{"id":15379,"date":"2020-12-03T08:07:37","date_gmt":"2020-12-03T13:07:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=15379"},"modified":"2020-12-22T22:52:53","modified_gmt":"2020-12-23T03:52:53","slug":"obama-and-the-death-of-idealism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/03\/obama-and-the-death-of-idealism\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama and the Death of Idealism"},"content":{"rendered":"

French version<\/a><\/h3>\n

Italian version<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Catalonian version<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

American Conservative, December 3, 2020<\/h3>\n

Barack Obama and the Death of Idealism<\/span><\/a><\/h1>\n
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Obama’s deception and warmongering killed the “hope and change” he promised on the campaign trail. We shouldn’t be sad to see them go.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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by\u00a0 James Bovard <\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Americans are sickened of an \u201cidealism that is oblique, confusing, dishonest, and ferocious,\u201d as H.L. Mencken wrote<\/a> a hundred years ago. Though Mencken was condemning President Woodrow Wilson, the same verdict could characterize the legacy of former president Barack Obama. Obama is now on a book tour issuing calls for honest government, civic virtue, and similar tripe. But Obama did more to discredit idealism than any president since Wilson.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A dozen years ago, Americans were enthralled by the newly elected president from Illinois. After the deceit and demagoguery of the George W. Bush era, Obama\u2019s first presidential campaign with its \u201cYes, We Can\u201d motto swayed Americans that he could\u00a0 personally restore the moral grandeur of government. Its idealism was epitomized by the famous \u201cHope\u201d campaign poster that practically deified the candidate.<\/p>\n

Shortly before his first inauguration, Obama announced<\/a>, \u201cWhat is required is the same perseverance and idealism that our founders displayed.\u201d After Obama\u2019s inaugural address, the media rejoiced as if a new age of political idealism had arrived.<\/p>\n

Practically the entire world joined the race to canonize the new president. Less than 12 days after he took office, Obama was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize\u2014which he received<\/a> later that year. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared<\/a> at a White House state dinner, \u201cWe warmly applaud the recognition by the Nobel Committee of the healing touch you have provided and the power of your idealism and your vision.\u201d Shortly after receiving the Peace Prize, Obama announced he would triple the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The Peace Prize helped insulate him from criticism as he proceeded to bomb seven nations<\/a> during his presidency.<\/p>\n

Obama-style idealism quickly became a shroud for federal atrocities.<\/strong> On Holocaust Remembrance Day on April 23, 2009,\u00a0 Obama called<\/a> for \u201cfighting the silence that is evil\u2019s greatest co-conspirator.\u201d Ironically, on the same day, Obama decided to oppose creation of a truth commission to vigorously investigate and expose Bush administration crimes. After Obama visited CIA headquarters and praised<\/a> his audience for helping to \u201cto uphold our values and ideals,\u201d Obama chose not to prosecute any CIA officials who created a secret worldwide torture regime because<\/a> \u201cit\u2019s important to look forward and not backwards.\u201d Over the next five years, Obama administration officials vigorously fought a Senate investigation into Bush torture abuses, and Obama personally defended<\/a> the CIA\u00a0after it was caught illegally spying on the Senate to thwart the inquiry. The Obama administration also torpedoed<\/a> every lawsuit by a torture victim in U.S. court.<\/p>\n

In 2011, Obama draped his decision to bomb Libya by invoking \u201cdemocratic values\u201d and the \u201cideals\u201d which he asserted<\/a> were \u201cthe true measure of American leadership.\u201d But terrorist groups fighting dictator Muammar Qaddafi were already slaughtering civilians. Obama was so convinced of the righteousness of targeting Qadaffi that his appointees signaled<\/a> that federal law (such as the War Powers Act) could not constrain his salvation mission. In the chaos that subsequently engulfed Libya, ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed during an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. When their corpses arrived back in the U.S., Obama hailed<\/a> the victims for embodying \u201cthe courage, the hope, and yes, the idealism, that fundamental American belief that we can leave this world a little better than before.\u201d Obama\u2019s soothing rhetoric failed to deter the proliferation of slave markets<\/a> where black migrants were openly sold in Libya.<\/p>\n

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