Eight years of President Obama in office forever changed the Democrat Party. However, having lost, however, so slightly, but nonetheless, decisively, a Presidential Election that despite the odds was theirs too loose against a candidate who although not ideal and would go on to win decisively with winning less than half the country, following the Democrat Party’s miscue after miscue, The Democrat Party will need a lot of that Obama Era glue to pull itself back together again.
The Inauguration of Donald J. Trump as the 47th President
WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 20: Former US President Barack Obama (L) attends the inauguration of Donald Trump in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on January 20, 2025, in Washington, DC. Donald Trump takes office for his second term as the 47th president of the United States. (Photo by Saul Loeb – Pool/Getty Images)
Jade Lopez, CRDN
January 22, 2025
On Jan. 20th, 2009, Barack Obama took office as the 44th President of the United States. For the next eight years, he made an ever-lasting impact on the nation, redefining the Democratic Party. One of the former president’s main focuses was healthcare. The Affordable Care Act (ACA), or “Obamacare,” aimed to make affordable healthcare more accessible to millions of people, specifically those with mid-to-low incomes who may not have access otherwise. With a wide range of plans, the ACA was successful in achieving its goal of expanding Medicaid to cover incomes, mainly those on or below the federal poverty line, reducing the uninsured rate to 7.7% by 2023, the lowest our country has ever seen, and required that all insurance companies cover essential health benefits such as outpatient services, emergency visits, hospitalization, maternity care, substance abuse services, prescription drugs, rehabilitation stays, pediatric and preventative care, and laboratory services.
Michelle Obama also focused on health in her public campaign Let’s Move! which focused on reducing childhood obesity. This included updating nutrition policies in educational spaces, such as updating the food menu to reflect healthier options. This also included increasing the time of physical activity a child should get per day. She empowered parents and educators with the information and tools they needed to make better decisions for the benefit of their students and families. Over 81 million Americans (1 out of 4) reported a difference after committing to the program.
Another key focus during his presidency was climate change. In 2015, the Paris Climate Agreement was adopted during the 21st Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris, France, which aimed to combat climate change in vigorous ways. Some aspects of the agreement include limiting global warming – the main goal. An effort to limit warming levels to less than a 1.5-degree (Celsius) increase was set. This strives to minimize the long-term effects of climate change and the permanent irreversible impacts it has on our planet.
Each country in the agreement was required to provide a detailed outline of their individualized plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs). These were intended to be revisited and updated every five years. Various nations provided financial resources to developing countries to help them make the transition to more sustainable energy choices. Obama’s administration adopted a stricter approach such as setting high fuel economy standards and creating international cooperation strategies.
In response to the historical 2008 financial market crash (the most severe since the Great Depression), Obama led a series of rescue efforts, such as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which provided around 800 billion dollars in tax cuts and approved large unemployment benefits. This steadily helped the nation stabilize the economy again, create job opportunities, and essentially reverse the recession. The Troubled Asset Relief Program was another successful method to get the country out of the crisis, used by the United States Treasury to buy mortgage-backed securities and bank stocks that stabilize our financial system. There were also several homebuyer assistance plans, like the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan and the Home Affordable Modification Program.
Two points of contention that have been largely debated by the American people, politicians, and policymakers that the former president focused on were gun control and reproductive rights. In response to the Sandy Hook shooting, where 20-year-old Adam Lanza took the lives of 20 elementary school-aged children and six adults before taking his own life, Obama released a statement saying “We won’t be able to stop every violent act, but if there is even one thing that we can do to prevent any of these events, we have a deep obligation, all of us, to try.” He recognized that the Second Amendment was sacred and that most gun owners are responsible law-abiding people. However, he noted that there are steps to take to ensure that every arms owner is this way.
His plan to reduce gun violence included comprehensive background checks for all sales, passing stranger assault weapon bans, limiting ammunition magazines to ten rounds, removing
armor-piercing bullets for civilians, creating more gun violence research, adding more resource officers in schools, and ensuring mental health checks for all prospective buyers.
In April of 2013, Obama spoke to thousands of Planned Parenthood supporters, assuring them that restricting abortion access would never happen under his presidency. Unbeknownst to the millions of Americans today, President Donald Trump would overturn one of the most landmark cases the United States has ever seen (Roe v. Wade), completely shattering the lives of women across the country. While in office, Obama did sign an executive order ensuring that no federal money would be used to pay for abortion procedures, but he still stood as a strong advocate to protect a woman’s right to choose. His administration also released a final rule stating that insurance plans are to cover contraception with no cost-sharing. This decision protects the right to effective and affordable birth control.
“I didn’t run for President so that the dreams of our daughters could be deferred or denied. I didn’t run for President to see inequality and injustice persist in our time. I ran for President to put the same rights, the same opportunities, and the same dreams within the reach for our daughters and our sons alike. I ran for President to put the American Dream within the reach of all of our people, no matter what their gender, or race, or faith, or station.”
President Barack Obama, March 8, 2010.
As an advocate for the rights of all people, Obama took a strong approach to supporting and highlighting the need to amplify voices and spaces such as racial equality, LGBTQ+ communities, and underrepresented people of color. In 2012, he became the first sitting United States president to openly support same-sex marriage. His public endorsement assisted in paving the way for the Supreme Court to legalize gay marriage nationwide in 2015. He signed numerous orders that protected all regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, including expanding the ACA to include coverage without discrimination.
Obama strongly addressed systemic racism and the injustices that disproportionately harm people of color. He proposed many initiatives that would improve education, lower incarceration rates, and help financially. One of those is the Fair Housing Act, “a federal law that prohibits discrimination in housing based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status (presence of children), and disability, essentially meaning that no one can be denied housing or treated differently in the housing market due to these protected characteristics.”
In all, Obama made history as the first Black president of the United States, forever changing the Democratic party as we know it. His policies, such as the ACA, shined a bright light on income inequality and conversations regarding healthcare being a basic human right. His charisma and intelligence were reflected in his leadership, introducing a whole new world of hope and change.