By Ramy Osman
January 2017
With another eloquent speech that was the trademark of his 8 years as ruler of the world, Barack Obama brilliantly programmed his faithful disciples one last time. He ignored all of the injustices and horrors that he and his administration were responsible for during his tenure; And he instead mesmerized his followers into religiously believing that he has made America more exceptional that it has ever been, and that he leaves behind a righteous legacy.
But the reality is that Obama himself has been a champion of policies which have harmed endless people and have caused endless destruction. Obama is not leaving behind a “righteous” legacy. Rather he’s leaving behind a dangerous government that Trump will inherit and use in unpredictable ways. Obama has championed unjust wars and has enhanced some of the most harmful behaviors of government, while distracting people with fancy language and promises of healthcare and education. His modus operandi reminds me of Osama Bin Ladens’: use eloquent speech, loaded with references to scripture (in this case the US constitution) and promises rooted in faith (in this case democracy and healthcare), in order to woo his followers into supporting war and aggression. One wonders who’s the real terrorist?
To demonstrate how absurdly unsuccessful and downright evil Obama has been during his 8 years in office (despite his eloquence and personability), I created a series of memes that mimic the funny Obama-Biden memes which went viral late last year. Those famous Obama-Biden memes, just like Obama’s likability, have diverted people from the real conversations that Obama and Biden have been having, and the real harms and horrors that they’ve perpetuated.
The following memes are hardly exhaustive; and they’re missing things like the ever-increasing trillion-dollar debt, the police-surveillance state which expanded in ways that George W Bush couldn’t even do, the targeting and prosecution of whistle-blowers, continuing a drug-war whose side-effects oppress minority communities, enabling the FBI’s entrapment campaign that coaxed mentally ill and unstable Muslims into fake terror plots, and the continuance of the Guantanamo Bay crime.
But despite not touching on some of these topics, the memes are still damning and are as much a reflection of Obama’s presidency as they are of the Democratic party. As long as people continue to endorse the two-party system, and vote for more evil (not lesser evil), then the results will always be more of the same: more war, more cronyism, more out-of-control government.
Obama talked tough during his campaign seasons, and spoke eloquently throughout his presidency. But he didn’t have the moral backbone or the political will to challenge the establishment, and to stop the wars and other blatant injustices of our government. Rather, he continued the injustices and is now handing them over to his Republican brethren in crime; with the biggest crime being America’s more than three decade long military intervention in the Middle East.
With Obama leaving office, it might be easier for Democrats to protest the evil government policies that Republicans will now be in charge of. But my hope is that people in general will start questioning the concept of government all together: what is the purpose of government? what are the dangers of big government? What should the limits of government be? why does our government meddle in so many foreign countries? Is it ok for government to take our money and waste it or give it to other people? And so on. I think the only way that the Democrat-Republican duopoloy can ever be really challenged, is by people engaging these types of questions, and by electing local officials who can propose alternative answers to these questions.
But until then, the following conversations will continue to be the standard conversations within the halls of our government:
[NOTE: If meme-gallery doesn’t load, then click anywhere below, or reload the page]
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