Hope, Change, and Other Myths of the Obama Years

“War makes money for the politically connected. While the flag-waving population remains proud of the service of their sons, brothers, husbands, fathers, cousins, wives, mothers and daughters, the smart boys who got the fireworks started are rolling in the mega-millions.” Paul Craig Roberts

My 15-year-old daughter asked me if I will miss President Obama. Before I could answer she said, “I am, he’s cool, and I like Michelle.”

I understand this sentiment, in the same way I understand the dewey-eyed coverage of the last days of the Obama Administration by the corporate media. Look, Obama is a cool head, eloquent as the day is long, smart, educated, and cautious, and Michelle is no lightweight. Without doubt the Obama’s are good, decent people, well-intentioned, thoughtful, and probably fun to hang out with. Unlike the Clinton run in the White House, the Obama Administration has been scandal free -- no questionable real estate deals, no weird family members to make excuses for, no bimbos or interns slipping out the service entrance at 3:00 a.m.

But how to explain to my daughter that Barack Obama was a tool of the oligarchs who own and run America, how to make her see that he was a staunch defender of free market ideology and American exceptionalism? How to explain that cool-head-Obama was a proponent of the cruel capitalism that breaks people and destroys towns? How to explain Obama’s role in expanding the failed War on Terror, the Tuesday get-togethers where Obama selected targets for deadly drone strikes in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Yemen? Like many people her age, my daughter isn’t even aware that America has been at war continuously for her entire lifetime. There are no images of dead Americans in body bags on the nightly news, no young people in the streets protesting America’s imperial wars. This isn’t 1968; young men are not being drafted and sent to fight in distant lands. This is the age of a professional, all-volunteer, standing military, much of it run by private corporations for profit and with an incentive to keep the wars going as long as possible. This is the age of off-the-books-war, where the enormous costs are hidden from public scrutiny.

How do I explain to my daughter that for most of the past eight years, Barack Obama has been the world’s preeminent arms dealer? Yes, the Nobel Peace prize winner has sought to secure peace by helping other nations prepare for war.

And then there’s the economy, Wall Street, and Obama’s dubious record of service and fealty to the bankers and hedge fund managers who played fast and loose and lost their asses and then turned to the government with their hands out. Obama and the Wall Street alumni he brought into his administration bailed out the bankers and let millions of American homeowners go under, most never to recover. So much for the justice of the “free” market. Obama nurtured and coddled and helped predatory capitalism flourish.

In the same way that Bill Clinton’s slavish devotion to financial system deregulation led to the collapse of 2008, Obama’s servitude to the oligarchs led to the ascendancy of Donald Trump, a faux-populist. Like Bill Clinton, Barack Obama did next to nothing to help American workers.

How do I explain to my daughter that the United States, home of the free, runs an offshore penitentiary on the island of Cuba, where suspected terrorists are held for years, decades even, without being formally charged or allowed to defend themselves? How do I tell her that the nation that prides itself on being a nation of laws routinely flouts international law? Obama, purveyor of saccharine hope and change (and yes, my girl, I bought the line in 2008 and cast my vote for the man), couldn’t make good on his campaign promise to shut Guantanamo down.

How do I explain that Obama squandered his opportunity to be an exceptional president in less than two years in office? The man had loads of popular support, his party controlled both houses of Congress, but instead of breaking with the Bush Junta that preceded him, Obama proceeded to dither and sound retreat at the first sign of Republican resistance. Obama’s caution and cowardice in the early years was manifest, and once the GOP realized they could stifle him with a cross look, the era of hope and change was done.

I don’t mean to be a downer, but I want my daughter to understand how this country actually works, and for whom, and why, rather than believe in the myths and magical thinking served up by the corporate media and its pundits and cheerleaders. To be a citizen in a real democracy means to question the powerful, question the status quo, question the conventional wisdom; it means understanding that the powerful are always trying to manipulate us, divide us, pit us against each other.  

So, the answer, my daughter, is no, I won’t miss Barack Obama.