0 Hail to the ‘Liberal’ chief

President Barack Hussein Obama revealed his true colors in his second inauguration speech on Monday, to the delight of his diehard liberal supporters. While Americans who reelected him must brace for a more intrusive government under Obama, it remains unclear just how far he can stretch this activism into his foreign policy. The opportunity to serve a second-term has always been seen as a chance for a president to build his legacy by striving for achievements he would like both the people and history to remember them for. 

Limited to serving only two terms, a reelected American president would be able to concentrate fully on fighting for issues that endear him the most. For Obama, based on his speech, these would include universal healthcare, climate change, voting rights, immigration rights and gay rights. With no more reelection worries, the US’s first African-American president will likely push a broad-based liberal agenda over the next four years. He will also fight the fight, and tackle his detractors in the Republican-controlled Congress. 

Obama has already proven his mettle when he forced Republicans to cave in on the fiscal cliff last month. Gone are the days of the role of a consensus-builder that Obama played in the early part of his first term, or the lame-duck president in the latter part. America’s increasingly dysfunctional system of democracy needs: a strong and committed leader, whatever his agenda is. It is not clear whether Obama Part II will be as meddlesome abroad. 

Having ended two costly and inconclusive wars during his first term, Obama implied that the United States would continue to preserve its military superiority, working through security alliances around the world. He also indicates a more moralist, as opposed to a realist, foreign policy, promising to support democracy around the globe “because our interests and our conscience compel us to act on behalf of those who long for freedom”. Would his “pivot to Asia” include liberating repressed Asian nations? 

Can he pull it off though? One thing we can rule out is another disastrous regime-change campaign like president George W. Bush tried in Iraq. Whether Obama succeeds in pushing his agenda, Americans and the rest of the world will have to accept the fact that he is the elected president. Deal with it.

Hail to the liberal American president.
source : the jakarta post