Who can deny that our politics are askew? Those on the right blame the chaos on those on the left—who immediately return the favor. But why have we reached this impasse? Why are so many people bitterly intent on censuring those with whom they disagree? “Divisive” is too bland a word to describe the acerbic situation.
One of the people almost never identified as responsible for this muddle is Barack Obama. Nonetheless, he bears more of the onus than almost anyone. His presidency was the pivot point that began our steep downhill slide. After he left office, unprecedented social vituperation was baked in the cake.
Remember, Obama was supposed to be a uniter, not a divider. He came to prominence by declaring that there was not a white or black America, but only an America. Most folks took him at his word. They assumed that a man who was half black and half white would understand that these two parts could subsist in harmony.
In fact, Barack turned out to be our betrayer-in-chief. Judging by what he did—not what he said—he hated America and was determined to revenge himself upon it. In almost every area, from our economy, to our democratic traditions, to international relations, he left a legacy of destruction.
I have sought to document this devastation in my new book, The Great False Hope: A Critical Account of the Obama Presidency. It is currently available on Amazon as a paperback ($10) and an eBook ($5). While I do not expect liberals to read it, conservatives should discover just why they were so appalled by him.
This book project began when I reviewed the Marietta Daily Journalcolumns I wrote during his term in office. Taken as a whole, they were a searing indictment of his multiple failures. Not only was he an inveterate liar, but he was a glib agitator. Despite his luminous smile and charismatic speaking style, he left a trail of discord in his wake.
Let us concentrate on race relations. Before his arrival on the scene, these had steadily been improving. Blacks ware making both economic and political advances, while whites were becoming more tolerant of diversity. Things were not perfect, but better than they had been.
The very fact that so many whites voted for Obama demonstrated how far we had come. Mere decades earlier it was inconceivable that a man perceived as black would be elected to the highest office in the land. Moreover, most white Americans genuinely hoped he would promote racial reconciliation.
Barack, however, did the opposite. Mind you, although he did it subtly, he unequivocally reinforced the idea that whites were racists while blacks were innocents. Whenever a racial conflict arose, he eschewed balance and instantly came down on the side of African-Americans.
We saw this in the dispute Henry Louis Gates had with the Cambridge police. Without so much as an inquiry into what happened, Obama condemned the constabulary. Only later did he walk this back by offering a fig leaf beer to the cops.
Worse still was his handling of the Ferguson Missouri riots. Here he gave credence to the lie that the black victim had raised his hands and said: don’t shoot. This became a national mantra. Obama could easily have gone on television and declared it untrue, but he instead backed his Attorney General in punishing the police.
Barack also sinned by omission. He could have asked African Americans to be more responsible for their fate. He never did. He could have told black men it was time to be responsible for their families. Here too, these words remained unsaid. Instead we found the police demonized and ordinary whites characterized as having an unearned privilege.
This one-sided portrayal of race relations had an impact. The fact that it was a constant White House theme emboldened the racial radicals and intimidated the moderate reconcilers. Not integration, but retaliation, became the aim of the activists.
Today we see this in reflexive accusations of racism hurled against anyone with the audacity to disagree with the liberal agenda. People do not have to demonstrate a modicum of discrimination in order to be silenced because they have white skin. Incidentally, the same is true of blacks that agree with whites. They are automatically Uncle Toms.
So thank you Barack Obama. Your persistent reverse racism poisoned our ability to hold a candid national conversation about race. Irrespective of your sonorous denials, you resurrected some of the worst aspects of race hatred. This was nothing less than political treachery.
Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Kennesaw State University
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