Think back eight years ago, when Obama’s hair was black and Flo Rida somehow dominated your high school parties. Hope in America was palpable as we had just elected our newly minted President, an African-American and political outsider set on breathing life into our democratic landscape. As we prepare to elect our newest leader among a motley crew candidates often defined by their establishment or anti-establishment status, let’s reflect briefly upon how our own outsider lived up to his promises to reform how Washington does business. (Spoiler: he didn’t.)
In 2008, Obama hailed whistleblowers in his own online platform as “the best source of information about waste, fraud and abuse in government,” arguing that “such acts of courage and patriotism, should be encouraged rather than stifled.” He also promised to ensure whistleblowers were given “full access to courts and due process.” Of course, none of this has been the case for whistleblower Edward Snowden, who has been condemned by Obama and is currently seeking refuge in Moscow without a court date.
Similarly, although Obama repeatedly promised to reign in Wall Street during his campaign, his administration failed to prosecute any major bank executives following the financial meltdown. In fact, during an interview with journalist Jake Tapper in 2011, Obama even defended executives’ actions during the housing bubble as legal despite an overwhelming amount of evidence suggesting otherwise.
More recently, consider Obama’s stance on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The TPP is a free trade agreement that, if passed, would be the world’s largest ever trade bill. While the agreement’s primary objective is to break down trade barriers between the US and several Pacific Rim countries, many are now concerned it’s become muddled with worrisome provisions.
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, has been a vocal critic of several facets of the TPP, particularly how the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) gives legal leverage to big corporations over smaller countries. The ISDS is an instrument of the TPP that establishes a neutral legal environment for arbitration outside the purview of national governments.
So, let’s say you’re a U.S. business operating in Brunei and you’re disputing a Bruneian statute. Under the TPP, you’d be able to enter an independent arbitration system instead of a Bruneian court. However, this system would be filled not with independent arbitrators, but with corporate lawyers, fully able to return to their Fortune 100 headquarters the following day. This revolving door is no different than the one that spun Henry Paulson between Goldman Sachs and the Department of the Treasury. Yet, Obama does not seem to care. In fact, he’s a staunch supporter of the agreement, and has repeatedly dismissed Senator Warren’s legitimate concerns without proper justification.
To be sure, these examples aren’t merely campaign promises Obama didn’t execute; rather, together they constitute just part of what we see as a total about face from the 2008 outsider Obama we once knew.
Yet, all of this seemed to have slipped (somehow!) through the media’s cracks. Obama continues to receive nothing but criticism and opposition from the right, while those on the left have been cautious to criticize him at all. As a result, many of his administration’s positions favored by the right (such as the TPP, drone strikes across the Middle East, the treatment of Edward Snowden, the treatment of large corporations, etc.) have gone largely uncriticized from the left, even if many liberals disagree. Consequently, many of the Obama administration’s most questionable stances and policies have not had to face any criticism at all. His transition from an outside reformer to an establishment leader has been quiet and uncriticized.
This is an important lesson to consider when thinking about the upcoming election. Candidates can never accomplish as much as they promise and are almost always changed by the oval office. Though Obama’s changes were slow, the outsider who promised to change the political game has found himself playing it just like everyone else.
Terlep is a senior political science major from Naperville, Illinois; Piggins is a senior economics major from Saugatuck, Michigan.