Americans: How much do you approve of the Obama administration?

[Tiberius]

In light of recent revelations concerning the Obama administration's expansion of NSA surveillance, drone wars, etc. I thought it would be interesting to see how much our American members "approved" of their current leaders.

To be clear, this isn't how much you approve of Congress, but rather the President and his administration.

Comments are welcome as to why you voted one way or the other. If you would have voted differently a year ago, or even 4 years ago, explain what changed your mind, etc.

Also, try not to fall into the trap of the two party system. In other words, don't say you approve of the Obama administration "because the alternative is worse". This isn't about comparing Democrats to Republicans; I want to know how many people actually honestly approve of the Obama administration versus those who do not.

[Creed of Heresy]

I once approved of Obama. I thought he was a charismatic man, demure, humble, calm, patient, and efficient.

That was four years ago.

Nowadays I'm getting sick of the failed promises, promises that aren't that difficult to uphold. I'm getting real sick of where his rhetoric and political agendas are going. His second inaugural speech went from having me smiling to having me blankfacing to frowning in concern in a hurry. The moments where he began extolling the strength of America "coming from our military" immediately put me off; no, America did NOT rise to the status of a superpower because of our military, we rose to superpower status through economic liberty and power, our ever-adapting, ever-evolving cosmopolitan society, and our frontiersman spirit that drove us across the ocean, then across the plains, then the mountains, and to the west coast...and when we had nowhere on land to explore, we turned our gazes upwards and powered onwards into space, becoming the first country to land a man on the moon. Our space program was enormous and from it came a downpour, an absolute torrent of new ideas, new technological innovations, new ways of thinking about ourselves, our place in the universe, and our planet. Ultimately, I could say that NASA made us who we are today. NASA, the frontiersman spirit, our cosmopolitanism, and our economy.

Our military is NOT the reason for our success. We haven't had a real military victory since WWII. We've done nothing but fuck up over and over again. Even the 1991 Gulf War wasn't a victory; it was an intervention and the long-term repercussions are with us to this day. Our economy has been in the shitter ever since Reagan sent us spiraling into an uncontrolled debt crisis on both the administrative and private levels. Our space program, once the most vaunted in the world, has been completely deprived of any meaningful relevance, funding, and goals. Our education system, once one of the most advanced in the world, has fallen by the wayside as cut after cut after cut is made to fund more fucking useless military projects that will NEVER benefit the American people or anyone else for that matter. Our infrastructure, also the most advanced of its kind, has fallen into neglect. Our rail system, once the most expansive in the world, is now a barely-used joke. Our economy, once ever-growing, ever-expanding, has fallen to absolute stagnation as we ship factory after factory overseas with nothing new to replace it because, again, we're no longer innovating because our fucking space program is completely fucking grounded. Our government is in a budgetary freefall, but instead of cutting military spending and pork projects like that FUCKING USELESS F-35 JSF PIECE OF SHIT, we're cutting EVERYTHING ELSE!!

And now, instead of dealing with our economic, technological, infrastructural, and prospective concerns, Obama finds time to pose for a dozen photos ops a day and grandstands on issues that DO NOT FUCKING CONCERN HIM, like his bullshit with the media circus that's known as the Zimmerman trial. He continues to leave Gitmo open, he stands by and defends the most un-fucking-constitutional nationwide privacy invasion in US history, to such an extent that even the fucking Patriot Act was less invasive. He quietly signs the NDAA act that allows him and any future president to INDEFINITELY jail any citizen without warrant, parole, or legal aid on a mere CLAIM, and tries to sweep it under the rug (which he has largely succeeded in doing). He has authorized drone flyovers of US airspace, and for what fucking reason I have no clue. He refuses to acknowledge states rights when it comes to the trivial matter of marijuana, for fuck's sake, and continues to state that it deserves its place as being equal to heroin and meth in damage despite mountains of studies showing that is nowhere near as dangerous! He refuses to take any action that would hold Wall Street and the banking "industry" accountable for their borderline fraudulent practices and economy-devastating actions! He refuses to do anything at all besides smile pretty for the cameras.

