- Will real financial regulation be enacted curbing their worst excesses?
- Will all stock transactions be taxed?
- Will offshore tax havens and tax loopholes for the rich be closed?
- Will the president openly support an amendment to the Constitution overturning "Citizens United" and get big money out of politics?
- Will the bloated and unnecessary defense spending be drastically reduced commensurate with the ending of the cold war over 20 years ago as no existential threat to the country exists at this time or the foreseeable future?
- Will the president support the Democrats in the Senate to end the filibuster rule and restore majority rule in that body? The filibuster as currently exercised is a major impediment to needed legislation and a tyranny exercised by the minority.
Foreign Policy:
- Will the economic sanctions on Iran be ended? Can such policies be replaced with direct diplomatic negotiations and restoring normal relations with that country? Will a military attack on Iran be finally taken off the table?
- Will the relationship with Israel become more even handed with the Palestinian people with active support for a two state solution and thereby ending a major cause behind Islamic terrorism in the world?
- Will drone attacks and missile strikes and the killing of innocents be ended in war zones and neighboring countries recognizing such acts are major contributing factors in expanding the number of Islamic militants vowing revenge on the U.S.?
- Will the war in Afghanistan be ended as soon as possible (not the end of 2014 as currently in place) and all the troops brought home?
- Will we curtail and/or close unnecessary military bases world wide, forego the "pivot" to Asia and the Pacific, end the deployment of carrier task forces in the Persian Gulf as well as the South China Sea as unnecessarily provocative that could lead to accidental war?
For sure, all the problems and issues aforementioned (as well as the many others too numerous to include here) are to say the least a "tall order" for any administration to undertake. But there has to be a start in addressing the real issues and problems we face.
What we've heard about i.e. the need to reduce the deficit, austerity measures through reductions in Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, unemployment compensation, food stamps, extending the Bush era tax cuts for the rich et al, are all wrongheaded policies and need to be rejected openly by this reelected president with full use of the "bully pulpit" if necessary in appealing directly to the people (something that could have and should have been done early in his first term).
So is the hope here four years later a chimera; that a real transformational presidency can finally emerge under Obama? Admittedly, that may be true.
From here, it's worth giving him the benefit of the doubt. What is there to lose? Maybe a reincarnation of FDR could happen. Or is that expecting the equivalent of Moses parting of the Red Sea in bible lore, something from the long lost age of miracles?
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