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September 18, 2013

The Relative Irrelevance of Barack Obama!

By Eugene Elander

Now that the high hopes for the Obama presidency have been dashed by Barack Obama himself, what remains is largely a legacy of irrelevance, and a study in how a president can make himself a premature lame duck. Here is hoping for 2016!

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Some will claim that any President of the United States is always relevant, by virtue of his position alone.  While that is undoubtedly true in some senses, it may be argued that relevance is indeed relative -- and compared to other recent presidents, Barack Obama has managed to make himself relatively irrelevant.  He is now, in truth, a lame duck well ahead of the typical time for achievement of that dubious status -- which is normally the last few months of any presidency in which the election of a successor has occurred.

While a long treatise could be written on the subject of the relative irrelevance of Barack Obama, this is not the place for such a dissertation.  Rather, it is sufficient to indicate that the very expression lame duck means literally a duck which has trouble walking -- and in the case of this President, the lameness occurs in large part from shooting himself in both feet!  Consider but a few recent examples: Leadership on resolving the Syrian crisis, a major humanitarian disaster, was turned over by this President to one of the least-humane world leaders on the face of the earth, Vladimir Putin of Russia, who imprisons his own citizens for singing songs about his abusive reign or daring to speak out against him.

But then, this President, supposedly a Constitutional lawyer, has orchestrated the ongoing and escalated spying on Americans without any Constitutional or other legal justification.  This President has persecuted whistle-blowers for exposing unprecedented abuses of power through the actions of secret tribunals and without due process or any just cause. This President has instituted the widespread us of killer drone aircraft to take out many targets of opportunity, often killing or severely wounding innocent civilian men, women, and children.  These, and similar, despicable practices constitute profound violations of his Oath of Office, wherein he pledged to uphold and defend our Constitution and laws.

This President has shown such severe disrespect for his own competence that he has undercut his only piece of signal legislation, the Affordable Health Care Act, by suspending many major provisions for long time periods at the behest of large corporate employers.  This President has shown such severe disrespect for the position of Chair of the Federal Reserve Board that he attempted to appoint a crony who stated publicly, while President of Harvard University, that women do not make very competent scientists because they have inherently less scientific ability than men possess.   That pending appointee had to withdraw from consideration after leaders of the Democratic party expressed their disgust.

This President has shown such severe disrespect for himself and his own abilities that he repeatedly caves in to the Forces of Darkness in the United States Congress on so many issues that he has become a laughingstock to those same right-wing reactionaries.  This President has been criticized by the leaders of allied and friendly nations for endorsing our spying on them. The list of abuses goes on and on, and only gets worse and worse.  Perhaps worst of all, though, this President has made it harder for a Democratic successor to be elected, by leaving a heritage of disarray and dismay.   That atrocious damage to his own Democratic Party is unforgivable.

  


Authors Bio:

Author's Biography

Eugene Elander has been a progressive social and political activist for decades. As an author, he won the Young Poets Award at 16 from the Dayton Poets Guild for his poem, The Vision. He was chosen Poet Laureate of Pownal, Vermont for his poem Pownal People. His three new verses for America the Beautiful:September 11, 2001 were widely acclaimed and read into the Congressional Record by U.S. Senator Chris Dodd.
Dr. Elander has authored four volumes of poetry: The Right Click, The World Click, Journeyings, and Philosophy over Fika, all written from 2004 to now, in the U.S. and Sweden -- as well as two published novels: The Goat of God, and Turning the Tides, both available via Signalman Publishing on Amazon.com in Kindle and electronic pdf editions. A self-help book titled Empowerment:Taking Charge of your Life was recently completed and is available via Amazon.com KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing.
Dr. Elander is a freelance columnist who published a newspaper for ten years in New London, CT. He is an economist and college lecturer, and has been an agency executive director, emergency management consultant, investigator; and former animal control officer, deputy code enforcement and health officer for Farmington, New Hampshire. He and his wife Birgit, who co-authored The World Click, divide their time between Georgia and her homeland, Gotland, Sweden.
Several other books are underway, including a sequel to The Goat of God, and a public version of his doctoral dissertation on Cooperatism, a new economic system he developed which includes all stakeholders (workers, consumers, and the public as well as stockholders) in crucial decision making. Dr. Elander has been a member of the Stonepile Writers group in Georgia and the Poetry Society of New Hampshire. He is president of his own Elander Press.


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