In order to understand the mindset and ideological soul of Obama, one has to examine his political hero Ronald Reagan. As I highlighted in this tweet from last year how Reagan played a key role model for Obama.

The 2011 TIME magazine quotes Obama and his love affair with Reagan, which further enforces how far to the right we are now in and normalizes this type of hero-worshipping of right wing figures.

As the 1980s rolled on and Obama matured, Reagan became a model for leadership. The attraction was less substantive than stylistic and instinctive. Both had strong mothers and dysfunctional fathers. Both prided themselves on bringing people together. Obama even conceded that he sometimes felt the emotional pull of Reagan’s vision. “I understood his appeal,” Obama recalled in his second book, The Audacity of Hope . “Reagan spoke to America’s longing for order, our need to believe that we are not simply subject to blind, impersonal forces but that we can shape our individual and collective destinies.” The Great Communicator, it seems, had struck a chord. http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2044712-2,00.html

The 2020 Showtime documentary does an outstanding job to unmask the Reagan mythology that was carefully manufactured over the decades. As Hollywood is attempting to push through a film on Reagan’s life in 2022 this documentary offers a proper counter. Reagan was a master at dog whistling, defeating organize labor, and making sure it satisfies his wealthy base. Below is an example of a dog-whistle he used and he was crafty in how he was able to hide his racism and contempt for the poor.

I recommend everyone watch this documentary to understand how from Bill Clinton to now there has been a serious campaign to push Black America to the right and Obama has successfully done that in his 8 years. Obama is the more surreptitious version of Ronald Reagan, with the same contempt of the poor and dog whistle that aims to satisfy his wealthy base as well. To unmask Reagan is to unmask the Obama mythology.