Several places in all of my writings I have mentioned how I hope that Mr. Obama has a very long, very healthy, and very vocal ex-presidency. I honestly mean that…he is the single best forcing function for shortening the time required for a proper sharpening of historical focus onto what impact his political life really had on the American experiment. Based on the ex-presidencies I have witnessed and those I continue to witness in my 58 years, I think the history of his two terms is coming together in record time. Which brings me to this wonderful exchange from yesterday:
Q: What is the #1 thing Obama will be remembered for?
A: His presidency started an era of decline, ugliness, and insanity that embedded itself in American culture
His presidency started an era of decline, ugliness, and insanity that embedded itself in American culture https://t.co/9kggmvxK9n
The gloss has long been rubbed from the shiny joke that was undefined Hope and Change…one can only hope that many volumes are written on the truthful substance that supports that wonderfully succinct sixteen-word answer above. No doubt the information that is known today about his last six months in office is worthy of many such volumes. But there is so much more worthy of NOT being forgotten also. One such item came up earlier this week during the tidal wave of posturing progressive peacocks who came out of the woodwork to defend Jimmy Kimmel’s free speech rights. It is always interesting just how selectively they defend such constitutional guarantees:
“while we are on the free speech topic this is an actual thing that also happened under Barack Obama. A guy who had nothing to do with the Benghazi terrorist attack arrested.”
while we are on the free speech topic this is an actual thing that also happened under Barack Obama. A guy who had nothing to do with the Benghazi terrorist attack arrested. @jaketapper absolutely silent. Because he was not a millionaire late night comedian friend. pic.twitter.com/d7pny8mHCd
From that same Instapundit link: Politico: The Benghazi Patsy: “Nakoula Basseley Nakoula deserves a place in American history. He is the first person in this country jailed for violating Islamic anti-blasphemy laws. You won’t find that anywhere in the charges against him, of course. As a practical matter, though, everyone knows that Nakoula wouldn’t be in jail today if he hadn’t produced a video crudely lampooning the prophet Muhammad. ...”
That May 2013 article deserves a more substantial quote:
In the weeks after the attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others, the Obama administration claimed the terrorist assault had been the outgrowth of a demonstration against the Nakoula video. The administration ran public service announcements in Pakistan featuring President Barack Obama saying the U.S. had nothing to do with it. In a speech at the United Nations around this time, the president declared — no doubt with Nakoula in mind — “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.”
After Benghazi, the administration was evidently filled with a fierce resolve — to bring Nakoula Basseley Nakoula to justice. Charles Woods, the father of a Navy SEAL killed in Benghazi, said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told him when his son’s body returned to Andrews Air Force Base: “We will make sure that the person who made that film is arrested and prosecuted.”
Lo and behold, Nakoula was brought in for questioning by five Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies at midnight, eventually arrested and held without bond, and finally thrown into jail for a year. He sits in La Tuna Federal Correctional Institution in Texas right now, even as the deceptive spin that blamed his video for the Benghazi attack looks more egregious by the day. …
… Nakoula ended up the patsy in a tawdry coverup. The State Department Operations Center reported to Washington immediately that the the Benghazi attack was an assault carried out by Islamic militants. The falsehoods about Benghazi weren’t a product of the fog of war; they were the product of the fog of politics. Desperate to minimize the attack and deflect responsibility, Team Obama evaded and obsfucated. …
… Nakoula’s character is sketchy and his work is execrable. Yet the First Amendment applies to him all the same, even if he might have reason to doubt it as he serves out a sentence that never would have come about if he hadn’t offended the wrong people.
[Emphasis added]
Catch that? He exercised his right to free speech just like Mr. Kimmel and was arrested, held without bond, and thrown in jail for a year…all as coordinated from THE OVAL OFFICE.
As for proper historical perspectives on presidential legacies, Obama just might enjoy a little advantage on some fronts because of the pile of dog scat that will forever represent the Biden term. Obama may also be shielded from much interest and scrutiny of serious historians by the twin towers of the Trump terms that will dominate American and World history conversations for many decades to come. But my hope is that Mr. Obama continues for many more years to periodically drive references to his creation – the “era of decline, ugliness, and insanity that embedded itself in American culture” – back into the public’s consciousness. Ultimately, when proper perspective and focus are peeled away from the protective narrative machine (that always covers for the demagogic empty suit of undefined Hope and Change fame) and aligned in the current mind, the results are fairly predictable:
the philo t. custis institute 