Patrick Henningsen
21st Century Wire
Jan 23, 2013

It seemed to live up to all the pundits’ expectations.

The Second Inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama was broadcast in the genre of an American version of the royal coronation, a Hollywood-style, stage-managed ceremony which, in the final analysis, provided a unique, albeit somewhat dark insight into the ever evolving sectarian nation that is the United States of America.

His tone was sanguine – reinforcing his cult of personality.

For most Americans watching, this was an opportunity to forget about the blood sport of cross-party politics to enjoy what veteran Tom Brokaw described as, ‘A chance to see America at its best’, or something to that effect. The biggest topic of conversation in the media was the First Lady’s unique choice hair style, and of course her dress. But that is to be expected. Later the event transformed into a pop concert, as the artist called Beyonce sang national anthems one and two. That was also to be expected.

Most importantly however, is how the President would use this latest spotlight event. One could not help but get the feeling from Obama’s acceptance speech that this is a President who is ready to place political gamesmanship, and his celebrity image – above substance and integrity. The Democratic Party often accuses the Republican tribe of being ‘out of touch’ with the pulse of modern America – and perhaps accurately so, but what has become ultimately clear after observing how this White House manages its media output is that the Democrats have become completely dependent on the President’s media image as celebrity-in-chief. He looks and sounds ‘progressive’, but in reality, he is leading a nation through a period of regression.

‘Collective Action’

Beyond the clever NLP-fashioned rhetoric and calculated references to pastiches of genuine social movements in history, the President delivered a clear and more than palpable tone of communitarianism, socialism and collectivism. These themes were obvious.

Obama called loudly for “collective action”, as he paid tribute to the gods of global warming, with climate change being one of the greatest challenges he should meet in his second term. The do this, he brings God into the frame:

“Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms… That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God. That’s what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared.”

-President Barack Obama, 
Second Inaugural Address, 21 January 2013

This, after the scientific cabal who had invented this mythological crisis – and later managed to disseminate it through the UN’s IPCC clique of hand-picked shills – are all in retreat over their part in the scientific fraud. Somehow, this news never made it to the White House, as Obama seemed more determined than ever to ram home bankrupt policies based on a modern myth-cum-science, and whose only outcomes will be collectivism and a devolution of power to a new global government structure.

In the end, the President’s policies and actions are merely a reflection of his party’s contemporary character and his party is partly a reflection of American politics and society in 2013. In the absence of any true reform, or true national values, he and his party have chosen to accentuate division instead.



Never has America been more divided politically and socially than it is today. In the near future, Barack Obama might one day come to be known as ’The Great Divider’.

The New Sectarianism

What began as a trend of political tribalism that separated the two branches on America’s single party state – Democrats and Republicans, a complex environment of sectarianism has emerged as the dominant political paradigm in America. This ‘neo-secarianism’ is in part drawn from 21st century society’s post-modern obsession with identity politics borrowed from marketeers – segments, demographics, race, black, white, brown, Christian, Jew, Muslim, rich, poor, liberal, conservative, generation X ,Y and Z, baby boomers, empty-nesters, male, female, gay, straight, the 1%, the 99%, educated upper middle class, and of course the tiring red state, blue state and also ‘greens’. 

For spin doctors, policy think tanks, media pundits and career politicians – with all their myriad of animated graphs and polls – this ever growing list… is what the American people have been reduced to in 2013.

Everywhere we turn, every political pundit we hear – we are constantly being reminded which segment we belong to, as we are told who we should be identifying with. Numbers on pie chart – that when arranged correctly, will mean victory in the next election. And for all those savvy political operators and masters of the spreadsheet, this (somehow) is cause for excitement. They may not notice it, but I do. I notice who is subtly promoting sectarianism in the United States.

Being able to toss around a label like ‘progressive’ in the manner that MSNBC’s Chris Matthews tends to do on a daily basis – means very little in a country that is no longer able to define what progressive is. No liberal pundit will ever ask the important question – is this new sectarianism in America  progressive, or regressive?

Then there’s the issue of Obama’s all important 2nd term ‘legacy’, which seems to occupy media pundits more than the actual problems facing the United States in 2013.

Although his faithful following do not like to admit it, Obama has built his first term by carefully avoiding taking any responsibility, and blaming continued US imperial expansion on an inheritance from his predecessor. He has gone to great pains to carefully keep himself out of the firing line on foreign policy – so skillfully that it would make even the great Tony Blair envious. And this is without even mentioning what is arguably America’s single biggest black mark history and an embarrassment in the eyes of the global village, Guantanamo.

A Nation in Receivership to the Banking Elite

Just as each speech melts into the one before it, few will even care to remember the President declaring at the end of 2011, “”There’s no doubt that 2012 will bring even more change. And as we head into the New Year, I’m hopeful that we have what it takes to face that change and come out even stronger – to grow our economy, create more jobs, and strengthen the middle class.”

On paper, the United States is bankrupt. More trillions have been added to the national debt during the Obama tenure. There are no new jobs and the Federal government cannot ‘create’ them. In 2013, with no more spin left to apply, media pundits have all but caved in, calling this the Great Recession. 

Few will care to remember that it was their President – Barack Obama, who left is campaign trail in 2008 along with his partner in crime John McCain, to lobby Congress and Senate to pass the first and most highly destructive banker bailout – a blank check for the men from Wall Street who backed him from the beginning. It was at this rather tragic moment when intelligent commentators realised who really ran the government in Washington DC. Sadly, this revelation was lost on most of the highly paid media heroes residing in New York and Atlanta.

Stunning Hypocrisy Overseas

Nor does the party faithful care much anymore about the proliferation of drone strikes carrying out extrajudicial killings of other brown people in far off lands that most Americans cannot even locate on a map. Foreign lives are worth less than American lives, or so we have been taught by the gods of DC over the last decade. It should come as no surprise then, that his silence was deafening as the Israeli bombs rained down on the people of Gaza.

Silence from the party faithful, and from the Republican crowd also, as the President chose to ally our nation with hired terrorists in the form of al Qaeda mercenaries in Libya and in Syria, and remain so shamelessly unapologetic to the American people about this unholy alliance.

In 2013, more US troops are now dying from suicide than on the field of battle.

And even fewer are at all concerned about America’s increased military presence in Africa, as President Obama rolls out AFRICOM directives there. Will anyone shed a tear for the thousands, or millions of African civilians who are likely to die over the next decade as a result of US and NATO designs on their beautiful continent? Ironic, that it would be America’s first ‘black’ President who would take our nation down that dark path.

Who would also have thought that it would be Obama who would embrace the Executive Order with such vigour, and in a way which makes the previous administration look transparent, timid, and even constitutional.

The signs are worrying that America is being led towards not just a more socialist, but collectivist society. In addition, this President appears to be pushing the country closer towards a number of highly unpopular United Nations treaties, all of which threaten to water down what is left of America’s democratic traditions, and in case of the UN’s international regulations on the private ownership of fire arms, undermine the US Constitution. This is the direction the President is taking the country.

A nation divided, with it economy crumbling and its sovereignty eroding.

A President who served eight years, and delivered nothing but speeches.

If this administration do not radically change course, this will be the Obama White House’s true legacy.

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