Him.

The past eight years in the United States are thought, by most, to be the years of the worst presidency in the history of the United States. It began on a rainy day in Washington, DC in January of 2000. Protesters were all over the capital shouting at the man that some had thought did not honestly win the election. I know some share my opinion that he was appointed by the Supreme Court. He spent a large portion of his first two years as President on vacation, and when his moment to shine arrived, he was asleep at the wheel. The attacks of 9/11 provided the United States government an opportunity to thoroughly re-evaluate its foreign policy. They could have listened to those that wished to do them harm and acted to bring more peace to the world. Instead, in what he must have considered an attempt to save his presidency, he failed to allow a proper investigation of these attacks and 9/11 is now, shamefully, known as the excuse a government, unaware of its own limitations, used to initiate two aggressive and invasive wars that have offered nothing to the world but hundreds of thousands dead, millions dislocated, some tortured, and with the greatest world power left standing on weak knees.

He certainly was the worst President of the United States. So awful you would think it would be easy for the individual who followed to bring positive change. All he would need to do is bring transparency and honesty to a government which has lacked any; a government which owes this honesty and transparency to the people which it serves. He could bring justice to those who have suffered injustice at the hands of the government. He could end the ridiculous deficits and military spending. He could do all of this and at least some respect would be awarded. He simply needed to act on those atrocities which have brought the most shame to the American people, and he would win most people over. He doesn’t even need to support the same ideals that I do; he could simply do the right thing. Unfortunately, instead of a president who would take action to bring change for the better, who would do the right thing, we’ve got an above average speaker, with a strong voice and a nice smile, who appears to lack any ambition to do anything at all that might ruffle any feathers, anywhere, ever.

He’s a president who calls on his citizens to sacrifice, while he spends like a drunken sailor. He’s a president who calls for change, while he requests continual funding to fight the same wars. He’s a president who called for the injustices of Guantanamo to end, while defending his right to commit the same injustices in Bagram. He’s a president who calls for responsibility, while expects no corporation to take responsibility for their mistakes. He’s a president who releases only some of the information he has on the torture the US Government has committed, WHILE CALLING FOR NO INDEPENDENT CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION ON THOSE WHO COMMITTED THESE CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY. He’s a president who says absolutely nothing while a member of his own party, a House Representative, is caught on tape selling out her country for a job. He’s a president who laughs off an individual’s right to ingest whichever plant he or she wants as if it’s just those crazy internet people who want it. He’s a president who is unjustly taxing our future generations without representation, while continually appointing members to his cabinet who are too inept to pay their own. He’s a president who calls for transparency, promises to put every bill online for 5 days, and passes a $800 billion bill without even giving congress time to read it. He’s a president who calls for transparency and has offered no support for HR1207, a bill that would require an audit of the Federal Reserve.

While TV pundits argue over if what he has done is right or wrong, I’m more concerned over that which is most obvious. It’s obviously wrong to tax future generations with extravagant deficits as they have no representation today. It’s obviously wrong to defend holding prisoners from third-party countries indefinitely without charges or trial. It’s obviously wrong to pass a law without allowing the people whom you serve time to read it. It’s obviously wrong to claim to support individual liberties, and then grant immunity to the telco’s for breaking the law (though, he did this before he was President). It’s obviously wrong to support imprisoning someone for smoking a plant. It’s obviously wrong for the people to not have full oversight over the Federal Reserve. It’s obviously wrong to not investigate and charge ALL who were involved in torturing individuals; the soldiers, the doctors, the lawyers, the CIA agents, and the politicians.

It’s obviously wrong for those in the media to focus on the republicans making an ass of themselves while they should be focusing on the obvious wrongs his administration is committing. As an individual, I don’t care if some right-wing talking head thinks we should’ve ignored that torture happened, I’m more concerned that the “leader of the free world” lacks the testicular fortitude to go after those who broke the law. I’m more concerned that he laughs off a law which is responsible for America having the highest incarceration rates in the world, when he himself isn’t so innocent. I’m more concerned that when the citizens of the United States hold protests across the country, the media focuses on the fringe and his administration laughs it off, because, even though they’re creating deficits that will haunt their country and its citizens for generations, they’re not raising taxes.

Often people compare this president to the great Abraham Lincoln or FDR. As I reflect on his first one-hundred days, give or take one or two, I have a nervous feeling his term as president will unfortunately bring about a mixture of those two presidencies that no one, even those of us across the border up north, will remember fondly.