A year on: a new birth of freedom?

Richard Robinson‘s Speech Bubble

If truth be told you probably won’t remember what you were doing a year ago today. Barack Obama will – he was elected the 44th president of the United States. Momentarily the world stood still, from New York to New Delhi, Warsaw to Damascus, Madrid to Panama City, right the way across the globe, to celebrate an historic victory as we witnessed what some phrased a “new birth of freedom”.

In a speech comprising precisely 2051 words, the first ever black president of the US spoke to the world from his home city of Chicago, proclaiming:

“it’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America”.

On 4th November 2009, one year later, just what is the reality, how can we judge Obama’s first 10 months in office, and to what extent has change “Obama style” manifested itself?

His critics crowd to line up and fire their ammunition. In his new book, The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama’s Historic Victory, David Plouffe sets out Obama’s conviction that:

“the country needed deep, fundamental change; Washington wasn’t thinking long-term, the special interests and lobbyists had too much power, and the American people needed to once again trust and engage in their democracy.”.

Yet Plouffe rebuffs poignantly that whilst a lot has happened during Obama’s first year, the audacity of winning has given way to the timidity of governing.

For Catherine Lutz, the 44th president of the United States was elected amid hopes that he would roll back his country’s global dominance. She berates the fact that now he is commander-in-chief of an unprecedented network of military bases that is still expanding. The birth of a new freedom? Not according to Lutz, who highlights how many of the Obama administration’s diplomatic efforts are being directed towards maintaining and garnering new access for the US military across the globe.

The global reach of the US military today is unprecedented and unparalleled. Officially, more than 190,000 troops and 115,000 civilian employees are massed in approximately 900 military facilities in 46 countries and territories (the unofficial figure is far greater).

In the UK, criticism has been equally stinging and only last month the senior political editor of the New Statesman, Mehdi Hasan, continued the offensive when he wrote:

“Obama promised a sharp break from the Bush era, yet he seems to have stepped into the shoes of his disgraced predecessor.”

So, can we find any solace for Obama? It’s easy to forget that he inherited Bush’s inbox from hell. On Healthcare Reform, for example, this has been the bete noire of US politics ever since Hillary Clinton’s plan for universal coverage failed 14 years ago. Progress has been painfully slow over the past year. However, taking into account the conservative and sceptical predilection of the American electorate, it’s hardly surprising they have not yet been wooed as of yet.

Had it not been for the huge expectations in the United States and abroad, Obama’s first 12 months in office might seem more of a success.

Where change has come we can more confidently point to incrementally benign effects. Obama can take comfort in shepherding the US economy back to growth, though rampant unemployment presents a grave political threat. His Nobel Prize suggests he made good on a promise to rescue the US image abroad.

He has also successfully lifted curbs on federal funding for stem cell research, banned torture, outlawed pay discrimination for female workers, reined in predatory credit card companies and launched a push for a green energy economy. And on the international front he has transformed the climate for US diplomacy, and promised a “new beginning” with the Muslim world during a powerful speech in Cairo.

Don’t forget, as well, the genuinely progressive policies on tax that Obama is developing which of course won’t make the headlines, but will nevertheless redistribute income from the top 5% earners above 200,000 dollars to the other 95%.

One year on, President Obama cannot bask in a glorious presidential legacy. Yet he has never aspired to. This is no time to carp from the sidelines. Change is hard, as we on the left well know. Oscar Wilde acknowledged that whilst socialism is great, it takes too many evenings.

Obama still encapsulates in his demeanour, his belief system and the hope that manifested itself so gloriously a year ago today, a brighter tomorrow. His vision and inspiration remains the best opportunity for a re-ordering of a global world that as progressives, we yearn and clamour for, and that we aspire to.