Barack Obama: The Greatest Republican President of My Lifetime

Few statements have the capacity to enrage both liberals and conservatives alike. Here’s one: Barack Obama was the greatest Republican president of my lifetime.

I’m not trying to be inflammatory. This is something I genuinely believe but it obviously requires a detailed explanation. The reason I think it’s important to examine this thesis is because our country is having an existential crisis under authoritarian rule and it’s obscuring our judgment at a critical juncture. Donald Trump is there because of the perceived and real failures of the Obama administration. If not for this era, there’s no Trump 1.0. Trump 2.0 is on Biden, Harris, Schumer and every other Democrat living in an alternate reality. If we’re to move past the Trump era once and for all at some point, we need to be honest about how far the Overton window has shifted to the right in this country. And in my mind, there’s no better example than how people feel about Barack Obama.

When we think of the Republican Party that existed before Trump, it stood for certain values, even if they were no longer true and were just shibboleths in political culture. Before Trump if you asked people what the Party stood for they would probably say things like family values and Christian morals. Republicans are tough on crime and in favor of a secure border and strong military. They believe in corporate America and free markets, low taxes and less regulation. And they are the party of fiscal responsibility.

And so before we go through this exercise, let’s just put a few things out there about President Obama. Barack Obama is a family man. Through and through. He is a devout Christian who guided the White House for eight years without scandal. Under Obama the border was more secure than any president before or since, over two full terms. He prosecuted wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Oversaw the regime change in Libya. Carried out bombing campaigns in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. Captured and killed Osama bin Laden. Kept taxes low for corporations and maintained the Bush-era tax cuts. And after the bailout of the economy that had collapsed under his predecessor, was responsible for cutting the budget deficit five out of his eight years in office.

His biggest scandal was of course, disrespecting the office of the President by wearing a tan suit.

Am I being selective? A little. But are all of these statements of fact? Absolutely. So the first thing to understand about our media culture is that had Barack Obama been a Republican and, let’s face it, a white guy, Fox News would still be touting him as though he was the second coming of Ronald Reagan and saying these were the good old days. Instead, MSNBC touts him as though he’s the second coming of JFK (who also wasn’t very liberal at all).

These force fed narratives have destroyed our critical thinking skills, which is why it’s a great time to authentically evaluate Obama’s tenure and legacy. It’s far enough behind us to understand the ramifications of Obama-era policies but close enough to compare the man himself to the guy we have now. We need to somehow live in a more objective reality so this is as good of an approach as any.

Looking back at Romney, McCain, Obama, Hillary, Kerry seems like an embarrassment of riches these days. But I argue that even these candidates exist along a spectrum that runs from center right to conservative. To illustrate the point, we’ll go through the primary achievements of the Obama administration from a liberal and conservative perspective—understanding that nothing a Black man in this or any position does will win over a far right evangelical Christian in this country. When we finish going through them, I’ll offer a progressive take on the same scorecard.

So we’re going to look at the Affordable Care Act (ACA)/Obamacare, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) response and recovery, Paris Agreement, Iran Nuclear Deal, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) protections, and fiscal management. This is by no means an exhaustive list but these are the policies and events most associated with the Obama presidency.

Let’s start with what most consider to be the signature and generational policy achievement of the Obama White House: Obamacare.

The Affordable Care Act

The ACA, signed into law in 2010, represented the most significant overhaul of American healthcare since Medicare. The legislation expanded Medicaid, created insurance marketplaces, prohibited denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions, and included an individual mandate requiring most Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty.

Liberal Establishment View: This was a historic achievement that extended health coverage to millions of previously uninsured Americans and protected those with pre-existing conditions from discrimination. It represented the first successful major healthcare reform in generations, and laid the foundation for future improvements to the system. Despite Republican obstruction, Obama delivered on a promise that Democrats had been trying to fulfill for decades.

Conservative Media View: Obamacare was government overreach that forced Americans to buy a product they didn’t want and destroyed the free market healthcare system. The individual mandate was an unconstitutional infringement on personal liberty, and the program led to higher premiums and deductibles for middle-class families. It represented a massive expansion of federal power and was passed through legislative manipulation without bipartisan support. The law proved that big government solutions create more problems than they solve.

Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

Obama inherited two ongoing wars from the Bush administration. He withdrew most combat troops from Iraq by 2011, though troops returned in 2014 to fight ISIS. In Afghanistan, he initially surged troop levels before beginning a drawdown. The operation that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011 was a defining moment of his presidency.

Liberal Establishment View: Obama responsibly ended the disastrous Iraq War that Bush started while taking the fight to al-Qaeda leadership through strategic operations. The bin Laden raid showed decisive leadership and fulfilled a promise to America after 9/11. His use of targeted strikes and special operations reduced American casualties while keeping pressure on terrorist networks. He navigated an impossible situation created by his predecessor and brought most troops home.

Conservative Media View: Obama’s precipitous withdrawal from Iraq created the vacuum that allowed ISIS to flourish, destabilizing the entire region. His “lead from behind” approach in Libya was a disaster, and his arbitrary timetables for withdrawal emboldened America’s enemies. While the bin Laden raid was successful, he deserves no special credit for completing the mission that Bush’s policies made possible. His overreliance on drones without clear strategy showed weakness on the world stage.

Global Financial Crisis: Response and Recovery

Obama took office in January 2009 amid the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. His administration implemented the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, an $787 billion stimulus package, and oversaw the auto industry bailout. The administration also implemented the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), though this was initiated under Bush.

Liberal Establishment View: Obama saved the country from a second Great Depression through swift action and smart economic policy. The stimulus prevented total economic collapse, the auto bailout saved millions of jobs, and his steady leadership restored confidence in American markets. Wall Street and Main Street both recovered under his watch, with the longest streak of job growth in American history. By the end of his presidency, unemployment had dropped from 10% to under 5%, and the stock market had more than doubled.

Conservative Media View: Obama’s response to the crisis expanded government to unprecedented levels and rewarded the very institutions that caused the problem. The stimulus was wasteful spending that ballooned the deficit without creating lasting economic growth, and the auto bailout rewarded union bosses while taxpayers footed the bill. His policies created regulatory burdens that slowed recovery and his anti-business rhetoric deterred investment. The recovery was the slowest on record despite massive government intervention.

Paris Agreement

In 2015, Obama helped broker the Paris Agreement, an international treaty bringing together 195 countries to combat climate change. The accord set goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and limiting global temperature increases.

Liberal Establishment View: The Paris Agreement represented unprecedented global cooperation on the existential threat of climate change. Obama provided crucial leadership in bringing together nations to address a crisis that requires collective action, positioning America as a leader in the transition to clean energy. It demonstrated that multilateral diplomacy can achieve results on complex global challenges. The accord gave hope that humanity could unite to prevent environmental catastrophe.

Conservative Media View: The Paris Agreement was a job-killing agreement that hurt American businesses while giving China and other polluters a free pass. It represented Obama’s willingness to subordinate American sovereignty to international bodies and unelected bureaucrats. The treaty would have destroyed the coal industry and raised energy costs for families without meaningful impact on global temperatures. It was another example of virtue signaling that punished American workers.

Iran Nuclear Deal

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, reached in 2015, aimed to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Under the agreement, Iran accepted limits on its nuclear program and international inspections in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.

Liberal Establishment View: The Iran deal prevented a nuclear-armed Iran through diplomacy rather than military action, avoiding another disastrous Middle East war. It brought Iran’s nuclear program under unprecedented international oversight and demonstrated that tough negotiations can achieve security goals. Obama showed that patient diplomacy backed by sanctions pressure could resolve seemingly intractable conflicts. The alternative was an Iranian bomb or another war.

Conservative Media View: Obama gave billions to the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism while getting nothing in return. The sunset clauses guaranteed Iran would eventually get nuclear weapons anyway, and the regime used sanction relief to fund terror networks across the Middle East. The deal emboldened Iranian aggression in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq while abandoning American allies like Israel and Saudi Arabia. It was appeasement that made the world more dangerous.

DACA Protections

In 2012, Obama announced DACA, which protected undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children from deportation. The program allowed approximately 800,000 young people to obtain work permits and continue their education without fear of removal.

Liberal Establishment View: DACA was a compassionate response to a humanitarian crisis, protecting young people who grew up in America and know no other home. Obama showed moral leadership when Congress failed to act on immigration reform, providing security to Dreamers who contribute to our economy and communities. It was the right thing to do for people who came through no fault of their own. The program demonstrated American values of opportunity and fairness.

