Can you Ruin America Any Further at This Point?

Except perhaps for the Nobel Committee, one can hardly come across those who are convinced that Barack Obama has a lot of merits. For the majority of people both in the US and outside it Obama’s reign symbolized the dark age of international politics. Not simlpy because there’s been a massive loss of civilian lives in many countries of the world, where out of the blue American bombs started raining from the skies, but due to the fact that American young men were sent abroad to fight and lose their lives in the name of US special interests. And this killing machine still keeps rolling, as it can be seen in Iraq’s Mosul, where the recent US Air Force airstrike resulted in 90 people killed, and a 100 more injured. And now we are being told it was yet another mistake.

As it’s been noted by the New York Post, the truth is that the Obama years have been among America’s worst for the economy. His eight years will go down in history as the Great Recession, even though for much, even most, of the span, we were not technically in a recession. It just felt that way. And no wonder. Obama’s is the only modern presidency that failed to show a single year of growth above 3 percent. The recent declines in the unemployment rate are due less to the uptick in employed persons than to an increasing number of persons leaving the labor force.

In turn, the Daily Caller says that across the Rust Belt and so much of America that is still chronically jobless and struggling, that you could hear a pin drop. The youth is the one to suffer the most from this situation, since, as the Pew Research Center notes, there were 10.2 million young adults aged 16-29 years who were not in education, employment, or training (NEET) back in 2015. Some observers also worry that large numbers of NEETs represent a potential source of social unrest.

Speaking at a conference organized by the Ripon Society, Republican pollster Ed Goeas warned the public that 72 percent of Americans fear an economic crash in on the horizon and that concern of such a catastrophe is the highest he can ever recall. “Concern over the economy is the highest I’ve ever seen,” Goeas told.

The Gallup public opinion research center, that has decades of experience behind it, says that there’s a growing number of US citizens who are confident in the financial dishonesty of their own government. The percentage of US adults who see corruption as pervasive has never been less than a majority in the past decade. Can we also say that it’s yet another Barack Obama’s achievement?

The Huffington Post reveals a split in the American society in the assessment of Obama’s heritage with 51% of Democrats saying that since Obama took office, their own lives have improved, the economy has gotten better and the United States has retained its role as the most powerful nation on Earth. Republicans disagree on all three points. The partisan divide over the president’s legacy, and the direction of the country as a whole, transcends all other demographic lines, far outstripping age, race, region or income level.

The level satisfaction with federal agencies and departments among the US population is in declide for for a third consecutive year, reaching an eight-year low, the CBS reports. And the situation is going to get worse, as it has been noted by Forrest Morgeson, director of research at the ACSI, who stated that “it’s much more difficult to govern if the entire population dislikes you.. “

And how does race influence perceptions of American society? According to the study conducted by the Rasmussen Reports, the racial divide in the US is a massive gap that nobody can jump across. In general, both white and black Americans hold equally pessimistic views about the state of race relations in the country today. Yet, a whopping 76% of African Americans are convinced that the racism got even more deeply rooted in the politicial system of the country in Obama’s two terms in office.

The study presented by an independent human rights organization The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights shows that the disproportionate criminalization of African Americans has served to reinforce segregation and income inequality over generations, and African American men are not its sole victims.

However, the Daily Caller takes down the popular belief that poverty in the United States is only plaguing black communities. According to the 2010 US Census (the last census year), the five poorest counties in the US are all at least 95 percent white. Four of the five poorest counties in America are in Kentucky. Generally speaking, the rural parts of Kentucky tend to be both white and very poor.

So is there’s something left for Obama to ruin in the remaining few weeks of “presidency”?

Grete Mautner is an indepenent researcher and journalist from Germany, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”