No drama Obama leads to tumultuous Trump

On reflection, a more assertive Barack Obama would have been better for the world.

The recently published trove of torture documents http://nyti.ms/2iPxDC2 exposing the war crimes of the CIA in using torture as a part of their treatment of prisoners tells a story that reflects badly on the Obama presidency.

Those newly released details from the complete record which was collected by the Senate Intelligence Committee and which is vulnerable to being permanently buried by imposition of a "national security" fiat, by Donald Trump, are part and parcel of the cover-up of torture which makes Obama an accomplice after the fact.

Whatever virtue Barack Obama may have had as President, he will need to answer to history for his political cowardice in refusing to prosecute the perpetrators of torture, including his confessed predecessors, Bush and Cheney, who have written of their endorsement of torture. Obama refused to investigate and ultimately to prosecute saying, "we tortured some folks" and "we need to look forward."

Looking forward is exactly what the founders of the American experiment in democracy were doing in trying to balance the power of the state as over against the rights of citizens. They did not assume that those who would follow them in office and in power would always be wise or even virtuous. They distrusted the centralisation of power in the Executive and made that office one of carrying out the people's will in the form of their representative bodies.

Obama's arrogance or false optimism allowed him to underestimate the partisan opposition he faced to his own domestic programmes.

That should have prepared him for the possibilities of a successor less steeped in history, less able or willing to respect democratic traditions and much more willing to use the powers of government against anyone, foreign or domestic perceived as a threat to personal vainglory, in short the very person the founders tried to guard against.

A dominant theme of Obama's politics was its domestic timidity.

So striking was this a feature that the acerbic columnist, Maureen Dowd, caricatured him as "Obambi".

Those who supported his initiatives saw his negotiating style as amateurish.

In his dealings with congressional adversaries he started with his fall-back position. If this were a boxing match he looked like someone throwing the fight.

In his final press conference he admitted that he's not always "No drama, Obama" but acknowledged he does get angry.

It was clearly a personal decision not to exhibit anger as a black man in a white man's world. That posture even became the stuff of late night comedy as the duo of Key & Peele, themselves, like Obama, biracial, made laughter out of an impersonation of Obama together with an "anger translator."

But anger is both human and necessary.

Obama made the mistake of withholding his anger at the outset of his presidency when, during his State of the Union address, Republican Representative Joe Wilson shouted out, "You lie!"

The President pretended not to notice and carried on. But everyone else, especially his opponents, took notice and made their calculations accordingly. Anyone else -anyone white, that is - would have stopped the proceedings and ordered the offender out of the chamber expressing appropriate anger for the man's failure to express proper regard for the office of the President.

If he had done so, I believe he would have solidified his support and demonstrated the full legitimacy of his command of office In that instance (and I would argue substantively, subsequently) Obama failed to respect his office.
In an ironic reflection, he ought to have taken a leaf from the career of O.J. Simpson (before the murders).

Questioned about the glad reception O.J was given even by those who pointedly excluded other blacks, he said, "I'm not black. I'm O.J." Neither is the President of the United States. Obama needed to know that and act accordingly. His failure will now be ours.

The stain of torture goes far deeper than the colour of skin or the damage done to scar it.

Now we have a president who wants to bring it back.

*Jay Kuten is an American-trained forensic psychiatrist who emigrated to New Zealand for the fly fishing. He spent 40 years comforting the afflicted and intends to spend the rest afflicting the comfortable.