Well, the election is over and it went the way we expected. Voter turnout was terrible. Only 36.3 percent of eligible voters cast votes. The worst turnout in 72 years with only the 1942 election lower at 33.9 percent. The result was a combination of systematic politically executed schemes instituting voter suppression by the Republicans combined with naive, lackadaisical, plain laziness by the Democrats. More people went and shopped on Black Friday than went to the polls — shameful.
I decided to actually look at what has transpired since President Barack Obama’s inauguration in January 2009, when the Executive Branch changed hands. Unemployment in 2009 stood at 7.8 percent, and now it is 5.8 percent; GDP Growth in 2009 went from 5.4 percent to 3.5 percent in 2014; deficit GDP in 2009 stood at 9.8 percent compared to 2.8 percent currently; the Dow Jones Index went from 7.949 in 2009 to 17.573 in 2014; and consumer confidence increased from 37.7 in 2009 to 94.5 in 2014.
Millions of Americans who could not afford health care are now for the first time receiving coverage due to President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, which is only just approaching those of all the advanced industrial countries, and the numbers grow daily.
Some of the lows include Congressional approval at 11 percent (compared to 9 percent just prior to the mid-term election), while the president’s approval is at 47 percent — lower than Harry S. Truman, Jimmy Carter, and Gerald Ford.
In six years under President Obama, notwithstanding having to deal with the worst Congress in our nation’s history proudly admitting its primary goal is to destroy Obama’s presidency and limit it to one term (which failed), we’ve made incredible progress as a country. In the face of the incredible obstruction, the president has continued to fight for “We the People” and lead us forward while his opponents fought for the 5/4 Supreme Court “Distortion of People.”
That’s what a successful presidency looks like.
Nicholas Zizelis
Bayside
