“Everything is terrible. We’re so divided.” If you spend any time at all on social media, you have likely seen several versions of that statement from pretty much everyone. We are most definitely divided and have no common ground anymore. We share no first principles with each other and should go our separate ways, but that’s another matter. Rather than speak about where we are going, perhaps we should find out where this divide began. It began with Barack Obama.
Obama wasn’t the one who pushed us over the edge on excessive spending, unaffordable healthcare, or any of our other issues. Though he was certainly a huge contributor to those problems. The tangible problems we face as a nation have many an author. What Obama did was completely change the political culture and how we relate to one another. That issue, he owns alone. Sure there were many on the Left and Right who made contributions to this divide. Lyndon Johnson stands out as one of the worst offenders. Trump, when all is said and done, certainly won’t be remembered as a great unifier either as he’s fully embraced this modern political climate. But America reached its final form under Obama. Obama was the tipping point. He was when America crossed the Rubicon and now exists politically in a constant state of strife and angst.
Due to a broken American media that fell in love with him, Obama was a man most didn’t fully understand. On top of his radical associations, he was not a man seasoned by long years in D.C. politics. Nor was he a man who worried about the collateral damage of his political style. Barack Obama learned politics in Chicago. And they don’t call it “The Chicago Way” because it is clean and polite. It is “The Chicago Way” because it is vicious and without scruples. And it doesn’t hesitate to kick a man when he’s down.
The human mind is complicated and it needs different things at different times. As we learned from Ecclesiastes 3 (and later a horrible song from The Byrds), there is a time for everything. One time that is ESSENTIAL for the human mind is the time to mourn after a loss. When tragedy strikes, we just need to be sad for a time. But that is not “The Chicago Way”. Time after time during Obama’s presidency, he robbed this nation of that necessary time. Often while the bodies were still warm, Barack Obama would walk to the podium and push for one of the most divisive issues in American politics: Gun Control.
In June of 2016, 49 people lay dead in an Orlando nightclub shooting. Obama: “Today marks the most deadly shooting in American history. The shooter was apparently armed with a handgun and a powerful assault rifle. This massacre is therefore a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that lets them shoot people in a school, or in a house of worship, or a movie theater, or in a nightclub.”
In December of 2015, 14 people lay dead in San Bernardino. Obama: “The one thing we do know is that we have a pattern now of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world. And there are some steps we could take not to eliminate every one of these mass shootings, but to improve the odds that they don't happen as frequently: common-sense gun safety laws, stronger background checks.”
In June of 2015, 9 people lay dead in a Charleston church. Obama: "We don't have all the facts, but we do know that, once again, innocent people were killed in part because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hands on a gun.”
There are several other examples. This article from USA Today sums them up nicely. That is despicable conduct from a United States president. And he ushered in this current era where such behavior has been normalized. Today, Leftists don’t even think twice about gun-grabbing after a national tragedy. Often times, they’ll do it before the shooter has even been stopped. It was not always this way.
When is the last time you can remember a national tragedy causing America to lay down their political swords and just mourn together? It was 9/11. You can say what you want about George Bush, but he handled that day the way an American president should. With strength and resolve. But also with a caring, extended hug for every American. It was not a time for politics or to move the ball forward on any Republican issue. It was a time to hug your neighbor. And he handled it like the statesman Obama never could be.
There are a million reasons the Right chose to nominate Donald Trump out of a GOP primary field of qualified candidates. Barack Obama cementing bitterness and divisiveness in the American Right is a big a reason as any. We did not want a statesman anymore. We wanted a reckoning. A punishment. We wanted a battle axe to hurt the Left. That is Donald Trump. He is more than happy to be a thorn in the side of the Left and play things “The Chicago Way”.
America itself has changed. From now on, at our darkest hours, the American Left will steal our mourning time from us. Inspired by Barack Obama, they will forever be the protester shouting at people walking into a funeral. We are becoming bitter and bitterness is a parasite that will consume its host. I am uninspired to equivocate and use this “Both sides are at fault” language I see far too often. One cannot solve a problem unless one is willing to name the problem. The problem is the Obamafication of the American Left. Shame on him. Shame on them all.