A SUPPORTERS DISAPPOINTMENT WITH OBAMA
By: Nick Milano
The Massachusetts Daily Collegian
upporters-disappointment-with-obama/
March 10 2010
As a Barack Obama supporter from the day I saw him light up a town hall
in New Hampshire, his presidency has been hard to take. At times,
he has shown glimpses of the promise that helped sweep him into
office, but more often than not, his policies have been incredibly
disappointing, especially for the young electorate which came out to
support his campaign. He has obviously mishandled health care reform,
and by ceding power over it to Congress, it is doubtful that it will
even pass. He has mishandled the economy and Wall Street.
In our bathroom at our house we have an issue of Mother Jones from
the time of his election whose headline reads: "Why the mess Obama
inherits may be his greatest opportunity." Well, there has been no
economic regulation – how about that for squandering opportunities?
Over the last week or so, two more missteps by his administration
should further alienate his supporters, especially college students.
First, the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted by a one vote margin
to pass a bill that declares the murder of millions of Armenians during
World War I a genocide. Now, strictly relying upon Obama’s campaign
speeches and campaign promises one would expect the administration
to be strongly backing the resolution. Time and time again on the
campaign trail, Obama said that he would characterize the incident
as genocide. Genocide is an issue which motivates younger voters,
and Obama’s outspokenness on Sudan and on Turkey were surely two of
the reasons he attracted young voters.
But like so many times before, Obama has chosen to ignore the voters
and side with what many consider the smart international relations
choice. As Turkey is an important ally whose air bases are used
to move soldiers and supplies into Iraq, upsetting the Turks would
not be a great idea. Thus, the administration as well as the State
Department under Hillary Clinton immediately moved to block the vote
from reaching the House floor. Another promise broken.
His second misstep over the last week cannot be directly tied to his
administration, but a State Department spokesperson was curiously
forced to retract attacks it made against Libyan leader Muammar
al-Qaddafi. After Qaddafi’s son’s arrest in Switzerland for assault,
Qaddafi made several mystifying and scary declarations, according
to Foreign Policy magazine. First, he expelled Swiss diplomats from
Libya, then he proposed to the UN General Assembly that Switzerland
be abolished as a country, and third called any Muslim who worked with
Switzerland an apostate, de facto declaring a jihad against the Swiss.
While it may be smart not to engage dictators who seem to have gone
off the deep end, a spokesman for the State Department obviously
criticized Qaddafi for his actions and statements. But the next day,
he apologized and took his statements back in the name of thawing
Libyan and American relations. The appeasement inclinations of this
president have started to get a little too common. In a sense, Obama
is keeping his campaign promises of starting a new conversation with
the Muslim world, but these are times where such decisions have to
be fully thought out. Dictators should not be allowed to make such
disgusting statements, no matter how crazy they seem to be. The
Obama administration is choosing kind words even at the hands of
absolute madness.
The foreign policy decisions that go into deciding whether to attack
a senseless dictator or whether to call a genocide by its real name
surely have more to do than simply answering to an electorate.
Regarding Turkey, there are still thousands and thousands of soldiers
in Iraq, so it might not be the best time to alienate a crucial ally.
President Bush is guilty of the same decision-making. He said while
campaigning that he would declare the Armenian killings genocide,
but did nothing.
In order for genocides to be recognized and prevented in the future,
even today in Sudan, the world must acknowledge when they have
happened in the past. Turkey’s mass murder of Armenians should not
go unpunished. In regards to Qaddafi, sometimes it is best not to
engage silly declarations like the ones he is guilty of making, but
that does not mean criticism of him should be retracted. According
to Foreign Policy, a new major poll shows Obama is losing ground
among voters on national security. On the one hand, the president
seems dedicated to adhering to his campaign promise of engaging the
Muslim world – let us not get started on Iran, but on the other hand,
he has abandoned the young voters who flocked to his campaign because
of his willingness to clamp down on genocide. In both situations,
Obama continues to disappoint.