Conservative Media View: DACA was an unconstitutional executive overreach that granted amnesty to illegal immigrants and encouraged more illegal immigration. Obama couldn’t pass legislation, so he acted like a king and created law by executive fiat, setting a dangerous precedent. It rewarded law-breaking and jumped the line ahead of legal immigrants waiting to enter the country. The program proved Democrats prioritize illegal aliens over American citizens.

Fiscal Management

Obama reduced the federal deficit by roughly two-thirds during his presidency, from $1.4 trillion in 2009 to $585 billion in 2016. However, the national debt nearly doubled from $10.6 trillion to $19.9 trillion.

Liberal Establishment View: Obama cut the deficit faster than any president in modern history, while still investing in economic recovery and infrastructure. He responsibly balanced the need for stimulus during the crisis with long-term fiscal sustainability, and proved that government can manage budgets while meeting obligations to citizens. His tax policy was fair, asking the wealthy to pay their share while protecting the middle class. He cleaned up the fiscal mess he inherited.

Conservative Media View: Obama added more debt than all previous presidents combined, saddling future generations with unsustainable obligations. Despite claims of fiscal responsibility, he never proposed a balanced budget and pushed trillion-dollar deficits year after year. His only “cuts” to the deficit came as emergency spending naturally declined and tax revenues recovered. He expanded entitlements and grew government spending to historic levels while accusing Republicans of fiscal recklessness.

There you have it.

Given the fact that one of the authoritarian creep issues that we’re dealing with today is ICE disappearing people from the streets—with masked recruits tormenting cities and neighborhoods under Trump’s mass deportation regime—you might wonder why I didn’t start there. So let’s get that out of the way. The most curious aspect of the Obama administration is the reticence on the right and the left to talk about the nickname “Deporter in Chief.” For you kids out there, that’s a real thing.

In progressive circles, this was Obama’s reputation long before Trump 1.0 and kids in cages. The reason the right didn’t want to talk about it is because this was kind of their thing. Since he was doing what they only wished they could, there was no margin in making it a big issue. For Democrats, it was one of the biggest instances of Obama blindness. They just didn’t want to see it, much like Biden on Gaza.

But it’s worth talking about so let me show you a couple of quick charts before we dig into the policy agenda one by one. Let’s look at three back-to-back eight year terms to get a full picture of what immigration and deportation used to look like in this country and why Obama earned that nickname among progressives.

Under Bill Clinton, there was a ton of activity at the U.S. Mexico border. Remember, this was during the Mexican debt crisis and before NAFTA really took hold. Of the 12.2 million apprehensions, 11 million were at the U.S./Mexico border. A stunning amount of activity. And over the eight years, more people were deported than admitted by a slight margin. But the number I want you to focus on is the “removals” rather than the returns because that’s the crucial part. Returns are people coming across that were intercepted and sent back. Removals represent our deliberate activity to find and deport people who have been living in the country illegally, having either crossed without permission, charged with a crime here or in their home country, overstaying a visa, etc.

Now let’s check out the Bush years.

What you’ll see here is a significant reduction in the number of people who attempted to cross the border as NAFTA took hold in Mexico, and their currency and economy began to stabilize. Even still it’s a pretty big number, but another stretch where more people were sent out of the country than attempted to enter, and the removals figure more than doubled under an even more aggressive GOP.

And now, here’s Barry who had to deal with an entirely different economic situation than the prior administrations and still said “hold my beer.”

You can see from the total number of attempted crossings compared to prior administrations that America wasn’t the most desirable place during the financial crisis. And yet, the Obama administration didn’t just match the prior administrations’ person-for-person apprehension to deportation, they removed a million more immigrants than Bush, and more than three times the number under Clinton.

Hence, Deporter in Chief.

And those cages at the border? Built under Obama. Separating families was more of a Trump thing, but it should be noted that Mr. Build That Wall didn’t come close to removing the number of immigrants in his first term as Obama did. Of course, that’s all changing now under the white supremacist regime of Stephen Miller, so I have complete faith and confidence that they’ll catch up in no time.

