Obama’s legacy

posted at 12:55 pm on September 19, 2010 by Steven Den Beste

A long time ago I came to the conclusion that one of the motives driving Obama is his concern over his legacy. How will he be seen once he leaves office? In particular, given that he’s the first President who isn’t white, what kind of record will he leave behind for the next non-white to make the attempt?

Will voters say, “Oh boy! This guy might be another Obama!” or will they say, “God help us, he might be another Obama”? Obama doesn’t want it to be the latter.

Unfortunately, it is increasingly looking as if that will be his legacy. The Obama administration is rapidly shaping up as a good bad-example. Obama has done nearly everything wrong that he possibly could do. Those that follow will learn from his example not what to do but rather what not to do.

Here’s some of what not to do:

1. Believe your own press clippings. An obsequious press wouldn’t lie, would they?

2. Staff your entire administration with people out of the ivory tower. No one needs any practical experience if they’re smart enough, and virtuous enough.

3. Value world opinion above all other things. Everywhere you go, apologize. Bow and kneel.

4. Believe that weakness is a form of strength. If you disarm, everyone else will, too.

5. Your face and voice are your most important weapons. Use them. Keep using them. Your main job is public appearances!

6. Believe in miracles. If you order the world to cool, the oceans to fall, the economy to grow, the nation’s enemies to vanish, well, it’ll happen.

7. Never admit mistakes. Everything bad that happens is someone else’s fault. Make sure to identify exactly who, and tell everybody incessantly.

8. Always keep in mind that it’s all about you.

9. Spend! Spend! Spend!

10. Push your agenda through, by hook or by crook, even in the face of voter opposition.

Obama wanted to be a transformative president, the left’s answer to Reagan. Unfortunately for Obama, he’s going to transform the country, alright, but in the long run it will be the same direction as Reagan.

I think it will take decades to undo most of the damage that Obama has caused (mainly by out-of-control spending and expansion of government) but it’ll happen, and this country will survive it. At the end of Obama’s one-and-only term as president, the country will be wounded but still standing.

Obama’s main legacy is going to be to utterly blacken the reputation of the “Progressive” political program for the next fifty years, if not even longer.

History will judge Obama’s biggest historical effect to be the backlash he will inspire against him among voters. His most important legacy will be the Tea Party movement, which wouldn’t have happened without him.

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