percent of Democrats and only 26 percent of
Republicans agree that Los Angeles Clippers' owner Donald Sterling should have
been banned from the NBA for criticizing his mistress for bringing "too
many Blacks" to games.
The polarization has been worsening for years, but during
Obama's time in office it has dramatically accelerated. "The change"
he promised - among other things, the great reform of the health insurance
system which extended medical care to tens of millions of Americans - has provoked
popular resistance, which manifested in the form of the conservative Tea Party
movement within the Republican Party.
In these elections, Democrats will pay a price for the fact
that their president did something meaningful (good according to some, bad according
to others). Obama has been paying himself for quite some time - due to political
paralysis in Washington over the past two years, he has been unable to push
anything of importance through Congress.
As a consequence, historians will likely quarrel till the
end of the world over whether Obama had a right to introduce reforms which half
or nearly half of the population was sure to oppose.
