*Now that some time has passed since his successor took office, it seems fair to try to understand the legacy of United State’s first African-American President. While the world continues to swoon over the personality, the leader, as is usually the case, is a more complicated entity to understand.
Emerging from relative obscurity, Barack Obama surfaced as a beacon of hope and change. His leadership regarding some key issues of our time has been impressive. His policies, from healthcare reform to climate change, proved to be crucial and relevant, while his nuclear deal with Iran was an unimaginable feat. However, his promise of “fundamentally transforming” the United States was one which people are generally polarized on. His decision to pass his healthcare bill in face of strong opposition from the Republicans allowed them to instigate a wave of anger against him, which led to them winning the midterm elections and effectively resisting any and every policy decision undertaken by him thereafter.
Even though he spoke of the need for fundamental changes to the way in which Washington operated, Obama was at heart always an institutionalist. Institutions that were decaying due to reckless and incompetent leadership, he chose to restore wise stewardship and significant reform to them, instead of blowing them up. Though this didn’t make for a great spectacle, it did prove to be a historic success.
President Obama had a series of successes on the domestic front, but a failure to duly publicize them. Under the 2009 Recovery Act, $800 billion was spent to reinvigorate the economy and to boost employment and spending. However, since ordinary citizens could not see a single bridge built or job saved by it, they chose to disregard it. As a technocrat, the president assumed that his nuanced policy measures would speak for themselves, and that seems to be his great failing.
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His administration oversaw America’s economic recovery after the GFC, bringing employment rate below five percent, it also reformed the regulations governing Wall Street. But while the economy added 156,000 jobs in December 2017, marking the 75th straight month of growth, it was the loss of 800 jobs at Carrier factory in Indiana that captured the nation’s frenzy.
And though his predecessor is out to undo the great strides Obama made, what cannot be tempered with is his status as a cultural icon. We will remember him for his dignity and grace in the face of personal indignities hurdled at his way. We will remember him for his compassion as he sang “Amazing Grace” at the eulogy of the nine African-Americans massacred in Charleston. And we will remember him for the great man that he was and the great vision that he had, albeit somewhat unaccomplished.
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