POLITICS OF HOPE AND OBAMANATION (2008-2016)

1. General information about The Great Recession 2008

In September 2008, the United States, and most of Europe, entered the longest post–World War II recession, often called the "Great Recession." Multiple overlapping crises were involved, especially the housing market crisis, a subprime mortgage crisis, soaring oil prices, an automotive industry crisis, rising unemployment, and the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The financial crisis threatened the stability of the entire economy in September 2008 when Lehman Brothers failed and other giant banks were in grave danger. Starting in October the federal government lent $245 billion to financial institutions through the Troubled Asset Relief Program which was passed by bipartisan majorities and signed by Bush.

Following his election victory by a wide electoral margin in November 2008, Bush's successor - Barack Obama - signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which was a $787 billion economic stimulus aimed at helping the economy recover from the deepening recession. Obama, like Bush, took steps to rescue the auto industry and prevent future economic meltdowns. These included a bailout of General Motors and Chrysler, putting ownership temporarily in the hands of the government, and the "cash for clunkers" program which temporarily boosted new car sales.

The recession officially ended in June 2009, and the economy slowly began to expand once again. The unemployment rate peaked at 10.1% in October 2009 after surging from 4.7% in November 2007, and returned to 5.0% as of October 2015. However, overall economic growth has remained weaker in the 2010s compared to expansions in previous decades.

Recent events - from 2009 to 2010, the 111th Congress passed major legislation such as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act, which were signed into law by President Obama. Following the 2010 midterm elections, which resulted in a Republican-controlled House of Representatives and a Democratic-controlled Senate, Congress presided over a period of elevated gridlock and heated debates over whether or not raise the debt ceiling, extend tax cuts for citizens making over $250,000 annually, and many other key issues. These ongoing debates led to President Obama signing the Budget Control Act of 2011. In the Fall of 2012, Mitt Romney challenged Barack Obama for the Presidency. Following Obama's reelection in November 2012, Congress passed the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 - which resulted in an increase in taxes primarily on those earning the most money. Congressional gridlock continued as Congressional Republicans' call for the repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - popularly known as "Obamacare" - along with other various demands, resulted in the first government shutdown since the Clinton administration and almost led to the first default on U.S. debt since the 19th century. As a result of growing public frustration with both parties in Congress since the beginning of the decade, Congressional approval ratings fell to record lows, with only 11% of Americans approving as of October 2013.

Obama signs the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act at the White House, March 23, 2010

Other major events that have occurred during the 2010s include the rise of new political movements, such as the conservative Tea Party movement and the liberal Occupy movement. There was also unusually severe weather during the early part of the decade. In 2012, over half the country experienced record drought and Hurricane Sandy caused massive damage to coastal areas of New York and New Jersey.

The ongoing debate over the issue of rights for the LGBT community, most notably that of same-sex marriage, began to shift in favor of same-sex couples, and has been reflected in dozens of polls released in the early part of the decade. In 2012, President Obama becoming the first president to openly support same-sex marriage, and the 2013 Supreme Court decision in the case of United States v. Windsor provided for federal recognition of same-sex unions. In June 2015, the United States Supreme Court legalized gay marriage nationally in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges.

Political debate has continued over issues such as tax reform, immigration reform, income inequality and US foreign policy in the Middle East, particularly with regards to global terrorism, the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and an accompanying climate of Islamophobia.

2. The election of 2008 and the emergence of Barack Obama

Having served two terms, Presi­dent George W. Bush was constitu­tionally prohibited from being elected again to the presidency. After a spir­ited preconvention campaign, the Republicans chose as their candi­date Senator John McCain of Ari­zona. A Vietnam veteran respected for his heroic resistance as a prison­er of war, McCain possessed strong foreign policy credentials and was a relatively moderate conservative on domestic issues. He chose as his running mate Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska. Much admired by Chris­tian evangelicals and cultural conser­vatives, she drew almost as much attention as McCain himself. In late 2007, it seemed nearly cer­tain that the Democratic nomination would go to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. The wife of former president Bill Clinton, she had quickly established herself as a leading member of Congress and possessed a strong national con­stituency among women and liberal Democrats. However, she faced a phe­nomenon not unusual in democratic societies—a relatively unknown, but charismatic, challenger whose ap­peal rested not on ideological or pro­grammatic differences but on style and personal background.

Barack Hussein Obama was only in his second year as a U.S. senator from Illinois, but his comparative youth and freshness were assets in a year when the electorate was weary of politics as usual. So was his multi­ cultural background. His father was from Kenya; his mother was a white American sociologist. Born in Ha­waii, he had spent his early years in Indonesia, where he attended a Mus­lim school. After his father left the family and his mother died at an ear­ly age, he had been raised by his grandmother. These family crises notwithstanding, he became a suc­cessful student at two of the best universities in the United States— Columbia and Harvard. His person­al style mixed a rare speaking talent with a hip informality that had great appeal to younger voters. Americans of all ages could consider him an emblematic representative of their society’s tradition of providing oppor­tunity for all.

