How Obama's failures paved the way for American socialism

The soaring hopes and eventual bitter disappointments of his presidency have empowered an unapologetically left-wing agenda

A presidency of soaring hopes and eventual bitter disappointments.
(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The year 2008 was an auspicious time to graduate from college. I have been a political obsessive since my early life, but as a science major, I had not paid much attention to political economy, focusing instead on the war in Iraq, the war on drugs, and civil liberties. So when the economy entered free-fall in early 2008, hemorrhaging millions of jobs just as I was set to enter the job market, it felt as though the foundations of America were cracking apart.

It seemed like an all-hands-on-deck moment, and led me to my first moment of electoral political activism: knocking on doors for the Democratic nominee, Barack Obama. When he and his party won a gigantic victory, and the president-elect gave a thrilling victory speech, it seemed as though everything that was wrong with America was about to be set right. George W. Bush was just an anomaly on the road to a better and brighter future.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.