Mr. Change’s Promises

His health care reform doesn’t change the system; environmental protection remains as it was; the economy is still prostrate. Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, wanted to make people forget the 43rd; instead, he reminds us of him more and more every day.

Easter, we’ve been taught, is a time of reflection that brings with it the possibility of new insights. Whether they’re better insights is another question, but they’re different ones in any case. For example, our insights into a politician who truly stands among the most powerful on earth. A politician whom many worshipped as a messiah before he even took office. Many expected him to be able to walk on water. There were many indications that he could; or perhaps just his promises pointed in that direction. His promises were like a soothing salve to the American people as well as to their European friends. He promised cooperation as well as a return to former values. The name Barack Obama became a symbol of those hopes.

Welcome Mister Change

It’s a different picture today. The 44th president of the U.S. hoped to make Americans forget all about the 43rd. But with each passing day, he increasingly reminds us of him. What he does appears increasingly to contradict what he promised. It’s as if he promised too much. The economy still suffers, environmental policy is unchanged and health care reform didn’t change the system — it only solidified the current structure, much of which had been around since Richard Nixon. Wall Street hasn’t been tamed and is still influential in the Obama administration. The war in Afghanistan has intensified, the Guantanamo prison camp remains open and the military tribunals continue. And it seems as though Obama’s progressive base is most disappointed with how he pursues his human rights agenda.

Obama rejected the suggestions of a “truth commission” convened for dealing with past cases of torture and deprivation of human rights. The unprecedented openness of available documents resulted in a course of action predicated by one inglorious example: George W. Bush’s administration. But confidentiality still takes precedence over everything. Obama proceeds more aggressively against those who leak information than Bush did. The conservative Heritage Foundation is by and large very satisfied with Obama. It sees little difference between Bush and Obama, especially in the general atmosphere surrounding government. Of course, Obama can’t walk on water. Neither can he change everything overnight. But can’t he come up with clear policies that could be tailored to different situations that would allow achievement of the possible? He, who came on the scene to make dreams and hopes come true, has been brought down to earth. Fundamental change isn’t his thing; he is the master of compromise.

Obama thinks of himself as being extremely pragmatic, and therein we find our new insight. He’s right in that he is more a promise of what a majority of people in the United States and Europe want to see in him. He offers a new language, but the answers are known from their context. Its scope follows the conservative traditions of America; thus it’s not surprising that he and NATO bombard Gadhafi’s compound in Tripoli. The last person to do that was also a “great communicator”: Ronald Reagan, who told terrorists, “You can run but you can’t hide.” That’s something Obama might have said as well. So times change. But Easter is past. And the times also change us as they change Obama every day he’s in office. Our hope for change persists. So does our hope for Obama.