I am sick of his administration. I want him out of power. I want someone like Senator Warren or Congressman Grayson to take charge of this country; they get shit done, and have plans, GOOD plans, for the country, plans that this grandstanding politicking moron we have in power simply does not have. He keeps trying to talk up renewable energy as our next technogical innovation angle. There's no demand for it, dude! But you know what WOULD drive up demand for, say, photovoltaic cells? GOING INTO SPACE. Yeah, start slapping them sumbitches on space-born craft as solar sails. Build a damn space elevator so we can build more fuel-efficient, nuclear-powered rockets and construct and launch them in orbit without worrying about enormous amounts of pollution! Get astronauts to Mars and start establishing a presence for research purposes, maybe even colonization of the moon and Mars! Peep that shit over on Titan and Deimos and Phobos! Increase the budget of Nasa by raising the budget by a penny on the dollar for every tax dollar spent! ENOUGH, Obama, with these half-assed feeble gestures that are hollow, meaningless, and in fact detrimental to our national health!

...That answer your question?

[Brian37]

The NSA is not Obama's creation, it is a continuation of prior administrations policies. And as far as drone strikes vs all out wars, you have to be kidding me.

There is a difference between the office, and the man. The office of the presidency SHOULD always be under review with checks and balances as a LONG TERM issue, not one man, not one presidency, but as a long term check. If you check all the now declassified documents of prior presidents, you'd see similar things going on. It isn't to say we should not stop those things, but to make the issue about policy, not a person. Presidents do not pull 360s if they replace the opposition party. They may tweak or scrap some of what a prior president does, but they do not wipe out everything a prior president has done.

I am more concerned with what SCOTUS has done allowing big business to flood political campaigns. I am also more concerned with the voting rights act being crippled by SCOTUS.

It is worth discussing security tactics, but as a long term issue, not a paranoid issue about one man.

[A Theist]

In light of recent revelations concerning the Obama administration's expansion of NSA surveillance, drone wars, etc. I thought it would be interesting to see how much our American members "approved" of their current leaders.

To be clear, this isn't how much you approve of Congress, but rather the President and his administration.

Comments are welcome as to why you voted one way or the other. If you would have voted differently a year ago, or even 4 years ago, explain what changed your mind, etc.

Also, try not to fall into the trap of the two party system. In other words, don't say you approve of the Obama administration "because the alternative is worse". This isn't about comparing Democrats to Republicans; I want to know how many people actually honestly approve of the Obama administration versus those who do not.

In light of recent revelations concerning the Obama administration's expansion of NSA surveillance, drone wars, etc.

...the IRS targeting of certain groups, Benghazi,...etc. etc. Oh, you mean the "phoney scandals"?

[Creed of Heresy]

The NSA is not Obama's creation, it is a continuation of prior administrations policies. And as far as drone strikes vs all out wars, you have to be kidding me.

Not even REMOTELY the point on the former, and on the latter, I mean drone on-station flyovers over US soil.

There is a difference between the office, and the man. The office of the presidency SHOULD always be under review with checks and balances as a LONG TERM issue, not one man, not one presidency, but as a long term check. If you check all the now declassified documents of prior presidents, you'd see similar things going on. It isn't to say we should not stop those things, but to make the issue about policy, not a person.

No, you're right, we shouldn't make this about [i]the guy who signs the documents into law. Policies are the result of the person.[/quote]

Presidents do not pull 360s if they replace the opposition party. They may tweak or scrap some of what a prior president does, but they do not wipe out everything a prior president has done.

In other words they DO pull 360s. Unless you meant 180s. And maybe they SHOULD, especially if the previous policies [like those of Bush] are fucking CRAP.

I am more concerned with what SCOTUS has done allowing big business to flood political campaigns. I am also more concerned with the voting rights act being crippled by SCOTUS.

They're not innocent, but they are irrelevant to the topic at hand.

It is worth discussing security tactics, but as a long term issue, not a paranoid issue about one man.

No, you're right, why should we hold the President of the United States accountable for the sorry-as-fuck-state of the United States, right?

[The Reality Salesman01]

I honestly don't know enough to make an educated assessment on the entire administration. From a military perspective, I have noticed negative changes that were never issues before. We are paying for work supplies out of pocket to name one. Tuition assistance, one of the big things I joined for, has been all but destroyed. I needed 2 more classes when the sequestration hit and my registration got kicked back. TA had been denied due to a cut-back on funds. I don't think tuition assistance for the military is an unnecessary cost, but I guess I'm not the one making the call.

