2016: Obama’s America(2012)
Rocky Mountain Pictures- PGRated PG for thematic elements, brief language and smoking images
- 1h 27m
Jul 13, 2012
A documentary that examines the question, "If Barack Obama wins a second term, where will we be in 2016?"
Release Details
- Jul 13, 2012 | Wide
- Jul 13, 2012 | Limited
- Aug 24, 2012 | Wide
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2025-04-18T08:53:41.965Z
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$31,610
$33,449,086
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Technical Specifications
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital
Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1
Other Details
Country of Origin: United States
Language: English
Summaries
Plot Summary
- A journey into the heart of the world's most powerful office to reveal the struggle of whether one man's past will redefine America over the next four years. The film examines the question, "If Obama wins a second term, where will we be in 2016?"Across the globe and in America, people in 2008 hungered for a leader who would unite and lift us from economic turmoil and war. True to Americas ideals, they invested their hope in a new kind of president, Barack Obama. What they didn't know is that Obama is a man with a past, and in powerful ways that past defines him--who he is, how he thinks, and where he intends to take America and the world. Immersed in exotic locales across four continents, best selling author Dinesh D'Souza races against time to find answers to Obama's past and reveal where America will be in 2016. During this journey he discovers how hope and change became radically misunderstood, and identifies new flashpoints for hot wars in mankind's greatest struggle. The journey moves quickly over the arc of the old colonial empires into America's empire of liberty, and we see the unfolding realignment of nations and the shape of the global future.Based on the book, "The Roots of Obama's Rage" Barack Obama's journey can be traced back to the independence of Kenya. We see clips from history, Election Day, his inauguration, and newscasters from when he was elected. The narrator says we are all shaped by our past.Dinesh D'Souza, the author of the books, and narrator, begins with telling the audience about his experience as a young child. He came to Dartmouth College in 1978 from India. His classmates always said how fascinating India was, and he was always confused by this. He explains how different his life would be if he stayed in India. D'Souza joined a group of renegade conservatives called The Dartmouth Review. He was part of the Reagan generation. He was offered a job in Washington, and it didn't matter that he wasnt a citizen, just that he loved Reagan. He got a job working in the White House. But could they find someone, another president, to solve the issues after Reagan?We cut to Obama being elected. He and D'Souza had some things in common. They are the same age, went to Ivy League colleges, graduated the same year, got married the same year, and have a mixed-race background. The country chose a young senator over two well known politicians which only happened once before with Abraham Lincoln.Obama was unknown and came in with the slogan "hope." We see people calling him communist, etc., and then the very same people who campaigned and voted for him saying how they made a mistake and disapproving of him. People have lost 40% of their wealth. It is the worst economic time since the Great Depression. D'Souza says some things he does are very strange for a Democrat to do. Such as backing Argentina, delaying the Keystone Pipeline, block oil drilling, but gives money to other countries, stopping NASA, etc. Obama uses force to stop genocide in Libya, but not Syria. He does very little to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons, but stops America instead. He takes the Palestinian side versus Israel. Obama's father, who is talked about frequently, is the main source of his life.We cut to Obama's father's history. He was born in Kenya in the 1930s. He has two kids in Africa and gets married in Hawaii to Barack's mother Ann. He leaves them and goes to Harvard. He divorces her and goes back to Kenya, re-marries, and has three more sons. He visits Obama in 1971 for the only time. How was Obama so influenced by his father who wasn't even around? Psychologist Paul Vitz talks about the influence of absentee fathers. Normally, you become hostile to the things associated with your father. However, his mother talked positively about Obama's father. Obama wanted to prove that he was not unimportant. There is now an excerpt read from Obama's book 'Dreams From My Father' and when he was visiting him. His image gave him either something to live up to, or to disappoint.When Obama was six, they (he, his mother, and stepfather) moved to Jakarta, Indonesia. His stepfather was named Lolo. Lolo told Ann how he lost his family in the Indonesian Revolution. He had to go back to help transform the country