Ronald Reagan was the first President I voted for. I have thought for years it took the failed Presidency of Jimmy Carter to give us President Reagan. I have been hopeful over the past few years that Obama’s time in office would yield another principled conservative ascension to the Oval Office. However more recently I have begun to conclude that Obama’s failure of leadership both home and abroad has been so complete and so disastrous that it instead has led us to Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. His Presidency has reached such lows that both parties are looking to radical candidates to fix the mess he is leaving behind.

Lets look at the some of the failures that have triggered those on both sides to look at non-traditional and possibly revolutionary candidates. On the right the complaints include the following:

•The national debt has more than doubled and has now surpassed $19 Trillion dollars. It’s a figure so immense that in less than 10 years if we don’t do something about it, the interest alone will be the third largest item on the federal budget

•95 million Americans who are able bodied adults are not even participating in the workforce. We have the lowest worker participation rate since the Carter was in office.

•Nearly 50 million of our fellow Americans are using food stamps to put food on the table.

•Poverty has been rising while incomes across America have been declining each of Obamas 7 years in office.

•The US Military is a shadow of it’s former self. The Air Force is the smallest in my lifetime, so is the Navy.

•American leadership has been diminished to the point that Russia acts without regard to what Washington may or may not do.

•Despite the overwhelming majority of Americans do not consider Global Warming much of a concern, Obama continues to say it is the biggest threat to our future and security. It is but not for the reasons he cited. The biggest threat of Global Warming is the draining of resources that would be better applied to infrastructure, the military or shoring up Social Security.

On the left serious complaints have also piled up against President Obama. The concerns on the left sometimes overlap those on the right but many are different.

The list of concerns for liberals and progressives include the following:

•Attacks on coal producing states like West Virginia and Pennsylvania costing tens of thousands of loyal union members and Democratic voters their jobs.

•The Trans Pacific Partnership that many on the left believe will destroy even more American jobs that will end up overseas.

•The stagnating economy that leaves millions struggling to make ends meet.

•The Presidents failure to end the injustice of income inequality.

•Lack of progress on stopping Climate Change. Bernie Sanders in the last Democratic debate said terrorism is directly resulting from Climate Change.

•The Presidents failure to increase the federal minimum wage to at least $15.

•The Presidents failure to be a more outspoken social justice warrior.

And for liberals the list goes on too.

Now Bernie Sanders, the dedicated Socialist is tied with Hillary Clinton not only nationally but in South Carolina and Nevada. This after he won in New Hampshire and may have won in Iowa as well, depending on who you ask. It shows that Hillary’s coronation is in deep jeopardy once again.

To me it shows something completely different however. It shows me that nobody wants a third term for Barack Obama, not Republicans and not Democrats.

Yes, it is pretty clear that Barack Obama’s Presidency is so poorly thought of on all sides that it has left us with an outspoken Socialist that would turn businesses over to the government and raise taxes by something like $2 Trillion dollars and hit some folks with tax rates as high as 90%. On the other side we have the bombastic Donald Trump who spends as much time hurling insults as making actual proposals about the future. Both are certainly not mainstream candidates and both are the direct result of Obama’s tenure in the White House.

I’m not sure how it plays out from here but so far Obama’s failed Presidency has not brought us the principled conservative I’d hoped for but rather a loss of principles in many regards. I am not fool enough to hope for Obama to dramatically change course and take the high road for his remaining time in office or take a principled approach to critical issues like the vacancy on the Supreme Court. People don’t change at a certain point they just grow older.

I’m disappointed to say this may be the new normal in American politics- raucous hateful discourse, finger pointing and an electorate desperate to find something different, no matter how far into the weeds that may drag the republic. So make no mistake the campaigns of discontent from Trump and Sanders were created, fueled and fertilized by the 7 years Barack Obama has occupied the White House.

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