The Obama Ex-Presidency

With Donald Trump just having been sworn in as our president, perhaps I should be looking forward to predict what he is apt to accomplish.  I, however, find this too early to forecast.  I instead plan to take a stab at what kind of ex-president Barack Obama will make.  Here too the tea leaves are equivocal, but let me have a go.

I decided to write this column a couple of days after Obama gave his farewell address.  Let us say, it was not in the same vein as that of George Washington.  Those who cared to listen were treated to a campaign rally.  If there was any doubt of this, his audience cleared it up by chanting “four more years.”

Barack himself was in all his peacock glory.  The man thrives on adulation.  That many of his admirers would love him to remain as president in perpetuity is fine by him.  His self-regard is so inflated that he made it plain he would do a better job than any successor.

When I initially began to contemplate what Obama might do once he was out of office, I suspected that he would sink like a stone thrown into a deep well.  His mistakes have been so many and so egregious that I imagined even Democrats would prefer not to be reminded of his failures.

But then I heard the shrieks of joy at the recitation of his every invented success and I realized that his admirers live in as much of a fantasy world as he does.  There are no blunders he could make that would convince them he is not their anointed savior.

I also realized that, with the Clintons pushed off the stage, he might have the liberal rostrum to himself.  Barack is consummate orator.  He can turn a phrase with more panache than any of his left-leaning rivals.  Having cleared out the Democratic bench, who else is available to articulate the progressive position—especially since he will remain in Washington?

Obama’s speech also furnished another epiphany.  Most of the people who listened to his words were struck by the self-congratulatory tone.  If they were his enthusiasts, they agreed with him; if foes, they had a “there he goes again” moment.  In any event, a majority missed the deeper implications.

Barack came onto the national scene by proclaiming that he would be conciliatory.  For him, there were no White or Black Americans; only Americans.  This was a message people longed to hear.  They were tired of the racial divide and wanted their quarrels to be healed.

But this was not how our now ex-commander-in-chief governed.  Despite all of his pronouncements about being a unifier, he was extraordinarily divisive.  He did not reach out to those who disagreed with him.  He never ceased implying that white racism was the source of our collective troubles.

Now in his parting oration, he underscored this thesis.  He warned the nation about the importance of being inclusive.  In this, he implied that his political opponents were the reverse.  Although he did not say it, he suggested that they were indeed a basket of deplorables.

This sent a chill down my spine.  It reminded me of Al Sharpton.  Was Obama rehearsing to become a graceful, super-Al Sharpton?   Was he preparing to be a disruptive force extraordinaire?  Given his rhetorical skills, presidential stature, and amiable demeanor, he could be more effective at race baiting than any of his predecessors.

It must be remembered that before he became a political whirlwind, Obama was a community organizer.  Was he now gearing up to be a left-wing organizer on a national scale?  Would he continue to demonize the police and promote social justice that included only his constituents?

Barack has a way of denying that he is divisive at the very moment he is being discordant.  Moreover, members of the media, in their cloying sycophancy, are all too willing to perpetuate this myth.  Does this mean that Obama will have a platform from which to stir up disharmony?  That leave-taking speech, which was in reality a political marker, made me fear the worst.

Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.

Professor of Sociology

Kennesaw State University