“If you attack you will destroy a great empire.”
- The answer from the Oracle of Delphi concerning whether Croesus should attack the Persians

As I was watching Dinesh D’Souza’s new movie about President Barack Obama I was reminded of this quote from antiquity.  Of course, Croesus assumed the Oracle meant if he attacked Persia it would be their empire that would be destroyed.

In reality, it was his empire which fell.

The same can be said of Obama’s mantra of “Change” when he ran for president… what kind of “change” did we get… the good or bad kind?

I generally dislike of any type of political documentary and the last one I saw in the theater was in 1989 when I watched Roger & Me.

My dislike of documentaries (primarily of the political kind) is that they succeed or fail based upon their ability to manipulate the viewer.

2016 pulls out many of the tricks in order to “grab” the audience but the entire basis of the film rests upon a single premise:

Does the viewer believe that the sins of Barack Obama, Sr. are found in the son?

Mr. Obama (as I will call him) was a Leftist… a Marxist… an anti-colonialist.  And D’Souza’s entire film is based upon his opinion that Barack Obama has adopted his interpretation of his father’s beliefs based upon what his mother told him.

“Hope” and “Change” were empty vessels into which guilty white Obama voters poured their hearts and minds just as Obama’s absent father was an empty vessel into which his mother and he poured their dreams.

D’Souza’s film lays out the argument that Barack Obama wants to blindly support any formerly colonized and repressed areas of the world by giving back “wealth” taken by the world’s powers over the centuries.  D’Souza uses the example of the returning of the bust of Winston Churchill to England as an example of Barack Obama’s anti-colonialist leanings because Churchill (and England) oppressed his father’s nation, Kenya and thus represent the enemy.

D’Souza touches on some things like Obamacare, the attempt to raise taxes, the shutting down of oil drilling domestically while supporting it financially in formerly colonized nations but most of D’Souza’s point is a type of guilt-by-association exposition of interviewing people who knew Mr. Obama and asking them how alike the father and son are.

D’Souza even interviews Barack Obama’s half-brother, George Obama who reveals that he thinks the colonial powers helped countries like South Korea, Indonesia, India, and South Africa and that the whites should have stayed longer in Kenya because they would have “helped” them more.

D’Souza then suggests it is because Barack Obama and George Obama disagree on this matter that George never got any help of his own from his brother (George didn’t agree).

One interesting footnote goes unsaid but seems to be that George Obama’s biggest regret in life is that everybody told him he wasn’t as intellectual as his father.  When compared to Obama’s remark that he was smart enough to do the job of every person below him in the presidency one wonders if he was made to feel the same way?

D’Souza is almost a perfect contrast with Barack Obama.  Both were born the same year, both graduated from college the same year, both were married the same year, both had a father born in a former colonized nation, both went to Ivy League schools, both are dark skinned and both are Americans.

But how different they are!

The film’s strongest points are when Barack Obama is heard reading from his book, Dreams from My Father (we are told the “from” is more meaningful than if it were an “of”) and when the facts about Obama’s “Founding Fathers” are shown (anti-American preacher, Communist Party member, former terrorist, etc…).

The weak points are mostly when third parties are interviewed to psycho-analyze Barack Obama, his childhood, his non-existent relationship with his father (whom he last saw when he was 10), and his mother’s troubled journey from Kansas girl to political Leftist.

If you accept the fact that Barack Obama is the reincarnation of Mr. Obama’s anti-colonial fervor and that, by way of racial guilt he managed to get elected as president then you will enjoy this film.  If you know nothing of the subject matter you may think you’ve sat through 87 minutes of lies (because the media hasn’t been doing its job).  If you are an Obama supporter you will leave the theater full of excuses as I heard one audience member tell his friend about how the film tried to “scare” everybody in the last 15 minutes.

The film is worth seeing if for nothing else than learning more about colonialism, how two people can look at the same thing and see something completely different and because the upcoming presidential election will, to paraphrase the Oracle of Delphi, result in great change for America.