Friday, November 2, 2012

2016: Obama's America

The movie opens with an autobiographical sketch of Dinesh D'Souza.  He tells how he grew up in India and went to college in America.  He remained in America after graduating from Dartmouth.  This is important because his background gives him insight into President Obama.

He dispenses with the birth certificate stuff by announcing that Obama was indeed born in Hawaii.  His father, Barack Obama Sr., departed for Harvard when Barack Jr. was still an infant.  Obama did not see his father again until he was 10, and then only briefly.  Barack Sr. died when Obama was 21.  And yet, D'Souza holds that Obama Sr. has everything to do with President Obama's views.  How can an absent father have that kind of impact?

D'Souza interviewed friends of Barack Sr. and learned that he was an anti-colonialist.  D'Souza's own grandfather espoused the same views so he was quite familiar with them.  India and Kenya had both been part of the British Empire.

President Obama's mother had nothing but good to say about his absent father.  Obama himself reveals in his book Dreams from my Father that he idolized a father who was a stranger to him.  Thus, according to D'Souza, President Obama adopted the belief system of his father.  This strong anti-colonialism would explain why he spent 20 years in the church of Reverend Wright, why he would associate with Bill Ayers, his animus toward American oil while subsidizing Brazilian oil, and so on.
 
Basically, D'Souza uncovers a storyline where Barack Obama is seeking to right wrongs by transferring wealth that America stole back to the countries from which it was stolen.  This same pattern goes for the domestic economy as he pursues a policy to tax the rich and 'spread the wealth around.'  It is surprising to see how much had not been revealed about Obama during the 2008 campaign.  How does his mentoring by a known Communist whom he mentions in his autobiography not get reported during his run for either the Senate or the Presidency?  How is it that Bush, Gore, Kerry, and McCain all released their college transcripts but Obama hasn't?
 
Though often interesting in what it tells, the mechanics of the movie are often awkward.  Repeatedly there were scenes where D'Souza is on the phone with this or that expert.  What, is this the X-Files?  Why this bizarre interview by phone while he has cameramen at both locations to film?  Really?
 
The conclusion is that another Obama term will leave the United States weaker and might result in a nuclear-armed Caliphate that stretches from Iran to Morocco.  It is interesting how Obama has helped to topple secular dictators (Libya, Egypt) but not Islamist regimes (Iran).  If Obama is re-elected, it will be interesting to watch this movie again in 2016 to see how the predictions pan out.

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