Why Obama era of hope is over

By Ken Mufuka

The election of November 4th, referred to as mid-term elections have put an end to whatever the Obama dream was about. In the judgment of the New York Times, which is wiser and more experienced than I am, the Republican strategy of obstruction, rejection and subterfuge, bordering on treason has paid large dividends for them.

The tide of rejection of Obama policies was stronger than anticipated, sweeping the United States Senate with a strong majority of 54 seats out of 100. In the lower house, Republican majority was also strengthened by eight seats.

“If the hope and change phase of his presidency is over, he (President Barack Obama) at least wants to produce a period of progress and consolidation” during his last two years in office. That, we believe, will not be possible.

Failed policies

Obama came into power with an assumption that US interference in Muslim countries had created more turmoil there than peace, especially when the US supported brutal dictators like Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. As a student of history, he knew that Arab anger was based on a long history of Albion and French treachery as illustrated by the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916.

Having encouraged the Arabs to rebel against their Turkish masters, and promising them independence, in fact Britain and France had a secret agreement to divide Arab oil lands between themselves.

Obama’s policies of hiding US imperialist interests by leading from behind in Egypt and in Libya, leading to the fall of dictatorships there, led to chaos since Arabs were unused to democracy. Republicans cried out that sympathetic dictators were sacrificed at the altar of fancy unproven theories.

Better a dictator you know than a Muslim dictator you don’t know. Forced to swallow his pride, Obama was forced to abandon his support for the Muslim Brotherhood tyranny in favour of US tyranny of General Al Sisi.

Similarly a possible rapprochement with Iran was dismissed by Republicans and their Israeli allies. Obama was left with egg on his face. To his possible allies in the Middle East, he was weak. To the Republicans, the Israelis and the European Union, his policies sacrificed western hegemony.

Thus he was in a Machiavellian bind where friends are suspicious and enemies are howling for his blood. With a name like Barack Hussein Obama, the Republicans feasted on the remains of his foreign policy.

Stupid domestic policies

Brother Obama was in the US Senate for two years before he became president. He lacked experience and the ability to make friends among his own Democrats. As for Republicans, they avoided his first inauguration because they were caucusing to destroy his agenda. With such sworn enemies, his greatest achievement, the Obama Affordable Care Act has become a football among Republicans.

Designed to cover 38 million uninsured Americans, the Act affects everybody, including those who were happy with their insurance policies. Since 31 Republican states have not adopted the Health Exchange mechanisms required for tits implementation, there is a danger that with treasonous Republican encouragement, they may simply sit on their haunches and refuse to effect to the law.

In a game changing effort, Obama tried to pass an immigration law that would grant amnesty to 10 million Mexicans working here illegally. Republicans regard Mexicans as Third World disease- infected peoples whose worth lies in cheap labour in their own country. Amnesty would pave a road to citizenship and voting privileges.

Clash of visions

Republicans see Third World mass immigration as altering the ethics and nature of the US polity, as has happened in the Hispanic dominated Florida. Electoral cheating is sanctioned by the state amidst a high tolerance of corrupt procurement practices. Food stamps, welfare checks to people with too many children who fall below the civilized standard of living, are a standard fare in that state.

Republicans regard their own military-industrial non-competitive procurement contracts under President George W. Bush as justifiable. Hispanics are allowed to undertake seasonal harvesting jobs, as long as they remain hewers of wood and carriers of water. They must return to their dingy disease infested homelands in Latin America.

Democrats see all poverty stricken immigrants as “dreamers” capable of achieving the American dream. They may need a little help when they first land in the US, as all of us have from time to time.

Obama is therefore a killer of US world hegemony in Republican eyes and can destroy the white ethic of self-reliance, each man for himself ethos that has encouraged so many inventors and entrepreneurs to settle in the US. Republicans have set a trap for Obama in the next session of Congress.

They will pass a Berlin Wall Act to be built across the Mexican border and dare him to veto it. There is no such wall across the white Canadian border.

They will pass an Ebola Epidemic Prevention Act which will forbid West African Airlines from discharging the Ebola epidemic through US Airports. This epidemic has killed only one person, Tom Duncan, a Liberian who was sick when he came.

This will scare little old white ladies, who will then vote the Democrats out in 2016. They will pass a Pipeline Job Act associated with a Tax Relief Act aimed at lowering business taxes from 35 percent to 15 percent.

They will dare Obama to veto the two and tar and feather him with a “kill jobs brush.” In the Jim Crow era, Negroes who acted uppity and forgot their place were tarred, feathered and burned alive hanging from a tree. Today they practice high-tech lynching.

You can reach Professor Ken Mufuka on [email protected]