Last night I went to see the new movie by Dinesh
D'Souza entitled 2016: Obama's America. The movie is
based on two books D'Souza has written: Obama’s
America: Unmaking the American Dream and The
Roots of Obama’s Rage. In the movie, D'Souza attempts to explain why
President Obama thinks and makes decisions the way he does. In other words, he
tries to define the motivating force behind this world leader. D'Souza presents
some very compelling evidence based on Obama's own words, as well as those of
his relatives and friends, that the driving principle behind Obama's decisions
is anticolonialism. Obama's father was born and raised in colonial Kenya and became
a strong anticolonialist. Several of Obama's mentors were anticolonialists
also. To better understand the anticolonialist mentality, one must understand
what it is like to be a part of a colony.
Throughout history, mighty empires have
arisen that felt it was their destiny to conquer other peoples and extract the
resources of their land. Some of the better known ancient empires were the
Assyrian, Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek, and Roman empires. In more recent
times, the best known and most powerful empire of all time was the British
Empire. It was once said that the sun never set on the British Empire because
it reached around the world. Part of the makeup of this empire was other
countries that had been conquered and made colonies. The British would set up
some form of government in these colonies and then go about extracting
resources to take back home. As you might expect, many of the indigenous people
of these colonized nations were not happy with this arrangement. They wanted
independence and self-autonomy. They wanted the resources of their land to be
used to enrich their own people rather than the country of their overlords.
Kenya was a colony of the British Empire from
about 1890 until 1963. So, President Obama's father, Barack Obama Sr, who was
born in 1934, grew up in a colonized Kenya. Had I been in his shoes, I would
most likely have been anticolonialist also. In fact, I am very much an anticolonialist
now, even though I was fortunate enough to have been raised in an independent
country. So, if President Obama and I both share an ideology of anticolonialism,
why do I disagree with many of his decisions about the direction of our
country? That has to do with what one believes should replace the oppression of
colonialism once the oppressors leave and the autonomy of a nation is re-established.
Some anticolonialists viewed the people of
the British Empire as being capitalists. So, it was natural for them, once they
became independent, to want to move as far away from capitalism as possible.
Typically, people who reject capitalism, embrace some form of socialism. This
is what many Kenyans did. This seems to be the mentality of President Obama as
well. But the problem is this: colonialism is anything but capitalism. Perhaps
once the resources were extracted from the colonies and made into products, the
Brits dealt with other nations on a capitalist basis. But the way they dealt
with the colonies was not capitalist by any stretch of the imagination.
The online Merriam-Webster dictionary
defined socialism as “A) a system of society or group living in which
there is no private property” and “B) a system or condition of society in
which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state.”
The definition of capitalism is “an
economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods,
by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices,
production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by
competition in a free market.”
So, based on these definitions, you can see
that colonialism is more akin to socialism than capitalism in that you have a
government expropriating the wealth of some people for the benefit of other
people. Had the British dealt with Kenya in a capitalist manner, they would
have come in and negotiated a contract whereby they paid an agreed upon price
for the resources they wanted. That’s how free markets work. Yet, for the
colonies that viewed their overlords as capitalists, socialism became the
alternative of choice upon becoming independent. They basically jumped from the
frying pan into the fire. As George
Obama, President Obama's half-brother, said
in the movie, Kenya would be better off today if the “whites” had stayed
longer.
Fortunately, socialism is not the true
alternative to colonialism; freedom and capitalism are. This is the path the
forefathers of the United States of America took. Remember that the USA was
originally colonies of Great Britain. The Revolutionary War was the result of
an anticolonialist movement. Yet, upon gaining independence, the movement led
to liberty and capitalism. This smart move led to the creation of what would
become the most prosperous nation on the face of the Earth. All because this
country embraced the idea that a man's labor was his own and thus the fruits of
that labor were his own also. This produced a great incentive for individuals
to work hard because they were working for themselves rather than others.
Yet, somehow President Obama has come down
on the side of viewing capitalism as the system that oppressed nations and socialism
being the cure. D'Souza believes it is due to the influence of his father,
mentors, and friends. Perhaps. But whatever the reason, Obama is unfortunately
wrong in his assessment. Freedom, liberty, and capitalism are the cure for
colonialism. Socialism is but a form of internal colonialism in which
government takes the wealth of people by force and passes it on to others, just
as the Brits took the wealth of other nations for the benefit of themselves.
I believe our country needs Change and Hope
just like President Obama does. However, Obama's cure for our ills is akin to a
doctor attempting to cure cancer by injecting the patient with poison. It only
makes things worse. What we need is a leader that has a real cure for our
nation's problems. Perhaps it is Mitt Romney. Perhaps it is Gary Johnson. I
have personally grown skeptical of most politicians. Yet, I do know one thing.
I agree with President Obama when he says we shouldn’t return to the failed
policies of the past. History shows clearly that liberty works far better than
oppression. So, let’s go back to that.
