Obama’s Gift to Trump Is a Neoliberal Trainwreck

[Draggingtree]

Observer:

Obama’s Gift to Trump Is a Neoliberal Trainwreck

 

Obama and Clinton loyalists have praised the president—but for most Americans, such gains are nowhere to be found

 

By Michael Sainato • 12/07/16 10:00am

As Barack Obama’s presidency comes to an end, his administration continues to disappoint many progressives still expecting the hope and change promised during his 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns. In many areas where Obama had the opportunity to deviate from the status quo, he fully embraced it instead.

 

Under his presidency, the United States maintained an interventionist foreign policy spearheaded by Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. During Obama’s first five years as president, the U.S. exported $30 billion more in weapons to foreign governments than George W. Bush did in eight. These weapons fueled unrest and violence in the Middle East. Obama has bombed seven foreign countries throughout his presidency: Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Libya and Syria. This includes fully embracing and spreading the highly controversial use of drone strikes across the globe, even though they are known to kill innocent civilians. All of this in spite of Obama promising in 2008, “I will not waste a minute brokering Middle East peace.”