THERESE WARMUS: A REVIEW OF “2016 - OBAMA’S AMERICA”
Dinesh D'Souza's documentary 2016: Obama's America opened Friday afternoon in East Grand Forks. It's an impressive presentation and the film has opened very well at theaters across the country. (A national media article reported Friday evening that it is already the 12th highest grossing documentary of all time and will probably finish higher yet in the standings.)
There is actually little in 2016 that will be news to people who follow D'Souza's essays in the national press and the many other conservatives now vetting Barack Obama. Perhaps he gives too brief a treatment of the serious wounds inflicted by the current administration upon our economy, in particular a national debt so inconceivably vast, as one commentator put it, "the numbers don't mean anything any more." What the filmmaker does exceedingly well is present the extensive research of his subject as a compelling whole. Much of 2016's story is concerned with the seeming mysteries that surround Obama's policy decisions, his cryptic autobiographical writings, why he consistently offends Americans across the political spectrum, and the widespread speculation over his real agenda. To answer the questions D'Souza attempts to follow Obama's life journey as a child and young man, traveling to places where Obama lived and meeting interesting people along the way--what he discovers ultimately makes sense of it all. He offers surprisingly little of his own opinions, however. D'Souza does not preach a gospel. He doesn't have to. Here the facts really do speak for themselves. Could the dream that Obama dreams be nothing more than his frustrated imaginings of a father that never was, and the resurrection of a failed 1950s-era revolt against colonialism? This is the sort of fire-setting that has led in the past to world war.
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Dinesh D'Souza immigrated from India, where he grew up in a progressing nation that struggles daily with a third world existence. He came to America seeking education and broader horizons and found both in abundance, joining Ronald Reagen's White House staff as a policy advisor in 1988. D'Souza greatly admires the idealism that uniquely characterizes his adopted homeland--our sky's the limit attitude--and in the film he compares that optimism to the relatively low ceiling of opportunity available in lesser developed countries. It's refreshing to hear an "outsider" praise the United States for the very things our Founders labored to establish. But we are rapidly losing ground under Barack Hussein Obama and his desire to remake America in his own conflicted image. Could the 236-year-old American experiment survive another four years of his wrecking ball? I'd rather not find out.
Therese Warmus is a Latin tutor and an editor for Gilbert Magazine and Laudamus Te. She lives in NW Minnesota.
There is actually little in 2016 that will be news to people who follow D'Souza's essays in the national press and the many other conservatives now vetting Barack Obama. Perhaps he gives too brief a treatment of the serious wounds inflicted by the current administration upon our economy, in particular a national debt so inconceivably vast, as one commentator put it, "the numbers don't mean anything any more." What the filmmaker does exceedingly well is present the extensive research of his subject as a compelling whole. Much of 2016's story is concerned with the seeming mysteries that surround Obama's policy decisions, his cryptic autobiographical writings, why he consistently offends Americans across the political spectrum, and the widespread speculation over his real agenda. To answer the questions D'Souza attempts to follow Obama's life journey as a child and young man, traveling to places where Obama lived and meeting interesting people along the way--what he discovers ultimately makes sense of it all. He offers surprisingly little of his own opinions, however. D'Souza does not preach a gospel. He doesn't have to. Here the facts really do speak for themselves. Could the dream that Obama dreams be nothing more than his frustrated imaginings of a father that never was, and the resurrection of a failed 1950s-era revolt against colonialism? This is the sort of fire-setting that has led in the past to world war.
Dinesh D'Souza immigrated from India, where he grew up in a progressing nation that struggles daily with a third world existence. He came to America seeking education and broader horizons and found both in abundance, joining Ronald Reagen's White House staff as a policy advisor in 1988. D'Souza greatly admires the idealism that uniquely characterizes his adopted homeland--our sky's the limit attitude--and in the film he compares that optimism to the relatively low ceiling of opportunity available in lesser developed countries. It's refreshing to hear an "outsider" praise the United States for the very things our Founders labored to establish. But we are rapidly losing ground under Barack Hussein Obama and his desire to remake America in his own conflicted image. Could the 236-year-old American experiment survive another four years of his wrecking ball? I'd rather not find out.
Therese Warmus is a Latin tutor and an editor for Gilbert Magazine and Laudamus Te. She lives in NW Minnesota.
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