Obama, Trump, and Now Biden: Great Expectations of What?
When Obama was elected as the first Black President in 2008, the expectations were great for many. Trump’s rise to power in 2016 raised the expectations of others. Now it is Biden’s turn. What should we expect?
Obama became President as the country was mired in a recession. Many expected miracles in a capitalist country where the rich and powerful dictate what happens no matter who is in power. Beyond getting the country out of its recession, Obama’s crown accomplishment in the face of much obstruction was the enactment of the health care law, albeit imperfect, that led to the coverage of millions of underprivileged Americans who had no coverage. The enduring legacy of that law will not be the law itself, but the force it has unleashed toward achieving universal health coverage — an objective that can be slowed down but cannot be stopped.
There was one clear winner during Obama’s Presidency: capitalism. Between March 2009 — shortly after the time Obama assumed the Presidency and when Obama left in 2017, the Dow Jones industrial average — a measure of capitalism — rose an astounding 200% over 8 years. That is making a lot more money for those with money to invest in stocks.
Obama’s Presidency made one other thing crystal clear. If allowed the opportunity, a Black man could assume the highest office in the land and be successful enough to be reelected to a second term.
If Obama’s Presidency didn’t live up to its expectations for some, Trump’s didn’t for others. Many hoped for a less ideological, outsider President who would put people at the center, and discovered instead a President, often callous and self-absorbed. No matter the President. No matter even the pandemic. Capitalism made sure that the interests of the wealthy and powerful were well protected as friendly tax laws were enacted and Dow Jones gained another 50% over 4 years. Trump’s crowning legacy will be the justices he has installed at all levels who will make sure capitalism’s voice is heard loud and clear for decades to come.
Without a doubt, capitalism will take the front seat in Biden’s Presidency even as he battles the pandemic by encouraging science and commonsense and by accelerating vaccine distribution. But there is reason to be optimistic on a few fronts in a likely divided Government. George Floyd’s death might have altered our collective conscience ever so slightly that there is hope for meaningful criminal justice reform, beginning with the simple idea that policing and prisons cannot be just about protecting capitalism and the status quo. We may see that a national mandate for a living wage for the working poor is not a radical idea. We may agree environmental interests from humane farming to reduced fossil fuel dependence are good for all of us. We may see Dreamers and transgendered individuals not as outcasts, but as people who deserve mainstream acceptance legally and socially.
Many of us have benefited vastly from capitalism. Focused on those benefits, perhaps, we have been callous and self-absorbed at times. In this New Year, maybe we can resolve to care and share for the underprivileged, engaging individually and through our Government — with our words and deeds!
