As I’ve written many times, it’s important to break out of the echo-chambers the social media algorithms impose on us. Deliberately seek out news sources you think you wouldn’t agree with. Because, sometimes, rarely, you’ll be surprised to find that there are a great many things you do agree on.
Such as: what a revolting human being Barack Obama really is.
Of course, for most of the NPCs of the left, worshipping Obama is as de rigeur as foaming at the mouth about the Bad Orange Man. But no-one worships Barack Obama quite as much as Barack Obama does.
Since his retirement from politics, Barack Obama has displayed an astonishing lack of regard for the public good. Instead of serving his fellow human beings, he has mainly devoted himself to a rigorous program of conspicuous self-celebration. All summer, millions of Americans this year worried about being evicted from their homes, catching the Delta variant, persuading recalcitrant loved ones to get vaccinated, or whether a COVID resurgence might keep schools closed in the fall. Former president Barack Obama was apparently loftily unbothered by any of these plebeian concerns.
The distinguished memoirist was too busy planning a ginormous sixtieth birthday party for himself on his vast and vulgar Martha’s Vineyard estate.
But, Jacobin being a leftist publication, after all, they have to get at least some things back-ass-ward.
He’s distinguished himself as an enemy of labor and friend of racist cops.
Uh… is this the same race-baiter the rest of us see only all too well?
Obama was also instrumental in shutting down Bernie Sanders’s bid for the presidency, a huge setback to the movement for social democracy in the United States. When Sanders was leading in the primaries, Obama worked to organize the other rival candidates to drop out and back Biden, making it impossible for Sanders to win. He then persuaded the democratic socialist senator to drop out of the race.
Whatever we may think of Sanders (not much), it’s still beyond doubt just how shabbily un-democratic the Democrat party has been when it comes to the silver-haired leech and his legion of “Bernie Bros”. Sure, Sanders is a lifelong socialist freeloader, who was so lazy even a hippy commune kicked him out. He’s also an unapologetic grifter who only ever appears to run in order to provoke the Democrat machine into paying him to bugger off to one of his collection of mansions.
But the fact remains that a substantial swathe of Democrat primary voters backed him. So, the party simply changed the rules to lock them out and let their anointed Establishment fink claim the crown (Hillary Clinton in 2016, Joe Biden in 2020). If the rank-and-file wanted to nominate a socialist chancer, then that should have been their lookout.
And let’s not forget Obama’s awful museum in Chicago. The three-memoir author is erecting a garish monument to himself on Jackson Park, which community activists argue will wreak havoc on cherished green space and a fragile ecosystem, as well as upon the legal scaffolding for the very idea of the public interest (we wrote about this late last year) […]
Like most people with way too much money, the Obamas own way too many homes for the health of the planet. In addition to the Hawaii and Vineyard estates, they have an $8.1 million, nine-bedroom mansion in the Kalorama neighborhood of Washington, DC. All this real estate necessitates an unconscionable amount of flying, sometimes on Richard Branson’s private jet, at a time when many middle-class Americans and even corporations are cutting down on air travel because of its climate impact.
You or I may not agree with the climate alarmists, but Obama does — or at least pretends to. In fact, as the evidence shows, he’s just another arrogant eco-crite.
There may have been worse presidents than Obama — though few come to mind. But, as ex-presidents, even the execrable Dubya is a paragon of ex-presidential virtue compared to the jug-eared egotist.
With the obvious exception of Trump, who has used his ex-presidency mainly to whine about his personal grievances and fuel far-right conspiracy theories, Obama might be even less public-spirited than many other modern ex-presidents. All of them are war criminals who faithfully served the capitalist class when in power. But Ronald Reagan at least had the decency to retreat from public life into a tasteful (and sadly relatable) senility. Jimmy Carter built houses for poor people and defended democracy in Venezuela. George H. W. Bush declined to serve on corporate boards and engaged in humanitarian activities, raising funds for victims of Hurricane Katrina and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami […]
George W. Bush has kept a tactfully low profile, becoming an amateur painter.
That leaves Bill Clinton, who’s mainly used his ex-presidential status to grift as much money out of the developing world as he can get his hands on (the Clintons even had to be forcefully stopped from lifting the White House silver), keep a step ahead of persistent rape accusations, and hope that no-one ever gets their hands on Jeffrey Epstein’s little black book.
Obama has not only largely opted out of using his high profile to serve the public interest, but he’s also chosen insultingly to flout it. It’s long past time to end the cult of hero worship around this narcissistic plutocrat.
Jacobin
And on that, Jacobin and I are 100% in agreement.