[Tiberius]

The NSA is not Obama's creation, it is a continuation of prior administrations policies.

True, but Obama expanded the NSA surveillance program rather than reducing it or scrapping it. You can blame Bush for starting it, but Obama had the chance to leave it alone, reduce its power, or even scrap the entire program. He chose to expand it.

And as far as drone strikes vs all out wars, you have to be kidding me.

All out wars are bad, certainly. Drone strikes are controversial because they have targeted and killed American citizens, and there are plans to have drones patrol the areas above continental US too.

Presidents do not pull 360s if they replace the opposition party.

They may not do this for some issues, but they certainly do for others. Do you honestly think Romney would have kept Obamacare if he had been elected President? Additionally, Obama was elected on promises of closing Guantanamo Bay, which was set up by the previous administration.

It is worth discussing security tactics, but as a long term issue, not a paranoid issue about one man.

That one man has quite a lot of power, so yes, I think it is worth discussing how much the American people approve of him.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

I'm not an American so really I guess my opinion has little weight to the questions posed in the OP.

However I do have a lot of American friends, mostly democrats, and their general consensus is one of dissapointment, that the hype of Obama's first administration and the lead up to his election just seemed to vanish. I think a lot of them mention 'broken promises', or that, in the grand scheme of things, he's not that much different from a more moderate republican. The NSA scandal I think sealed the deal with a lot of them on that opinion.



EDIT:

However in a slight link to the UK, I think the more authoritarian stance that the US has taken over security and censorship has definitely begun to creep in over here. The Conservative administration here is beginning to scale back the rights of people very subtely, evidenced in the de facto banning of pornography without government consent. School education has now been effectively privatised and let open to any sort of private interest that wants to invest in a school. Not necessarily a bad thing (and this was started by the previous NL government of course through acadamies), but the lack of oversight and seeming unwillingess to set universal criteria for basic education (in secondary, how long before primary education?) means a widening gap is starting to show between the haves and have nots.

[festive1]

I'm concerned, very concerned, with the unchecked powers of the President (not just Obama, but with any person who assumes the office). I'm not so much concerned with the powers themselves, though we need to have a discussion as a nation about the ethical issues of drones and the NSA, but with the fact these are completely unchecked or balanced powers. This does come down to Congress on a certain level. We have three branches of government for a reason, to keep the others in check, to provide oversight, and to prevent one branch from running over the people and the other branches.
I'm on the fence about drones. I don't like them, but I also don't like having to send in military forces and risking their lives. I don't like that American citizens have been targets for drone attacks. This is in direct conflict with our Constitution and clearly illegal. No matter how much of a terrorist these Americans had become, they still were American citizens who deserve their right to a trial. I also think if we really want to lead the world, we need to do so by example. Instead of killing people, bring them to trial, regardless if they are American citizens or not. That is how leading is done. Capture them, take them to the Hague. Obviously, this is an ideal, and not always practical. In instances where this is not practical (and that phrasing provides too much wiggle room), and the person targeted is clearly a threat... I don't know what the answer is. But more than just the President should have to sign off on drone strikes.
The NSA collecting so much data... If it worked I might be convinced if simple regulations were in place to prevent abuses (i.e. none of the data collected could be used for any purpose other than detecting and subverting terrorist activity), but it doesn't seem to have been very effective. It needs to be chucked, shutdown, destroyed. And Snowden? He shouldn't have to be hiding in a Russian airport with the Russian government in talks with the US to prevent his torture or death. He should be commended and respected. He exposed one of the biggest government infringements (if not the single biggest) on citizens' privacy. He should be held up as a hero, not demonized.
Would I have voted differently?
Maybe. I certainly would not have voted for Romney, perhaps Stein. But this is really tied up with our two party system. We effectively only get two choices, the Democrats or the Republicans, and they both suck. There are only a handful of independents or third party members in office nationwide. They simply cannot gain enough traction or compete with the money available to the two main parties.

[Faith No More]

Instead of scaling back infringements on liberty and the expansion of executive power put forth by the Bush administration, he's just continued with them.

I am disappoint.