After a close, hard-fought six months of party caucuses and pri­mary elections, Obama eked out a narrow victory over Clinton. He made Senator Joseph Biden of Dela­ware his vice-presidential selection. Most measures of popular sentiment indicated that the public wanted a change. The two candidates were ahead in many public opinion polls as the fall campaign season began.

Any chance that McCain and Palin could pull ahead was ended by the sharp financial crisis that be­gan in the last half of September and sent the economy crashing. Caused by excessive speculation in risky mortgage-backed securities and other unstable investment vehicles, the crash led to the bankruptcy of the venerable Lehman Brothers in­vestment house and momentarily imperiled the entire financial super­structure of the nation. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), created during the New Deal, shut down numerous banks without loss to depositors, but had no jurisdiction over the giant finan­cial investment companies that did not engage in commercial banking. Moreover, it had only limited capa­bilities to deal with those corpora­tions that did both.

Fearing a general financial melt­down reminiscent of the darkest days of the Great Depression, the U.S.Treasury and the Federal Re­serve engineered a Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) that was funded by a $700 billion congres­sional appropriation. The TARP program kept the endangered invest­ment banks afloat. What it could not do was stave off a sharp economic collapse in which millions of Ameri­cans lost their jobs.

That November, the voters elect­ed Obama president of the United States, with approximately 53 per­cent of the vote to McCain’s 46.

A. Domestic policy - Obama was inaugurated president of the United States on January 20, 2009, in an atmosphere of hope and high expectations.In his inaugural address, he declared: “The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spir­it; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from genera­tion to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pur­sue their full measure of happiness.” He proclaimed an agenda of “remak­ing America” by reviving and trans­forming the economy in ways that would provide better and less-expen­sive health care for all, foster envi­ronmentally friendly energy, and develop an educational system better suited to the needs of a new century.

Barack Obama takes the oath of office administered by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.at the Capitol, January 20, 2009

Speaking to the international community, he pledged U.S.coop­eration in facing the problem of global warming. He also delivered a general message of international engagement based on compassion for poorer, developing countries and respect for other cultures. “To the Muslim world,” Obama said, “we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.”

The speech revealed the wide scope of Obama’s aspirations. His rhetoric and his strong personal presence won wide approval—so much so that in October, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his goals. But, as always in the complex system of American representative govern­ment, it was easier to state large ambitions than to realize them.

At home, the administration ad­dressed the mounting economic crisis with a $787 billion stimulus act designed to bring growing unemployment down to manageable levels. The legislation doubtless saved or created many jobs, but it failed to prevent unemployment—officially estimated at 7.7 percent of the labor force when Obama took office— from increasing to a high of 10.1 per­cent, then receding just a bit. The loans to large investment and com­mercial banks begun during the Bush administration with the objec­tive of restoring a stable financial system were mostly repaid with a profit to the government, but a few remained outstanding as the presi­dent began his second year in office. In addition, the government invested heavily in two giant auto makers — General Motors and Chrysler— shepherding them through bank­ruptcy and attempting to reestablish them as major manufacturers.

Obama’s other major objective— the establishment of a national health care system—had long been a goal of American liberalism. With large Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, it seemed achievable. However, developing a plan that had to meet the medical needs of more than 300 million Americans proved extraordinarily difficult. The con­cerns of numerous interests had to be dealt with—insurance companies, hospitals, physicians, pharmaceuti­cal companies, and the large majori­ty of Americans who were already covered and reasonably satisfied. In addition, a comprehensive national plan had to find some way to control skyrocketing costs. In the spring of 2010, the president signed complex legislation that mandated health in­surance for every American, with implementation to take place over several years.

B. Foreign policy - In foreign policy, Obama sought to reach out to the non-Western world, and especially to Muslims who might interpret the Ameri­can military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of a general war on Islam. “America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition,” he told an audi­ence at Cairo University. In Tokyo, he reassured Asians that America would remain engaged with the world’s fastest-growing region. While hoping to distinguish itself in tone from the Bush administra­tion, the Obama government found itself following the broad outlines of Bush’s War on Terror. It affirmed the existing agreement to withdraw American troops from Iraq in 2011 and reluctantly accepted military plans for a surge in Afghanistan. In his Nobel acceptance speech, Pres­ident Obama quoted the celebrat­ed American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr to the effect that evil ex­isted in the world and could be de­feated only by force.

AFTERWORD - from its origins as a set of obscure colonies hugging the Atlantic coast, the United States has undergone a remarkable transformation into what political analyst Ben Watten­berg has called “the first universal nation,” a population of 300 million people representing virtu­ally every nationality and ethnic group in the world. It is also a na­tion where the pace and extent of change—economic, technological, cultural, demographic, and social —is unceasing. The United States is often the harbinger of the modern­ization and change that inevitably sweep up other nations and societies in an increasingly interdependent, interconnected world.

Yet the United States also main­tains a sense of continuity, a set of core values that can be traced to its founding.They include a faith in individual freedom and democratic government, and a commitment to economic opportunity and prog­ress for all. The continuing task of the United States will be to ensure that its values of freedom, democ­racy, and opportunity—the legacy of a rich and turbulent history—are protected and flourish as the nation, and the world, move through the 21st century.