D'Souza's Obama

At the incessant urging of Anti-Obama alarmists, spurred on by the granting of a special link to download Dinesh D'Souza's "2016: Obama's America", I have just now availed myself of the opportunity to watch this film in full.  I was pleasantly surprised by the intellectual adequacy and even the fairness of the production, as well as the focused research.  D'Souza, in effect, describes a man he does not know and takes the liberty to complete the description using everybody except the people that would know best.

He couldn't interview Barack Obama's mother who died 15 years before his book of 2010.  He got chased out of the Kenyan village after trying to interview Obama's paternal grandmother. His real father is dead, and his Indonesian stepfather, Lolo Soetoro is dead. His maternal grandparents were not alive at the time of the making of the film. Nobody who really knew Barack Obama as a child growing up was available for first hand  interviews and conversations.

Instead of directly interviewing the man of the hour, Barack Obama himself, D'Souza relies on narratives from Obama's autobiography, often read by Barack Obama as if it is he telling the story being told in actuality, by Mr. D'Souza.  A few well-placed, smartly edited speeches add to a muted sense of Barack Obama confirming the portrayal being manufactured by Dinesh D'Souza, but we miss his input more than get taken in by the ruse.

For all the invitation to inaccuracy and reliance upon conjecture, speculation and innuendo, D'Souza has given us a well orchestrated account of who he feels Barack Obama is, what and who motivated him, and where he plans to take America by 2016.  All, again, based on seasoned conjecture ignoring reasonable doubt or alternative hypotheses.

This is a movie however, not a college course where conjecture is met with counter-conjecture; where questions get asked, and where alternative hypotheses enter the mix.  Given the necessary narrowing of options and the requirement to reach conclusions that come with the production of a movie, Mr D'Souza gives us, as I said, his opinion and could well have titled the film "D'Souza's Obama".  However, such a wording would have misdirected his intent, which was to create an image of a man nobody really knows, and make it appear to be the objective truth about a man whom all of us Americans know as our President.

Ultimately, Dinesh uses the framework of anti-colonialism to achieve his end, leaving the question open as to whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.  This measure forms the heart of the film's message and provides a vehicle for engendering great respect for Barack Obama, or searing hatred tinged with fear that should he get re-elected, America is doomed. It all depends on who is watching the movie, or who is reviewing it.  For me, I welcomed the discovery of a Barack Obama I never really thought existed.  A truly black, African American far removed from the washed out vision I might have gathered from his immediate roots and his ability to walk into the lives of white Americans and convince them to vote for him to be their president.

The most telling portion of his autobiography, for me, was his choice to tackle the problems experienced by the denizens of the Chicago ghettos rather than follow his law degree into a cushy job with a reputable law firm.  I am indebted to Dinesh D'Souza for helping me to find the blacker side of Barack Obama; the more African aspect of his nature.  I had concluded after reading his book that he was indeed experienced by being black in America enough to count, despite his absence of slave roots and mixed parentage.  Yet, I needed to fill that annoying gap with its nagging and begged questions as to what he really understands about being black.  "2016: Obama's America" confirmed for me what I surmised after reading Dreams From My Father.  Barack Obama is a lot blacker than many blacks in America give him credit for.  His ability to bypass the routine characteristics and motivate many white Americans to vote for him reflects something good about America more than anything devious about this politician who happened to win the White House against all odds.

This was a Barack Obama whose pulse was on the pain and suffering not just of the lower classes of the United States, but of the world itself. He discovered, in his life in Indonesia, and narratives telling him about a father he never knew, that there existed a genuine global elephant which derived its wealth, power, and greatness from the destabilization and rape of the third world.  He developed an understanding of how this process worked and saw something wrong with it.  Something spiritually wrong.  Suddenly it dawned on me that this was indeed the right man to become the first African American President in the United States, more than deserving of another four years in the WHITE House.  America needs to be fixed from her roots and Barack Obama understands that more than anybody else running for the job.

If this movie was intended to turn me off about Barack Obama, and dismiss him, it had a completely opposite effect.  What would describe the experience of being black in America better than the references so commonly associated with the movement to overcome the onerous and continually racist system which has burdened African Americans for so many years?  And why not point the finger at colonialism?  This is exactly what created the parameters and the impasses blacks experienced being born, raised, and living in America.  Colonialism creates poverty as it generates wealth. 