Now to the policy achievements as acknowledged by both sides of the aisle and the progressive take on them.

Apart from Ronald Reagan, no modern president came in with as much political capital as Barack Obama. And perhaps it wasn’t politically viable no matter how much capital he had, but the Affordable Care Act is neither the success the liberals call it nor the abomination conservatives say. Conservatives, in fact, should love it because they wrote it. Literally.

The original nickname for Obamacare was Romneycare, because it was passed into law in Massachusetts under Governor Mitt Romney. The policy was essentially crafted by the Heritage Foundation (the primary authors of Project 2025) because it was a gift to the private insurance industry and a way to stop immigrants from using emergency room visits for healthcare. There is only one progressive answer to healthcare coverage in the United States and that’s Medicare for All, which was never considered by Obama and, in fact, a public option was immediately taken off the table.

Iraq and Afghanistan. Not only did we continue in Iraq for virtually the entire Obama term, we pushed on in Afghanistan after leaked documents showed that we knew all along that there was no plan or winnable strategy. We did no better than the Soviets and only prolonged the inevitable takeover by the Taliban. The troop surge under Obama turned these fiascos from a Bush problem to an Obama problem, and then it only got worse as our neocon forever war strategy widened to include a regime change in Libya, civil war in Syria, and bombing campaigns in Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia. According to the TBIJ, Obama racked up more drone strikes in his first year as president than George W. Bush did over eight years. Thousands of drone and air strikes rained down on the Middle East and Northern Africa under Obama who started his presidency with a Nobel Peace Prize. Take that Donald.

All told, the Obama administration threw nearly a trillion dollars at the GFC during his first term. It was split into three areas: State budgets, infrastructure projects and an extension of social insurance programs. The historic stimulus from the Federal Reserve into the financial markets helped stave off a worldwide economic depression; but for the people, this largesse was short-lived under the Larry Summers doctrine of timely, targeted and temporary. While the people were ultimately left to their own devices, someone forgot to turn off the spigot to the banking sector and corporate America.

As a result, the bottom 50% of the country barely budged throughout Obama’s term while the top 10% and top 1% experienced massive gains in wealth that have continued unabated since the loose money era. That’s because the Obama administration bailed out the banks and put regulations on commercial banks that ultimately constricted lending to the consumer and small business sector, while allowing money to flow from public entities to private credit markets, hedge funds and investment banks.

And no one went to jail for putting millions of Americans into bankruptcy. People somehow forget that the Occupy movement didn’t take off until 2011, well into Obama’s first term and two years after the financial crisis. Because young people and old radicals woke up to the realization that Obama was just a prettier and more capable face of the same old establishment.

There’s a persistent myth that Obama wasn’t a friend to corporate America, and then there’s reality. Reality looks a lot like this.

Corporate tax rates didn’t budge under Obama. Neither did the personal income tax of wealthy Americans. The Bush tax cuts stayed where they were and corporations—especially public ones—started on a historic run that continues to this very day, though Trump will eventually destroy that run as well. But the bottom line here is the bottom line, and for corporate America everything was status quo on the tax side and free money was flowing. He extended the Bush tax cuts for most Americans while allowing rates to increase on high earners.

Now for the lightning round.

The Paris Agreement was great until it was ripped to shreds by his successor. Is that Obama’s fault? Not specifically. But had he used his political capital to do more than performative solar projects and expansion of “transition fuels” like natural gas, then we would have delivered on authentic initiatives to stimulate a green energy revolution. Instead, they spent eight years studying the cost of carbon and trying to put a dollar figure to it in white papers so they could give policy guidance to future administrations to blah blah blahbiddy fucking blah. The reason emissions reduced under Obama—leading him to declare that we had decoupled carbon emissions from GDP growth—was due to the boom in natural gas and fracking. It burns cleaner than oil and coil, but the extraction process leads to entirely different environmental issues.

The Iran nuclear deal was great until it too was ripped to shreds by his successor. Is that Obama’s fault? Not specifically, and hindsight is 20/20, but if we understood the region and converted from a bloodthirsty oil hungry posture to a regional development stance, we would have seen the natural alliances that existed and opportunities to foster growth with the election of Hassan Rouhani in 2013. But we spent so much time, money and ammunition bombing the shit out of everyone that pertained to 9/11 for no reason that we couldn’t see the opportunities right in front of us. Instead, we made a deal that could be easily ripped up by a hostile American regime.

