The race for the White House in 2012 is in full force as election day draws closer. The propaganda is being doled out, the sides are viciously attacking each other, and the level headed talks are coming to a swift conclusion. Along comes “scholar” Dinesh D’souza with his 90 minute unlettered documentary 2016: Obama’s America about what would happen if Obama is elected to a second term, and where America will be after. There are a lot of variables to consider within four years, but D’Souza is going to wrap it up in under 2 hours. I gave him a shot.
A large portion of the film is spent talking about Obama’s father, but it ultimately has no bearing or relevance on where America will be in 2016 after Obama’s second term. D’Souza highlights the fact that Obama’s book is titled “Dreams From My Father“, and adds that Obama is merely the reincarnation of his father’s Barack Obama Senior’s radical policies. He then claims that Barack hardly knew his father, and is desperately out to prove him wrong in an effort to get the love and approval his father never gave him. His father was a womanizer, a drunk, and everything Obama is not, but also everything Obama secretly is. It’s apparent that Mr. D’Souza has missed a few steps on the way up the logic ladder.
He then decides to go after Obama’s brother in Kenya, George Obama. D’Souza interviews him and says that in the Bible it mentions something about being your brother’s keeper, and Obama has not filled that role for him. George says that Obama has bigger problems to worry about, like the rest of the free world, and by helping the free world, he also helps him. He says that he’s an adult and quite able to take care of himself. After all, his life is his own responsibility. D’Souza pushes further, desperately hoping for George to spill some vitriol about his brother leaving him all behind in Kenya. It doesn’t happen.
After unsuccessfully shaking the family tree, Dinesh interviews a man who claims that Obama views Israel as an evil entity, and he sympathizes with Muslims and Palestinians. Yet, he fails to account for the 30 billion the President has promised the Israeli’s over the next decade. He then postulates a crackpot idea that Obama’s failure to help Israel (even though he is) will leave them isolated in the Middle East as the remaining nations transform themselves into the United States of Islam. D’Souza makes the incredible assumption that Obama is not only in league with Jihadists in the Middle East, but views them as freedom fighters.
D’Souza tries to paint the President as a mystery man that we know nothing about, but pulls the majority of his information from Obama’s own book and cherry picks the quotes to serve his agenda about the President’s reticent life. He thinks Obama is hiding some secret agenda that people are completely unaware of, but I’m still not sure how the President is hiding his dark past in a book that’s available for anyone in the world to read. Dinesh D’Souza either thinks he’s the smartest man in the room or the entire political landscape in the United States is devoid of any intelligence. Both sides should be offended.
He tries to indict Obama on the basis of his desire for nuclear disarmament, but D’Souza says in the beginning of the film that he himself worked for the White House under Reagan and was an ardent supporter of his policies. However, he leaves out the fact that Reagan also called for total nuclear disarmament and was in active negotiations with the Soviet Union under the hopes of some day living in a world where nuclear weapons were eliminated from the face of the Earth. This must have been a simple oversight, right?
Of course, none of this is accomplished without shadowy backdrops and foreboding horror movie music to irrationally incite Islamophobia in Americans so they’ll believe that somehow the world power is going to shift completely away from the United States and into the impoverished nations of the Middle East. D’Souza’s scare tactics are low brow, and clearly he carries the torch of McCarthyism. I don’t think I have to elaborate on what the intentions are here.
One of my biggest gripes with 2016: Obama’s America is that it doesn’t answer the question it set out in the opening. If he is re-elected, where will America be? According to D’Souza, Obama will drain the United States dry with debt until we are no longer a superpower, abandon Israel and leave them to fight off The United States of Islam, and turn the country into an anti-colonialist nation that completely isolates itself from the international world. Oh, and did I mention Obama is going to accomplish all of this in the next 4 years?
2016: Obama’s America is the worst film I’ve seen all year. If you’re at all educated in the political realm or capable of critical thinking, the “facts” in this documentary will not scare you. Dinesh D’Souza comes off as an educated and well mannered man, but presents extraordinary claims, and fails to give the extraordinary evidence to support them. Those looking for an honest documentary and an objective look at American politics will be disappointed, because the filmmakers are not interested in a rational discourse. Although, I don’t think those kind of people are the intended audience. This is a documentary made for those who have made up their mind on Obama and believe he’s some Kenyan socialist who loves Islam, hides the fact that he’s a Muslim, and harbors sympathies for the enemies of America because deep down, he hates this country too.
3.5/10
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