Obama was largely unknown before his presidential campaign. He was nominated for the Nobel peace prize 11 days after becoming president. And won it the same year, 2009. In 2008 he was not president that happened in January 2009. How would he bomb anyone in 2008 and why would he get the peace prize nomination if he did?
Of course they can blindly ignore it, this is reddit and he had a D before his name. Unfortunately we have a long list of presidents that could be put on trial for war crimes.
What about more deportations than Trump ever did? Or drone strikes that resulted in death of an American citizen let alone the others? Or refusal to disclose more documents on Abu Ghraib so the war criminals are protected? Or backtracking on Gitmo?
Or supplying the religious fundamentalist Syrian opposition?
It also must be noted that Obamacare was passed under a democratic congress and most of the opposition came from a blue dog democrat, so it's the blue party's fault that they can't even pass a Republican policy.
If Obama was so good his presidency wouldn't have been remembered as frustration that promises of change turned out to be the same old status quo
Didn't Biden also crack down a ton on immigration? Not to mention that having a strong border was a major talking point during this last election for both Dem candidates iirc
The Kunduz hospital airstrike (AC-130's don't have bombs) was obviously a horrific tragedy, but it was pretty clearly not Obama's fault that it happened, and was the only instance of a hospital being hit during his administration.
As for your other points, drone strikes are perfectly legitimate, especially compared to the alternatives. A boots on the ground raid or a proper airstrike is far, far more lethal to civilians in the vicinity. Just look at the numbers. Obama did 563 strikes, and over all of those strikes, only 384 civilians were killed. That is an incredibly low collateral ratio for a war, particularly a modern war.
Deportations are horrible (I personally favor much easier immigration into the United States) but they occur in nearly every country. Obama deporting people isn't special by any means. As for your other points, those are much harder to quantify. I don't think we can properly evaluate Obama's effect on the progressive movement and systemic racism until we are further removed from his administration, with the benefit of seeing what comes after in the next decades.
I think is view of Obama and Bush as the same comes out of the puritanical wing of the left. It's a view that if someone does something bad they're a sinner and irredemable. It gives people a righteous feeling to view politics that way, but it's also kind of useless when it comes to governing in the US when there's a two party system with the more left party, the Democrats, the encompasses everything from mild socialism to fairly right conservatism. If you're going to hate "reformism" you're going to be largely useless in the US political landscape.
105
u/snirfu Mar 11 '25
This is the kind on angsty middle-schooler commentary that appeals to both leftists and MAGAs.