A Million Little Obamas

Now that he has been out of office for over a year, Barack Obama is thinking about his future.  As per usual, his ruminations are on a large scale.  This former community organizer is contemplating organizing the entire planet.  “Hope and change” is intended to go global.

As Barack explained to a television audience, his goal is to inspire young people to pick up the mantle he was forced to drop when his second term as president ended.  He wants them to help implement reforms he was unable to complete.

The way Obama put it is that he hopes to cultivate “a million little Obamas.”  He expects these young people to emulate him—to the betterment of humankind.  In fact, when he said this, he chuckled.  He knew this plan was grandiose.

Actually, it was extraordinarily vain.  As such, it revealed one of the character flaws that made him a failed president.  Barack thinks so highly of himself that he can imagine of no better future than a world populated with Obama clones.

Consider that these are to be “little” Obamas.  They are to reflect his glory, rather than obscure it.  He is to be the shining sun, whereas they are to be asteroids that revolve around his greatness.

But what has Obama done to warrant this extraordinary glory.  When in office, he supposedly obsessed on his legacy.  Still, has this bequest developed in a way that we look back hungrily to a second coming of our erstwhile savior?  Did he produce such wonders that we crave many more?

Well, actually No.  Thus, ObamaCare was a dismal failure.  Its death spiral has finally arrived.  The costs were always going to be exorbitant, while the benefits were slim.  As a result, his government takeover of the health industry could barely survive the passing of its sponsor.

The Iran policy was also a failure.  If this gambit was intended to curb the ambitions of the mullahs, it has already demonstrated its futility.  The Shia hegemony is on the march.  It has reached the Mediterranean and penetrated deep into Yemen.  Can atomic weapons be far behind?

Nor did the rest of Obama’s foreign policy fare well.  Strategic patience established its ineffectiveness on the Korean peninsula.  Kim Jung Un did not decide to forego the bomb because the Americans looked the other way.  To the contrary, he interpreted this neglect as an all-clear sign.

Neither did the Russian Bear go into hibernation.  When Barack sent Putin the message that he would have more flexibility after he was re-elected, this was a signal that nothing would be done to stop Russia’s advance into the Ukraine or the Middle East.  There might be a few harsh words, but no action.

The same applied to ISIS.  In this case, some bombs were dropped, but a fear of injuring civilians meant these had limited effect.  What could have been done to stop the Islamists—but wasn’t—was laid bare by how easily Trump was able to dismember the Caliphate.

Nor was Obama’s legacy more glowing on the home front.  The economy stagnated for eight years.  Only a dose of deregulation and tax reform got it going again.  Race relations also soured, with Black Lives Matter casting aspersions on whites and inner city mobs running riot.

Then there was the rise in the crime rate, the continued decline in educational achievement, the fragmentation of the American family, and the opioid epidemic.  There are even intimations of corruption in the FBI, the IRS, and the White House.  Where, in this litany, was there something of which to be proud?

And yet the media continue to lionize Obama.  He is the standard of dignity with which Trump’s vulgarity is contrasted.  Oh, for the days when we heard literate speeches from our chief executive.  Spare us today’s egotism so that we can again bask in the polished egotism of yore.

Isn’t this, however, just another form of vanity?  The mainstream media seldom criticized Obama.  As our nation’s first black president, they were determined that he not fail.  They would protect him from himself for the good of the nation and humanity.

But isn’t this hubris?  Don’t those who practice it consider it proof of their moral superiority?  Haven’t they converted white guilt into a blindfold that enables them to pretend narcissism is a virtue?

Melvyn L. Fin, Ph.D.

Professor of Sociology

Kennesaw State University