since the Dutch had now been driven out. She expected their life to be difficult in Indonesia. We hear Obama talking about the hardships in Indonesia that she endured, all part of his book. D'Souza compares it to the British India that he grew up in. Due to the hardships they endured, his grandfather was very Anti-White and didn't want D'Souza to go to America because of that.Now we see Dr. Alice Dewey, a professor of anthropology in Hawaii, talking. She remembers Obama as a child and says he was a nice person. She knew Obama's mother well. Lolo took a job working for a CA oil company. Ann Obama later abandoned him. She kept reminding Barack about his father's hard life and how he stood for principles. Barack had no choice but to follow his example. She sent him back to Hawaii to live with his grandparents. Hawaii was not as great as we imagine it now. Colonization is still a current issue there.His grandparents found a mentor for him in Frank Marshall Davis, a poet and journalist. They were close until he left for college. D'Souza talks to the author of The Communist: Frank Marshall Davis. Obama always refers to him as Frank. Frank's columns were very anti-American, and he was a huge threat to the FBI. However, he mentored Obama.Now it is time to explore Obama's father. D'Souza flies to Kenya. The country made a big impression on Obama, as one-third of his book is dedicated to his visit there. One of his grandfather's five wives, Granny Sarah, said that Obama is just like his father. Obama's half-sister told Granny Sarah not to do the interview, and they were no longer safe there. Instead, they went to visit his half-brother George who lives in Nairobi. They talk about the reports that Obama had not done anything to help his brother George. George says that he's over it. He's an adult and can take care of himself. George doesn't feel like he needs Obama to help him directly. He wrote a book in 2010. He said that he doesn't think colonialism is responsible for the sufferings in Kenya. They used to be on the same level of South Korea and Singapore but fell behind. He also says in his book that maybe if they let the Whites stayed longer in the country maybe theyd be a more developed country like South Africa.We then find out about his father, and how he died in a car accident. Obama went there, to confront his father's ghost. Obama narrates his book about when he went to visit his father's grave in Kenya. He reconciles with his father at this time and no longer feels all the pain he felt growing up, not receiving attention and love from his father. A friend of Obama Sr. says they had the exact same ideas.Barack Obama Sr. proposed in an article once, that the power of the state must be used to control and regulate private industry, and there should be very high tax rates. They can be taxed up to 100% of their income, as long as they receive a benefit from it. So many countries around the world are growing three to five times the rate of the US as they embrace the American recipe, that America is failing at. How does Obama do it? He embraces an Anti-American third world view, and yet he's president.Dr. Shelby Steele, Senior Fellow at Hoover Institution explains that basically, the reason he was elected is because he is Black. We Americans had to prove we could move beyond race. People wanted to be able to tell their grandchildren that they voted for Barack Obama, even if they were making a bad choice. He had to work the gratitude the people would feel for not being judged.Evan Thomas, editor of Newsweek, explains that Obama realized at Harvard that people would want to help him, all the way to the White House. Dr. Steele asks how could it be possible for him to become president when no one really knew him? It wasn't Obama's accomplishment, but America's accomplishment, for him to become President.Obama had to hide his group of Obama's Founding Fathers. These people are Frank Marshall Davis, and now Bill Ayers, and old friend from Chicago. Ayers tried to bomb the Pentagon, the NYCPD, and the Capital. Another founding father, or mentor, is his friend with the last name of Said. Roberto Unger, a Brazilian Socialist who was kicked out of Brazil for being too radical, now teaches at Harvard. They are close friends. Jeremiah Wright, Obamas pastor for 20 years, is the leading champion of third world liberation theology - The religious part of anti-colonialism. Instead of 'God Bless America', he says 'God Damn America'. Wright was offered money to keep quiet, but refused, and he tried to cover it up.He returned the bust of Winston Churchill to England because he was a colonialist. A NASA administrator says that Obama pushed him into helping the Muslim countries feel good about themselves and their contribution to science. He wants Britain to give up the Falkland Islands, and not drill for oil in America. We move onto health care. They had to pass it in order to see what was in it. We see Obama giving a speech where he cannot get his words out about how much it would cost. