2016: Dinesh D’Souza’s Misguided Film
September 14, 2012 R.R. Reno http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2012/09/2016-dinesh-drsquosouzarsquos-misguided-film The success of Dinesh D’Souza’s new movie, 2016: Obama’s America , leads me to revisit my thoughts about his recent book on which the film is based, The Roots of Obama’s Rage . I was and remain unconvinced by the argument that Obama’s anti-colonialist father explains his governing mentality. By my reckoning, the emerging postmodern liberalism of Columbia University circa 1982 (where I was for a semester as a visiting student) explains Obama pretty well. Not only do we not need to go to Kenya to find the sources of Obama’s worldview (the Ivy League will do just fine), but in fact the very realistic and at times cold-blooded sentiments of post-colonial Africans who wrested their futures out of the hands of their European masters cuts against the magical thinking that characterizes the sort of liberalism that the Obama White House represents. For exa...