Was President Obama the cause for Trump’s rise to power? Aside from Hillary’s faults, he may also be to blame for Liberals staying home.
Unlike his predecessor or the current president, Obama was as far from intellectually obstinate as we’ve seen since Reagan (who historians believe was the 9th smartest president). We elected an African American for the first time in our nations history, who subsequently brought us out of the great recession, while passing a flawed but historic health care bill.
But his tenure while in office planted the seed for Trump to win office.
Quick aside:
- The accepted measure for intelligence hinges on intellectual curiosity but Trump, much like George W. Bush, has a disdain for new knowledge. The duo share a shoot from the hip—trust my gut over the numbers—intellectually incurious approach, but they have the distinct and ‘tremendous’ advantage of knowing how to appease their base.
If the most logical approach for electing a president is to nominate the most diligent person on the ballot, then Hillary Clinton should have won in a landslide; Trump is quickly becoming known for his lack of interest in learning about the intricacies of the job and is thoroughly disinterested in receiving intelligence updates, which is a drastic departure from Obama’s prolific want for detail.
So…How did Trump, who was down in the polls until the day of the election, win the presidency over the establishment candidate Hillary Clinton?
Obama may be to blame.
Obama made the worse mistake a leader can make, aside from a prolonged war in the middle east, he allowed the political spectrum to shift away from his base.
At the same time he was called a left wing liberal by his opponents, he remained a centrist on key issues and broke his promises to the left wing of his base.
- Broken promise number 1: “The war on drugs has been an utter failure. We need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws.” -Obama
- 1.5 Million arrests for drug violations in 2015, 1.2 million for possession only, 640,000 arrested for possession only.
- Broken promise number 2: “I don’t oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war.”
- There were ten times more drone strikes under Obama than Bush. That’s not an overstatement, he literally conducted more drone strikes in the middle east.
- Broken promise number 3: “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the one we’ve been waiting for.”
- The implicit promise was to end the wars in the middle east, and change the discretionary budget to reflect the growing need to address climate change, education, and infrastructure. See graphics below…
Conservatives seized the opportunity to cast Obama as the most liberal president in history, while his base remained in silent support for a president that continued to move center-right on the political spectrum. In fact, DW-Nominate ranked him as the least liberal Democrat since LBJ.
Since Obama was the far left, it opened the door for a more vocal right wing to balance the new political spectrum, and the Trump effect swept across the red states.
Then again…I could be convince to the contrary…email me at asl0819@gmail.com and let me know what you think.
-Anthony Lindsay