Two faces of the Obama coin

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we have been waiting for,” the then-senator Barack Obama said on Feb. 5, 2008.

That election, Obama emerged as a fresh candidate for the presidency, promising “change you can believe in.”

In the next eight years, Obama made many promises to the public and tried to solve many socioeconomic problems. How well did he do?

There are definitely areas that Obama delivered as  promised, at least to some extent. In his 2008 campaign, Obama pushed for higher wages, and he followed through after his re-election in 2012. He called states to action and, while it was indirect, spurred states like Washington and California into rising minimum wage.

He ensured immigrants that more refugees would be accepted to the United States, and according to the Washington Examiner, more than 42,000 Somali refugees were accepted into the United States.

But Obama wasn’t perfect, either. With record approval ratings in the aftermath of an election fight between two of America’s most disliked people, it’s easy to forget that Obama did plenty to lose people’s trust as well.

While Obama visited Hiroshima in May 2016 and spoke about the injustice of atomic bombs, in secret, he was investing in a trillion-dollar plan over the span of three decades to upgrade the American nuclear arsenal.

In June 2009, Obama spoke at the American University of Cairo in Egypt, calling for a new beginning; he spoke about mending the break between Americans and Muslims. But in 2011, the same man extended the PATRIOT Act, a law signed in 2001 to investigate Muslims without restraint in times of emergency.

Time and time again, Obama shed tears in honor of campus shootings’ victims. He called for a stop in gun sales, but in February 2010, he participated in the approval of loose gun laws, signing a law allowing guns in national parks, according to About News.

Obama’s presidency clearly has its flaws. But perhaps one of his strongest points — which many people cite as his biggest weakness — was that he admirably put up a fight for eight years by deferring often to executive orders. While in office, the two parties clashed on nearly every ideal in both houses and Obama managed to pass through his presidency with his executive powers.

He did this with climate change in November 2013, assigning a task force to Climate Preparedness and Resilience who advises the administration based on the voices. This battles climate injustice, the idea that the rich are causing the pollution and the poor must deal with the consequences.

These orders voiced his true, core ideals that represented the lower class, and by risking the guise of tyranny, Obama managed to stand true to his values. While the orders might be temporary with Donald Trump’s presidency, Obama’s ideas have set new standards for decades to come.

So to the man who had two faces, both the flaws and the strong ideals of a president: cheers.

We’ll miss the tranquility and high ideals of your presidency.