When Barack Obama took office, he wasn't just expected to clean up Bush's mess, he was expected to be a transformational president. He was expected to change the entire trajectory of America by placing us on a fundamentally different path.
And in many ways he has. He brought us back from the worst financial collapse since the Great Depression. He killed Bin Laden. The Stock Market is at historic highs. Unemployment is down to 5.8%. We've seen 56 consecutive months of job growth, the longest streak of gains since 1939.
And biggest of all, he got the Affordable Care Act passed and implemented, which, despite its flaws and hiccups, will end up being one of the greatest Liberal victories in the history of America, right up there with FDR passing Social Security in 1935.
But despite many substantial victories, Obama's tenure thus far has been marred by what ifs and missed opportunities. Time and time again, he abandoned Liberal principles and caved to Republican demands, inflaming his base in the name of trying to reach common ground.
In 2009 he bowed to Wall Street and let the banksters who crashed our economy off the hook scot-free. In 2010 he signed the Bush tax cuts into law, cementing an already tilted playing field even further toward the rich and against those struggling to get by. In 2013 he put cuts to Social Security known as chained CPI on the table in the hopes of reaching a Grand Bargain.
In recent years, he's wasted time waiting for Republicans to come around and pass common sense gun control, Immigration Reform, a minimum wage increase or a jobs bill, all to no avail.
Following the Midterm Elections, the conventional wisdom was that the new sweeping Republican majority would turn Obama into a lame duck, forcing him to abandon his agenda and work across the aisle.
But instead the exact opposite has happened.
Obama has become emboldened in a way we've never seen before.
He's abandoned the moderate, middle of the road bipartisan rhetoric and embraced his inner FDR.
Six years after being elected, he is finally acting like the liberal president progressives always wanted him to be.
ACTING ON CLIMATE
Obama's recent transformation from a centrist Democrat to an unapologetic Liberal can be seen on several fronts.
The first is taking major action on Climate Change by reaching a historic agreement with China to limit carbon emissions. While many critics have trashed the deal as not doing enough to prevent environmental doomsday, the truth is that it's the first ever agreement between the worlds' two biggest polluters to reform their ways. It's not just talk anymore. It's real.
It's also a major victory for the environmental movement because it will cause a trickle down effect. For years, countries all across the globe have refused to take action on Climate Change because, if the world's two biggest superpowers refuse to lift a finger, why should they?
That excuse for inaction is now gone.
Similarly, Republicans best excuse for doing nothing has gone up in smoke as well. With China signing on to take major action, the GOP can no longer call Climate Change a liberal hoax: it's now an internationally recognized reality. Republicans have also claimed that, even if the US were to cut carbon emissions, it wouldn't make a difference because China would continue to pollute. That excuse is gone as well.
But Obama isn't just stopping there. He's also pledged $3 Billion to the global climate fund to help developing countries address Climate Change.
At home, Obama is putting his money where his mouth is by hinting that he will veto the Keystone XL pipeline.
"Understand what the project is," he said recently at a press conference in Burma. "It is providing the ability of Canada to pump their oil, send it through our land, down to the Gulf, where it will be sold everywhere else."
Obama also rejected the idea that Keystone will be a boon for jobs or lower gas prices, which are already sinking lower each day.
"He's picked his side on this and he's sided with the environmentalists," said Republican Senator Mike Johanns of Nebraska.
DEFENDING LIBERAL PRINCIPLES
In addition to taking bold action on Climate Change, Obama has also come out swinging on two other Liberal fronts: Immigration Reform and Net Neutrality.
After years of inaction on Immigration, Obama is set to take executive action by allowing up to five million undocumented immigrants to stay in the country.
Republicans have decried the move for months, saying that any executive "amnesty" would be grounds for a lawsuit or even impeachment. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) vowed that any such order would "poison the well." But the truth is that the well was poisoned a long time ago.
It was poisoned on Inauguration Day in 2009 when GOP politicians met in secret to plan Obama's demise. It was poisoned when they demanded his birth certificate and shouted "you lie" during his State of the Union address.
As a result, Obama now has nothing to lose. He only stands to gain a major victory by doing the right thing for Latinos, his legacy and the Democrat party.
While the fight for Net Neutrality may not garner the same headlines as the US-China Climate Deal, the debate over Keystone XL or executive action on Immigration, it is an important reminder of how Obama is fighting tooth and nail for Liberal principles.
Major corporations like Comcast and Time Warner want to monetize the internet and split it down the middle, keeping a special fast lane for the rich and wealthy and making everyone else languish in the slow, dial-up lane.
Obama is defending the Liberal principles of freedom and equality by fighting against the corporate push to privatize the internet. He has been outspoken in his defense of Net Neutrality and the need to keep the internet open and free for all, not just for the rich who can afford it.
A NEW OBAMA
In many ways, the Democrats' crushing defeat in the 2014 Midterm Elections was the best thing that could have happened to Obama.
It liberated him. It freed him from the shackles of appeasement and moderation.
No longer does he have to worry about watering down his views in order to win an election. No longer does he have to meet Republicans half way in Congress. No longer is he forced to censor his positions for fear that he might upset fellow Democrats.
With two years left in office, the only people Obama has to answer to anymore are the millions of Americans who support him, his Liberal base; the people who still believe in hope and change, the people who elected him, twice.
And that is exactly what he's doing.
By taking bold action to address Climate Change, fix our broken immigration system and fight for a free and open internet, Obama is embracing his inner FDR.
After six years in office, he is finally acting like the liberal president progressives always wanted him to be.