Colonialism justifies racism and ethnocentrism as it continues to enshrine these evils into the framework of the dominant culture; hidden, as Mr D'Souza learns from a chat with Jesse Jackson.  (Interesting he could make this big case regarding anti-colonialism and not understand the nature of embedded, institutionalized racism.  But why should he?  He's from India.) Who wouldn't become anti-colonialist once understanding how it serves the disenfranchisement of the people whose lives are characterized by suffering and struggling. 

Instead of being affronted by the word, "anti-colonialism" I am emboldened by it; educated by it; drawn to it, and more proud and admiring of Barack Obama than I ever was.  And that's even if he maintains his silence as to whether or not he actually IS an anti-colonialist. Right now, he's a politician and would probably talk his way around the charge if it suited him.   Furthermore, the overwhelming concern regarding this movie has come from the mostly white opposition to his re-election.  What disturbs me most is that this demographic could be so insensitive to colonialism and all its wiles, especially after pounding the gavel over the last four years about the Founding Fathers and what they sought to gain during their break from the the Master Colonizer, Great Britain.

One would think that all Americans should be somewhat anti-colonialist, but the truth revealed here is that after stealing the land from the natives and enslaving  Africans for over four hundred years while building a wealth the world has never seen, original anti-colonialists have become the colonizers whose deepest worry today seems to be focused on an emerging Hispanic front along the southern border of the nation.  In their rush to condemn Barack Obama by any means necessary, they have chosen to vilify and reject the very conscience that created this country.

What's even more disturbing is how insulated Americans have become not just to the black community, not just to the Hispanic community, but to their own poor whites who themselves aren't so sure who they should side with on November 6th.  Yet standing at the podium of the Rose Garden, or seated in the armchair of the Oval Office is the answer long sought; a man whose sensitivities are more American than most Americans, and more black than many blacks.  This is a man who truly feels the needs of the people and may well be saving us from the destructive force of a revolution by opening doors that no president has ever tried to open; by reaching out to presumed enemies; by making a real effort to tone down the destructive force of all-out war and by not letting words like "communism" or "socialism" deter him from the kinds of programs that government still needs to engage in to uplift the lives of disadvantaged people and the lower classes so that they can compete a little better and seek the American dream for themselves. .

Getting back to D'Souza's Obama and as I end this piece, let me say that as the movie sought a place to end, the conjecture increased to a point where more questions were being asked than were answered.  Dinesh gets so wrapped up in his conclusions about a man who provided no input to the film, he becomes captured by his own creation.  At some point all documentaries edge toward myth in an attempt to certify the opinions dramatized in the work.  "Obama's America" is no different, and though we are left with a pretty could understanding of where Barack Obama gets his humanity from, we are also fed a heavy dose of overkill, symbolized by the all-to-frequent depiction of the grave of Barack Obama's father.  A man he did not know.

Finally, this man, Frank Marshall Davis might well have been an influence on the maturing Barack Obama.  More is made of his storied association with the Communist Party than the content of his chats with the young man destined to become President of the United States.  Why?  Again, because Frank Marshall is dead and aside from what Barack Obama wrote in his autobiography, we have no live contributions from the president himself.  Who amongst us has been influenced by people without becoming that person or joining the associations that person was connected to?  Jumping to conclusions, labeling Barack Obama a communist or a socialist, or both, is an unfortunate act on the part of those who fail to understand that the wealth of a nation might well be in the happiness and well being of the rank and file citizens that comprise most of the population.

A word on the half-brother of Barack Obama who, according to Mr D'Souza is abandoned by the US President to live in a shack in Kenya while he flies around the world in the luxurious comfort of Air Force One.  Cheap shot at best, Dinesh!  What does does he truly know about this family connection and whether or not George Obama even wants "help" from Barack Obama?  No more than he knows about any other salient aspect of the President's life, obviously.  He just used George Obama to create more innuendo, conjecture, and speculation where facts are short.

The conclusions drawn by Dinesh D'Souza are those of Dinesh D'Souza, not hardly associated with a priori truth.  This does not detract from the excellent work he has done in the creation of this film.  I took note of his mention of being of the same color as Reverend Jesse Jackson, whom he debated while in college.  He genuinely doesn't understand what is behind the mask.  This may be a clue as to his inability to aptly describe the man he chooses not to know except through the inference, the conjecture, and the innuendo he firmly establishes in this film.  See the film if you dare, but be sure to understand at all times, the difference between a balanced education and a carefully plotted indoctrination.

Robert W. Hamilton
9/23/2012