People see what they want to see in this movie, democrats and republicans alike.
“Obama’s America 2016” was made by a fringe-right-wing author, and was financied by a handful of wealthy conservatives including the founder of TD Ameritrade, who has already been criticized for his support of agressive SuperPAC attacks on the President.
The book he wrote prior to making this movie-length anti-Obama commercial has been totally debunked by every possible legitimate media outlet as being paranoid and conspiracy-mongering. One of the producers (i.e. a money-man) works in Hollywood and has some real movie credits… but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a political agenda… Michael Moore has lots of movie credits, too… would the average republican say he’s objective? In the end, it’s no different than a typical anti-Obama commercial created by a Republican super PAC.
Get Some Perspective (BOTH sides of the isle): it’s a media product funded by people who openly hate Obama… it’s a super PAC ad, not a documentary. If you disagree with that assertion, then ask yourself: what if Rachel Maddow wrote a movie about Mitt Romney that was funded by Michael Moore? Do you Think it would be perfectly objective and without any sort of political bias? Of course not. That’s exactly what this movie is. Everyone involved from top to bottom are equally biased people (or people with an agenda) on the far-right side of the political spectrum…. but they don’t have famous names, so the general public doesn’t see it as a giant super PAC ad or the same as a Michael Moore movie.
Related: What will happen if Obama wins the election?
As a democrat, my initial reaction when I saw the search trending on POLITUSIC was like a lot other democrats who don’t watch a lot of Fox News: what the heck is 2016 the movie? As with all things, educating oneself is an easy solution to this sort of problem. As expected, the reviews, comments, and interpretations of electoral impact are either pro or con this “movie” depending exclusively on which side of the political lines they fall.
This movie is red meat for the people who already hate Obama, red meat for the people who hate the people who hate Obama – and for the people who really matter in this election, those in the middle, they will say what they always say: this is stupid… why don’t the lefties and righties just stop quibbling all the time and get something accomplished?
Fox and Rush Limbaugh claim it’s packed full of silver bullets, but the rest of the world, basically writes it off as a long commercial for the “very conservative” who already hate Obama, as well as a big-ego extension of his inflammatory-claims book: the filmmaker, Dinesh D’Souza, whose theories in his book have already been thrown out as hyper-political.
The “Obama’s America” movie was funded by politically motivated people (more on that below), including TD Ameritrade founder, who has already gotten into hot water for supporting more extreme Super PAC actions. One of the money men happens to have a commercially successful film on his resume, which Dinesh D’Souza is trying to tout in advertisements to give it some legitimacy.
The Obama 2016 movie is in many ways Dinesh D’Souza’s book on film, which makes radical claims about the President’s internal thoughts about colonialism and all sorts of other oddities that fall in line with extreme conservative conspiracy theories. He leads people in interviews, and shapes the facts just like any politically motivated filmmaker. Obama 2016 full of very typical, extreme right-wing conspiracies designed to evoke mistrust and fear… that for some reason the majority of the Republican Party continues to allow to run through the halls, tip the trash cans, and toilet paper the houses of our political system.
(SIde note: just because a book is a NY Times best seller does not mean it’s good and most certainly doesn’t mean it’s full of truth: it just means that people bought it… it sold well… and writing a book raging against Obama, which I’m sure was pushed on all right-leaning media outlets, is a easy seller. The book made money, it doesn’t mean it was well researched or correct.)
Bottom line: people will see what they already want to see in this movie: If you hate Obama, you’ll still hate him and think it’s an angry black man who might not be an American. If you’re for Obama, you’ll hold onto your anger and disbelief at all of the conspiracy theories with racial undertones, and if you’re in the middle, you’ll look at both of the other two sides and wonder why anyone cares.
The 2016 movie is nothing more than a commercial with selective editing and storytelling to shape its argument… just the same as what democrats and republicans both run in 30 second spots on TV. If anything, this democrat finds it sad that this poor filmmaker is so infatuated to make a film out of his very unpopular and bad book.
I mean, come on… it’s opening in Texas. It’s the same thing as Mitt Romney always interviewing on Fox News: it’s safe and playing to the rabid base who already hate President Obama. It’s a meaningless, poinless, and ego-stoking exercise by a mediocre filmmaker.
What I think as a democrat about the 2016 Obama’s America movie, is that it will have no impact on the election whatsoever. As a movie, insofar as it is a movie made by a filmmaker (who got his start in the Reagan administration… Dinesh D’Souza has a career that is much more politics than it is filmmaker or movie maker), I haven’t seen it… because I don’t live in Texas, and I don’t believe in long-format propaganda. I’m certain, however, that it uses lighting and editing that’s designed to make people feel unstable. I’ve read that it edits out certain parts of President Obama’s speech, as well as comments made off camera by other people, both of which are rather important for the truth, but not for selling movie tickets.
Republican or Democrat, I think we all believe that if you follow the money then it’s easier to see what influences a storyline, which in this case is literally. Dinesh D’Souza got some bit names on this one (to pay for it): Who financed 2016 movie?:
“2016” was produced by Gerald Molen, the Oscar-winning producer of “Schindler’s List,” “Jurassic Park,” “Rain Man” and “Minority Report,” and it was bankrolled by a couple of dozen wealthy conservatives, the most prominent being TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts, who also backed “The Conspirator,” Robert Redford’s movie about the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.
It’s a family project, funded by a dozen or so very wealth conservatives, all of whom have political motives, and have a tendency to embrace conspiracy theories. Take away from that what you’re willing.
That the President’s brother appears in this “movie” also has republicans thinking it’s some sort of proof that Obama is evil, so I offer from the HP:
That book put forth D’Souza’s wildly unpopular belief that Barack Obama’s Kenyan heritage instilled a burning hate for all things colonial in the president. The author contends that Obama was introduced to this distaste for colonial powers from his (and George’s) father.
In the clip… George is seen fielding questions from D’Souza, and generally disagreeing with every principle the latter raises. When the author and filmmaker presses Obama on why his wealthy and powerful brother isn’t helping him financially, George says the president “has a family of his own.”
“He’s got other issues to deal with,” he adds. “He’s taking care of the world, so he’s taking care of me.”
There’s no silver bullet there. And you know what: families are complicated. Families are complicated, Obama was raised in Hawaii by his mother and grandparents, thousands of miles away from his half brother… and now he’s President of the United States – he can’t just dish out favors to a half brother living in Kenya… imagine how Republicans would react to THAT!
But like I said: no net impact on anything. Just even more spicy food for the already voting against Obama conspiracy theorists. Everyone make sure you have your antacids.
