The Paradox of Historical Relevance and Political Realities

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Just because it happened, doesn't mean one should forget how momentous it was. It's easy to become jaded, having lived through such a momentous first, especially when it seems today we are continually surrounded by them. For example, in 2018 the United States Senate elevated Gina Haspel as the first woman to lead the Central Intelligence Agency. Categories replace qualities, personalities, and policies.

In spite of this, it should still be remembered that, in a country which was founded on slavery, treated African American citizens as second class until at least the 1970's, and still incarcerates and kills them at higher rate than other races, it was an earth shattering event when the United States elected its first African American president. Yet, for some citizens, it might not have been. I was initially uninspired by the enthusiasm around the Obama campaign, and didn't vote in the 2008 election. In my defense, I was at college, and lived in Massachusetts, which always votes Democratic (I have voted in every Presidential election and Midterm since 2012). It has required semi-recent articles by Ta-Nehisi Coates and his excellent writing in The Atlantic to convince me otherwise.

Of particular relevance, are the articles My President Was Black, I’m Not Black, I’m Kanye, and The First White President.

What Coates helped me realize (I hope this was his intention) was that President Barack Hussein Obama was one of the most important statesmen in the African American quest for equality, in the history of the United States. Only to be classed with other African Americans who have attained near mythic status in the United States; W. E. B. Du Bois, Fredrick Douglass, Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, and Malcolm X. Obama has attained the pinnacle of achievement which was denied to these other men, and there is finally an African American sharing the same mythos of Washington, Jefferson, or Lincoln.

It's perhaps not surprising then, that Coates said, “Over the next 12 years, I came to regard Obama as a skilled politician, a deeply moral human being, and one of the greatest presidents in American history.” It wouldn't be surprising for that to be a common sentiment, and Obama will rank above many contenders before, during, and after his Presidency, but his greatness is in question, because President Obama was mostly America as Usual. Especially in foreign policy (the one aspect the President has extensive control), Obama occupied a continuum between George W. Bush and Donald J. Trump.

It must be difficult for Coates (who is a much better writer than I am) to hold two contradictory ideas at once, or to even have avoided the issue, but there is no other way to describe it. President Bush began many atrocious policies, which Obama either maintained or enhanced, and Trump has escalated.

Let's begin with the Espionage Act. This act was created in 1917 to prosecute spies, but was almost immediately used to unjustly prosecute anti-war protesters, German-Americans, and socialists. In his eight years, President Bush prosecuted one man under the Act, Lawrence Franklin, for passing classified documents about Iran to Israel, an actual spy. There was also the Valerie Plame affair, a tangential issue, which would presage the Obama era. But Obama prosecuted whistle blowing on an unprecedented level. His administration indicted eight citizens, at least six of whom were attempting to unveil evidence of government negligence or corruption to the public. The administrations (Bush began, Obama escalated) advanced so far as to compel and threaten New York Times' reporter James Risen to reveal sources about his reporting. Since his inauguration, Trump has embraced Obama's legacy, and rolled it into a total war against whistle blowers, leakers, and the press they talk to.

George Bush embraced drone strikes as a simple solution to an intractable problem, for his War on Terror (cost six trillion dollars with no end in sight). But Obama increased drone strikes tenfold over his predecessor. The argument was, drones reduce the chance of death or injury to United States citizens, and they offer "surgical precision" to reduce civilian casualties. But no matter how you spin it, a drone drops a bomb, not a scalpel. The number of civilian deaths varies wildly depending on who one believes. 60, 130, 380, 800, or more, and if citizens of the United States cared how much and often our country murders innocents abroad, this would strongly impact Obama's legacy.

As a offshoot to the former point, is the murder and assassination of American citizens without trial by their own government. Obama is hardly the first President to murder citizens of the United States. Ordering American soldiers into an unjust, illegal, trumped up war, is unrecognized form of murder, as is the shooting of civilians protesting for justice, both of which have a long history in the United States. During his time as President, George W. Bush never ordered the assassination of a United States citizen, but he did compile a hit list, which included three Americans. On September 30, 2011, Anwar al-Awlaki, a United States citizen was assassinated by drone strike, on the orders of President Obama. Later the President murdered Anwar's 16 year old son. Will President Trump continue the devolution? Yes! In the first month of the Trump Presidency, Donald ordered a raid in Yemen, which killed at least 10 women and children, including Anwar al-Awlaki's eight year old daughter.

Of course, these raids wouldn't have been as necessary if the United States hadn't legitimized bloodthirsty dictators in the Middle East, or aided Saudi Arabia despite is brutal regime and invasion of Yemen. This article will constrain itself to dictators of the Middle East, though it could certainly point to others across the globe. The United States has long enabled Saudi Arabia. It would be wrong to criticize President Obama for initiating this policy, when he is the 13th President to meet the King (Trump makes fourteen). Yet, I often remember my mother say, “If you were elected President, and the last twelve had met with the leaders of a country who export terrorism and terrorize their own people, would you do it too?” Of course, we've seen President Trump elevate this deference to the Saudis to an absurd level. But as Trump lies about the importance of his arms agreement with Saudi Arabia while incredibly denying MbS' involvement in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, it's essential to remember Obama supplied them first (Interesting inside look: I initially supply a label to describe Jamal Khashoggi. First I put United States resident, then I replaced it with journalist. Ultimately, I realized they were both labels justifying why he shouldn't have been murdered, and the Saudi Arabia and the United States shouldn't be murdering anyone). Of course, while Trump believes a devastating blockade of Yemen by Saudi Arabia, resulting in a epidemic of starvation, is necessary for national security, Obama's support for the war had prevented a diplomatic solution.

President Obama also legitimized other dictators, particularly Egypt's Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. This monster overthrew the democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi in 2013. Morsi was elected after the Arab Spring ousted the corrupt and brutal dictator Hosni Mubarik. Initially found guilty of complicity in the deaths of protesters during Morsi's presidency, Mubarik's charges were dismissed in 2014, during El-Sisi's reign (President George W met with Mubarik in 2008). Mubarik was released from prison in 2017, with no pending charges. Morsi, after he was deposed, was abducted and then tried on a variety of charges. He is currently jailed, and has little hope of ever being released. Meanwhile, El-Sisi slaughtered more than a thousand protesters soon after the coup to consolidate his power. President Obama initially withheld weapons and foreign aid to Egypt, but eventually caved. In 2018, El-Sisi ordered the execution of 75 protesters who have survived the massacre, along with the imprisoning of others. He perpetrate these injustices without censure, because the United States under Obama abdicated its role of criticizing this authoritarian behavior. At the very least, Obama refused to meet El-Sisi, but Trump, again, has escalated the negligence of the United States, and after meeting El-Sisi praised the murderer, saying, “We agree on so many things. I just want to let everybody know in case there was any doubt that we are very much behind President El-Sisi. He's done a fantastic job in a very difficult situation.”

That seems like a sufficient beginning. Next week will continue looking at the policies which Bush began, Obama developed (or overlooked), and Trump escalated. Though Obama created a number of positive policies elevating him above his predecessor and successor, hopefully looking at these examples shows that he was often a stepping stone between them.

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