Why Truman was Like Obama (Part I)

Truman, like Obama, had no business being president. Both accomplished next to nothing to earn that prestigious position. Truman was a failed farmer, banker, and businessman. Although Truman’s biographies incorrectly claim he would have made millions if he stuck it out, but it is hard to make millions after you go bankrupt. Truman had some success as an officer in WWI but that is about it. Truman turned to politics after failing in his other business adventures. This sounds a lot like Obama who achieved nothing before becoming a Senator, a lot less than Truman. Obama was at best a community organizer living off the taxpayers dime, but he never ran anything in his life. Truman gained political notoriety similarly to how Barack Obama gained his political success: working for organized crime lords in Kansas City (Obama worked for Chicago crime lords). Truman was a puppet for the Prendergast mob family while Obama was Tony Rezco’s puppet. Truman defended his actions by saying he could do more as an insider to a crime family to generate reform then as an outsider. But this makes Truman complicit to murder, election fraud, racketeering, and other crimes since he used these organizations to back him all the way to Washington. The same applies to Obama, he is complicit in any illegal activity conducted by Rezco. As a Senator, Truman had no new ideas and failed to introduced any significant legislation. Instead, Truman rubberstamped any FDR progressive policy from Social Security to the Tennessee Valley Authority. Truman never voted against any FDR policy including even more controversial ones such as packing the Supreme Court (Truman was one of the few Democrats who was on board with this move). Similarly, Obama achieved nothing as a 2-year Senator: he not only failed to introduce any legislation, but he voted “present” most of the time to avoid taking sides over controversial political issues to further his presidential ambitions.

Truman felt slighted by FDR because he gave him very little respect, but he did not do anything to earn any respect except to be his puppet. Truman was a Democratic National Committee compromise to be FDR’s vice president for the 1944 term. FDR would die only 82 days into that term leaving a failed person as president of the United States. As President, Truman’s “Fair Deal” was merely an unimaginative double down on FDR’s “New Deal”. Similarly, Obama would try to be a “New Deal” copycat 70 years later. Just as Truman’s Democratic Party lost control of the House and Senate 2 years into his presidency, Obama repeated this history because they were both terrible leaders. Obama, forced failed policies on Americans trying to reintroduce FDR New Deal policies such as ObamaCare and the “shovel-ready” stimulus. What Obama failed to realize is that 70 years after FDR there was no such thing as “shovel-ready” jobs. Hence, Obama lost near super-majorities just 2 years into his presidency.

Truman failed primarily because he was impatient. Hence, he never took the time to understand issues. He made one impatient decision after another. Truman, like most super-ego presidents, thought he understood history and issues better than he really did. Truman, however, could be easily manipulated by his cabinet. Whomever got to Truman first with their side of an argument generally won the day. What’s worse, Truman was a bigoted man who even joined the KKK for a short period of time. Truman believed that Blacks belonged in Africa, Yellows belonged in Asia, and only Whites belonged in Europe and America. Truman’s view of African-Americans, Jews, and women would be biased until the day he died. Sure, the Truman administration passed some Civil Rights legislation and supported the creation of Israel for the Jews, but Truman only did these things to win votes. Truman hated blacks, Jews, and women. He saw them all as inferior to White males and this was displayed by his executive hiring record. On the other hand, Obama would be just as biased against Whites and the Police leading to the highest level of racial tensions since the LBJ administration. Obama only made issues out of white on black or blue on black crime, he never cared much about less politically charged criminal cases such as black on black or black on any other racial class of people. Obama, like Truman, also had contempt for women in the workplace or in government. Obama’s government would only pay women 72 cents for every dollar a man would receive for the same work. While Obama was not impatient, he and Truman were very good at being indecisive and waffling over issues. Truman waffled over China and by the time he left office Mao had won the civil war making it a communist state. On the other hand, Obama also waffled on foreign issues in Syria, the Arab Spring, and he even had a short window of opportunity in Iran that he passed on.

A good example of Truman’s leadership failures is the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Truman explained his action by claiming it saved 250,000 American lives. But the most accurate estimates by Generals claim those numbers were highly inflated. Generals thought anywhere from 25,000 to 50,000 American lives would have been lost invading Japan. This may seem low, but there are several reasons for these assessments. First, Japan had already been showing signs of surrender. Secondly, the Russians would be entering the War against Japan just 6 days after the second atomic bomb hit Nagasaki. Thirdly, the invasion of Japan was not set to begin for 3 months and Japan could have been made much less formidable with constant bombing of military targets. Finally, China also enter the fight against Japan. But Truman was impatient and could not wait to drop the bomb. The only logical reason for Truman to act in an impatient manner was to try to send a message to the Russians with whom Truman was negotiating peace talks after the fall of Germany. Obviously, Truman’s message to the Russians did not deter them in any way for a number of reasons. First, Russia was not a third world power as Truman theorized. Truman never thought Russia would obtain nuclear power, but his actions prompted the start of the arms race. Secondly, Truman saw Russia and the Nazis as one of the same. He told the New York Times the United States should support whomever is losing the war so Russia and Germany would continue to kill each other. Imagine the ramifications if we supported the Nazis and they were able to use that help to beat the Russians then maybe the world would be much different today (an Arian Race). In other words, Truman started fighting the Russians before WWII was over. Truman’s misguided decision was also based on the idea that the bomb would be used only against military targets. Instead, both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were incinerated killing close to 350 thousand innocent civilians. Truman’s naivety, ignorance, and impatience forced him to act months before it was necessary. Similarly, Obama magnified the Bush administration’s drone weaponry program which led to much higher collateral damage. Obama feared putting troops on the ground to capture high ranking enemy terrorists just as Truman feared putting troops on the ground in Japan. Truman went to war unilaterally in Korea and Obama went to war unilaterally in Libya. It is no surprise that both an unstable North Korea and Libya are two of America’s biggest foreign threats today.