Counter-Reform

The swearing in of a new U.S. Congress, with its Republican majority in the House of Representatives, will mark the beginning of a rollback in the main reforms adopted by President Obama during his tenure so far, like health care, the fight against climate change, and financial system regulation. So promised the Republican Party during campaigning leading up to the November midterm elections, and so it will do from the start, judging by the statements of its top leaders before taking their House seats today. Add to this the opening of a Congressional investigation over WikiLeaks, announced by Republicans, confident that it will hurt Obama politically.

The new majority in the House of Representatives is criticizing not only the substance of the President’s policies but also, and above all, the ideological baggage they imply. For Republicans, health care reform could be proof that Obama seeks to make the U.S. a socialist country. A commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would confirm the resignation of the White House from its responsibilities as head of the leading world power, yielding to foreign demands. And the timid reform of the financial system could show that Obama is against the free market. These are simple slogans without any correspondence to fact, but they have permeated the electorate and threaten to inspire policies that would leave the U.S. and the international community defenseless against problems that require close cooperation and decisive U.S. leadership.

The majority obtained by the Republicans in the House isn’t enough to overturn the reforms, although it is enough to hinder them, increasing the disenchantment felt by Democratic voters and reducing the chances for Obama to win a second term. That seems to be the Republican strategy, eager to turn the president into a historical parenthesis, if not an anomaly.The reality could, however, be the opposite: In a country that has boasted that it doesn’t tolerate lies in politics, the most radical Republicans have converted them into a habitual resource on the path to power. Obama has failed to find an effective way to combat such lies, and so the composition of the new Congress will mark a turning point in the initiatives that can now be undertaken.