Review: "2016":  Obama's America,A Documentary Film

The poor old Past.
The Future's Slave.

Herman Melville (1819-1891)

September 3, 2012 - Tomorrow the Democratic convention begins.

Should we as physicians be concerned?

Yes, if the past 4 years are any indication.  As a profession under Obama, we have been under attack - with a law that will lower our reimbursement to Medicaid levels by 2019,with constant blame for higher costs,  and with more regulations and restrictions.  This has resulted in physician flight to hospital employment.

Hospital employment will generate higher costs for patients, and less physician independence.  Payment based on metric measurement,  protocol compliance, and algorithm adherence will prevail.   You should be concerned about the future.   You will spend the rest of your career there.

With these thoughts in mind and less than an open mind, this week I wen to see 2016: Obama's America, a documentary about Obama's past and how it shaped his thinking.

Dinesh D'Souza, a conservative writer of India descent, now an American Citizen and author of the book, Obama's America; The Roots of Obama's Rage, narrated the documentary.D-Souza , who is the same age, 51, as Obama,and who has a similar Ivy league  eduction (Dartmouth for him, Columbia and Harvard for Obama), concludes after visiting Hawaii,  Chicago, Cambridge, New York City,  Kenya, and Indonesia and talking to those closest to Obama in his Past, that:

•  Obama was born in Hawaii;
• he is an ardent anti-colonalist;
• he considers the U.S. just one among many nations, no better than most; worst than some;
• he worships his father, a Kenyan economist, who died in 1982;
• his childhood upbringing in Indonesia makes him sympathetic to Islam;
• his mentors, associates, and "founding fathers" - deemed leftist and radical by the narrator- at Hawaii, Columbia, Harvard, and Chicago - heavily contribute to this political and ideological mindset'
• He has a political genius for for exploiting Americans' weaknesses for compelling life stores and penchant for "fairness."

This past has led to a mindset that explains why President Obama

• to remove Winston Churchill's bust in Oval Office back to London as one of his first acts as Presient because he regardedChurchill as a colonialist who pillaged poor countries.
• to diminish and lessen the role of the U.S. as a super-power by relegating decisions to the United Nations.
• to side with developing nations and Islam in much of his decision-making;
• to believe in the redistribution of wealth among nations and affluent citizens to poorer nations and poorer citizens as the only "fair" thing to do;
• to question whether America deserves its status as an "exceptional nation;
• to preside as the architect over America's decline.

Whether this interpretation of Obama's past is true or biased is up to the documentary's viewer to decide. I do not by all of it, some of it makes sense to me.   Nevertheless, it is food for thought.

This much is true. The book and the documentary are best sellers.   The book has quickly moved up to 5th place in the New York Times list of combined print and e-books sales.  And the documentary is now in the top ten in gross revenues.

Tweet: "2016": a  documentary film, concludes that Obama's past and his mentors heavily  influence his perception of America and his actions as President.