Wednesday, July 17, 2019
American Politics in the Context of Obamaââ¬â¢s Election and First 100 Days Essay
The choice of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th electric chair of the United States is a watershed in the score of American politics. In a country were blacks were at a time prohibited from choose sound because of the color of their skin, his climb into the White House is indeed a milest angiotensin converting enzyme. Obamas conquest is often attributed to s everal factors, including changes in voting behavior and populace opinion and constant media exposure. normal support of his presidentship did non break off with the pick hype a 2009 Associated Press-GfK poll revealed that belt up 48% of Americans were satisfied with the economic outcomes of the Obama presidencys starting time light speed days (Philstar. com n. pag. ). The rise of the Obama regime had a tremendous impact on American politics. It brought about the prospect of women and minorities gaining a greater voice in political institutions. But Obamas first nose candy days in office told a distinguishab le story. His first 100 days revealed that the sub bearing of his regime remained largely the same as that of George W. Bushs.This just goes to show that in the context of Obamas election and first 100 days, American politics changed its modality but retained its hegemonic and elitist nature. Winning the nomination prove to be a greater ch aloneenge for Obama than kind the general elections. Because of a national political form attached to her and her husband, Hillary Clinton was initially chosen by the democrat Party to become its presidential candidate (Ceaser, Busch and Pitney 15). Although Obama was young, charismatic, cerebral and self-assured, the Democrats were apprehensive about his lack of invite in the political scene (Ceaser, Busch and Pitney 16).This weakness would probably not sit well with the American electorate, who were desperate for a leader who could rectify the damaging mistakes of the Republican disposal (Ceaser, Busch and Pitney 15). But shifts in the economic and demographic profile of American voters rendered Obama a more suitable presidential candidate than Clinton. As of 2004, about 56. 6% of American voters were below 30 years old (Dahl n. pag. ). majority of these individuals grew up using the Internet as an internal tool for work, study and leisure.When the Clintons staged their last national campaign in 1996, the Internet was just a fledgling industry. Obamas youth and tech hollow (he kept a Blackberry with him at all times), therefore, would make him more appealing to the aforementioned voters age group than Clinton (Ceaser, Busch and Pitney 106). Obama must restrain been aw ar of these advantages of his his election campaign involved chiefly the utilization of the Internet. By April 2007, he already had 1,543,000 friends in his account in the social-networking website MySpace. com. In sharp contrast, Clinton further had 41,500 people in her network (Dupuis and Boeckelman 123).In the mould of 2008, Obama had at least 1 million friends in Twitter, while Clinton only had 330,000. Although they had the same number of reckonbook friends during this period, the websites largest pro-Obama group had over 500,000 members, while the largest Facebook group that support Clinton only had 30,000 members (Tapscott 252). Furthermore, Obamas rhetoric reflected the American publics disillusionment with traditional political ideologies. His slogan, revision You Can Believe In, appealed to voters because it did not bombard them with highfaluting dogmas.Rather, it showed them that change meant exploring for new solutions to problems. The American people did not give way to make do with traditional solutions which Obama believed set about already failed them in the past. For instance, he is constantly criticized for his copulation youth and limited high-level government inexperience. Obama downplayed this invade by claiming that Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld have an awful vision of experience, and ye t have engineered what I think is one of the biggest exotic policy failures in our recent bill (Dupuis and Boeckelman 123).Through this argument, he pointed out that adherence to radiation pattern is not always the best for the nation. There are instances when the government and the people must work together and come up with new solutions. In addition, Obama created a firm connection between himself and the people by letting them know that he also underwent their plights. In his campaign speeches, he often used his experience as the son of a working charr and as the husband of a working fair sex in order to show to the people that he knew how it felt to be in their shoes (Leanne 52).He knew how it was to be poor, marginalized and to work hard just to affirm ends meet. Thus, his cynicism towards conventional ideologies he and so many different Americans remained impoverished despite their application. Given such a democrat and down-to-earth campaign strategy, it was no eigh t-day surprising if Obama won a landslide victory in the 2008 national elections. But his first 100 days in office revealed that his regime was basically the same as that of George W. Bushs. Obamas first 100 days revealed the right-wing character of his administration and the class interests that it serves (Eley n.pag. ). If there was any difference at all, it was the approach Bush assumed a warmonger-like stance to obtain the presidency, while Obama adopted a populist one. Obama continued the Bush administrations militarist and aggressive foreign policy. Although he promised that he exit all American good deals out of Iraq, troop levels in Iraq remained virtually unchanged. Furthermore, Obama expanded the war in Afghanistan and even extended it to Pakistan. Worse, he proposed a exoneration budget worth $664 billion believed to be the largest annexation for soldiers spending in American record (Eley n. pag. ).The prison camp at Guantanamo Bay remain open, despite Obamas pl edge to eventually close it down. As a result, its inmates are at danger of being shipped to US military prisons such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan, where they can be tortured and or killed in secret. Under the guise of moving on, he blocked all investigations and or criminal pursuit of parties that were responsible for the torture of detainees in US military prisons across the world. Obamas government also intervened in the procedures of several court cases in order to defy habeas corpus to detainees in US military prisons in Afghanistan (Eley n.pag. ). While Obama was busy perpetuating Bushs foreign policy, the American economy further deteriorated. Mounting layoffs took place, on with wage cuts, home foreclosures and depreciation of real body politic value and retirement savings. These developments, in turn, resulted in escalating crave and homelessness. But instead of creating concrete solutions to put an end to these calamities, the Obama administration used billions o f dollars in public bills to bail financial institutions such as AIG, Lehman Brothers and Merrill lynch out of bankruptcy.Worsening the situation was that these banks were discovered to have been doling out huge portions of the bailout money to their executives as bonuses (Eley n. pag. ). It is in truth ironic that Obama, a black man who undergo growing up poor and marginalized, would end up perpetuating the repressive and anti-poor policies of his predecessor. But what Obama did reflected the recourse that the US intimately probably resorted to in order to steer itself from the economic crisis tighten its grip over the Third World.It is during the trustworthy economic crisis that the US needs unlimited nark to the natural resources of the Third World more than ever before. Thus, the Obama administrations promise of change was replaced with the de facto extension of the Bush regime. Works Cited AP Poll After Obamas 100 Days, US on Right Track. 24 April 2009. Philstar. com. 4 May 2009 . Ceaser, James W. , Andrew E. Busch, and John J. Pitney. epic Journey The 2008 Elections and American Politics. freshly York Rowman & Littlefield, 2009. Dahl, Melissa.Youth right to vote May have been Key in Obamas Win. 5 November 2008. MSNBC. 4 May 2009 . Dupuis, Martin, and Keith Boeckelman. Barack Obama The New Face of American Politics. Santa Barbara Greenwood Publishing Group, 2008. Eley, Tom. Obamas 100 Days. 29 April 2009. GlobalResearch. ca. 4 May 2009 . Leanne, Shel. Say It Like Obama The spot of Speaking with Purpose and Vision. New York McGraw-Hill Professional, 2008. Tapscott, Don. Grown Up Digital How the Net Generation is changing Your World. New York McGraw-Hill Professional, 2008.
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