DACA Protections. Great. Just terrific. How are those kids doing these days? Temporary protections extended and extended and nothing to show for it, except that these kids are now adults and are being terrorized by Stephen Miller’s private gestapo.

Now, in terms of fiscal management, here’s where the GOP can suck it.

Obama legitimately inherited the worst financial crisis since Hoover, and his initial policy response was outstanding. Flood the market with liquidity. Prop up the states. Backstop the people. Stop the bleeding. Start building shit. But then the stuff for us stopped and the gifts for corporate America and the banks didn’t. So in terms of deficit management, you can see here for yourself that after the initial spike to put the economy back together, Obama ran a tight ship and started reining in the deficits. And then Trump uncorked it all and built them right back up leading us into COVID.

No one has run larger, more consistent deficits than Donald Trump. But this isn’t about him, it’s about Obama. And he was a tough fiscal manager. Another reason why Republicans should admire him. It’s why liberals proudly display him, and it’s why progressives just can’t get over it.

The drones. Expansion of the surveillance state. Closing the door on universal healthcare by handing the keys to private insurers. The continuation of endless wars. Extending temporary status for DACA kids but not pulling it over the finish line. And attempting to balance the budget without extracting the pound of flesh from the corporate class that they deserved and we deserved. In other words, by protecting the wealthy corporate interests above all else and hoping the free market would work its magic over time.

The perfect classical Republican playbook that always ends the same way.

Now here’s where I’ll allow some grace. A considerable amount of it, in fact. A few things in defense of President Obama. He was technocratic and his administration was incredibly competent. The American Rescue Plan, while insufficient, was administered smoothly without instances of fraud (it was Joe Biden who oversaw this personally by the way). Obama recognized the importance of the internet as an economic tool and passed net neutrality in 2015 to reclassify broadband as a utility. He pushed to pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which hasn’t narrowed the pay gap, but it did extend statute of limitations to bring pay equity cases and a legal rationale to prevail in the courts.

He was a proper statesman and a phenomenal example to a new generation just getting involved in politics. He brought a sense of style, grace and compassion to the Oval Office that seems foreign and quaint these days. And he maintained a sense of calm and composure even as the Tea Party formed to smear him, and the Republican Party engaged in a campaign of obstruction the likes of which we haven’t seen since John Calhoun.

The window of opportunity for transformational and generational progressive change was probably 18–20 months at best. The racist instincts of a defeated GOP were only dormant for so long. Ultimately, the party revealed itself through the block-everything-the-Black-guy-does position it took. Mitch McConnell even said it out loud, saying the entire GOP platform was to make Obama a one-term president. They were going to lay their lives on the line to halt any progress under Obama, and so we were only ever going to get what we got in those first two years.

Does that absolve Obama of his centrism and corporatism? Absolutely not. Because if Donald Trump has proven anything, it’s that you can do just about anything when you have the desire and political capital to do so. And for a moment, while the liberal establishment was basking in their own self satisfaction for breaking a racial barrier, they forgot that the fight had only just begun.

To liberals, Barack Obama was the change they hoped for. Progressives hoped he would bring change.

And in a way, I guess he did. By firmly defending the status quo, he ushered in the biggest change this country has ever seen.

The job of progressives won’t be done until we’ve normalized Medicare for All as much as they’ve normalized drone strikes, mass surveillance and violent deportations. Until the bottom 50% sees increases in wealth as staggering as the top 1% has. Until we stop being self satisfied just because we elected a Black man to the White House. Barack Obama was the most qualified person in that race and we allowed him to succumb to the status quo.

But there’s no question he personally embodies family values. He loves his wife and children more than anything. He remains devoted to his faith. He was certainly tough on crime, ruthless on the border and an expansive commander in chief. He partnered with the business community and protected them every step of the way, believing the free markets would deliver prosperity for the poor and the working class. He was fiscally responsible and made sure to keep taxes nice and low. And he could devour a hot dog at a barbecue with the best of them.

So very relatable. So very American.

Like I said, the greatest Republican president of my lifetime.

Here endeth the lesson.

Image Source

• United States Government, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Changes were made.