One way to describe the philosophical and ideological divide between former President Barack Obama and Sen. Tim Scott is that the optimistic Mr. Scott views the glass that is America today as much more than half-full, while the ungrateful Mr. Obama still sees it as half-empty—or worse.
Nearly 6½ years after leaving the White House, Mr. Obama—appallingly, but unsurprisingly—continues to denigrate the country that twice elected him president in pooh-poohing the candidacy of the South Carolina Republican senator who aspires to become the country’s second Black president.
Appearing on David Axelrod’s “The Axe Files” podcast on June 15, Mr. Obama disparaged Mr. Scott’s sunny attitude on race. Grudgingly acknowledging that projecting a hopeful message like Mr. Scott’s is important, the Democratic former president nonetheless added: “That has to be undergirded with an honest accounting of our past and our present.”
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Snidely questioning the South Carolinian’s bona fides, Mr. Obama rambled in a vain search for coherent thought and a complete sentence: “And so, if a Republican, who may even be sincere [emphasis added] in saying, ‘I want us all to live together,’ doesn’t have a plan for how do we address crippling generational poverty that is a consequence of hundreds of years of racism in this society, and we need to do something about that.”
If Mr. Obama’s own election—not once, but twice—as president doesn’t refute that reflexive, knee-jerk depiction of America as irredeemably racist, it’s hard to imagine what would convince him otherwise. That’s not only gratuitously divisive, but it’s also deeply disturbing.
Continuing to stir the pot for the sake of stirring the pot, Mr. Obama added: “If somebody is not proposing, both acknowledging and proposing, elements that say, ‘No, we can’t just ignore all that and pretend as if everything’s equal and fair. We actually have to walk the walk and not just talk the talk.’ If they’re not doing that, then I think people are rightly skeptical.”
First of all, no one is suggesting that everything is 100% equal and fair. That’s not only an impossible standard to meet, but it’s also a total canard, and Mr. Obama knows it. But he and the left refuse to recognize the enormous strides toward racial equality the country has made over the nearly 60 years since the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
It’s utterly cynical but not surprising because Democrats know that without stirring the racial pot, they wouldn’t be able to continue every election cycle to count on over 90% of the Black vote, without which they would never win the presidency or even some Senate seats in otherwise blue states.
That the racial arson of Mr. Obama and his fellow Democrats has achieved its desired end was reflected in a poll published in The Washington Post on June 16, just one the day after his remarks on the podcast of Mr. Axelrod, who was a senior adviser in his presidency.
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The survey found: “An overwhelming share of Black Americans think the U.S. economic system is stacked against them, and a slim majority believe the problem of racism will worsen during their lives, according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll that explored the attitudes of the country’s second-largest minority group.”
As disheartening as that is, in and of itself, Mr. Obama’s remarks are particularly galling coming from someone who has a net worth estimated by Business Insider at $70 million and who owns four lavish homes, including island oceanfront properties on Oahu, Hawaii, and on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.
By any measure, Mr. Obama has done extraordinarily well for a Black man in a supposedly “racist” country—and vastly out of proportion to what he has contributed to the well-being of the country.
Mr. Scott, more in sorrow than in anger, responded to Mr. Obama on Twitter the same day the podcast aired.
“Let us not forget we are a land of opportunity, not a land of oppression. Democrats deny our progress to protect their power,” the two-term senator wrote. “The Left wants you to believe faith in America is a fraud and progress in our nation is a myth.”
“The truth of MY life disproves the lies of the radical Left,” he added. “We live in a country where little Black and Brown boys and girls can be President of the United States. The truth is, we’ve had one, and the good news is, we will have another.”
