Obama’s Legacy

Since the moment that Barack Obama became president of the United States in 2008, and over the following eight years, the political situation in the world has changed significantly. Whether we’re talking about, among other issues, the restoration of diplomatic relations with Cuba, his support of the fight against climate change, the nuclear deal with Iran, or his refusal to send troops into Syria, his policies were very different from those of his predecessors, and represented a watershed in recent history. The legacy of this president, for the United States and for the whole world, is simply unquestionable.

Domestically, his presidency was marked by policies in the social sector which required a lot of effort to advance, and which have had a positive impact on the lives of millions of people, such as health care reform. Furthermore, in spite of the 2009 crisis, the Obama administration ended November 2016 with an unemployment rate of 4.6 percent, compared to 10 percent in 2009, according to U.S. Department of Labor data.

The achievements discussed above are undeniably important. Now, however, barely 12 days from the transition of power in the U.S. which will see the end of the Obama era and the beginning of the Donald Trump administration, the legacy of the first African-American U.S. president, as much at home as abroad, is in jeopardy, if not at outright risk of being destroyed by the New York tycoon.

Although it is clear that Trump – and with him the Republicans, who will have control of both houses of Congress – will try to highlight the differences between him and his predecessor in practically every area, we will have to see if his incendiary rhetoric about tearing down Obama’s great projects translates into real change. The tycoon does, for now, have the political and institutional framework for this, but it could make him very unpopular, both inside and outside the United States.

Regarding Mexico, for example, there also appears to be serious difficulty in giving concrete shape to Trump’s threats to reconfigure or scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement; doing so would require Trump to do battle on multiple fronts. The same goes for his threats to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.

It is a fact that Trump is planning actions based on outdated economic paradigms like protectionism, even though this is completely unviable in the 21st century. Because of this, he will also have to address the human impact that his agenda would have.

Obama leaves the White House with several of his pledges unfulfilled and others still pending. In most cases, this was because of the immobility imposed on him by the Republicans or because of the complexity of the situations he was dealing with. However, he will leave his mark on history, which will have the responsibility of judging him.