As a lifelong progressive Democrat, I want to put the Obama presidency into perspective.

I would describe Barack Obama as a decent man and a moderate Republican. I applaud him for the Affordable Care Act (originally a Republican plan) and the nuclear arms deal with Iran.

On the other hand, he did succeed at deepening our military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq and had no rational plan to deal with the Syrian crisis. He has dropped bombs on seven different countries, to little positive effect. He may have killed Osama bin Laden, but he also created a new generation of terrorists with his enhanced drone program.

On the home front, he deported more immigrants than George W. Bush did, punished whistleblowers, spied on everyday Americans and did almost nothing to help the millions of Americans who lost their homes because of the unethical, if not illegal, behavior of the biggest banks. Not one Wall Street banker ever did a perp walk. Obama’s reason: too big to jail.

As a retired public school science teacher, I’m disappointed with his support of charter schools over public schools.

Instead of championing those successful public schools and employing their proven strategies in struggling urban schools, Obama emphasized testing with the Common Core and created a whole generation of teachers who will have to “teach to the test” rather than do creative teaching.

The final straw for me is that, while he recently talks a good game on climate change, he has permitted Arctic drilling, encouraged fracking and increased the production of U.S. oil and gas dramatically at a time when scientists tell us that we must leave most of that oil in the ground if we are to avoid catastrophic consequences.

So, when Sarah Palin asks, “How’s that hopey, changey thing working out for ya?” I have to admit, “Not so good.”

Tom Mikulka

Cape Elizabeth

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