Two years ago, Forbes magazine published a thin reed of an idea by Dinesh D'Souza that took off in conservative circles — a fresh, bold look at understanding Barack Obama's worldview. The article was an excerpt from D'Souza's soon to be published book, The Roots of Obama's Rage, which essentially said that the President gets his "anti-colonialist viewpoint" from his father — a man he met just once in his life.
But that lack of contact doesn't matter to D'Souza. As he says in his movie, 2016: Obama's America, D'Souza seized on the title of Obama's acclaimed first memoir, Dreams From My Father, as the hook that persuaded him to explore the connection between Barack Obama Sr. and Jr. And since Barack the Elder's viewpoint in Kenya was anti-colonialist, well, gosh darn it, that probably explains some of the things that his son, our president, does.
2016: Obama's America is relatively engaging through its first hour, but loses all objectivity in the last 30 minutes. D'Souza pulls out any policy decision that he disagrees with as being proof of Obama's true philosophic ethic — anti-colonialist, and thus anti-white. It's a radical deduction based on the evidence at hand. It's also irresponsible, and it should have died in the marketplace of ideas two years ago. But there's no shortage of men in America with deep pockets who don't like the president, and D'Souza was able to get some of them to finance his film.
But 2016: Obama's America isn't convincing — unless you check your brain at the door before entering the cinema.
This article appears in Aug 30 – Sep 5, 2012.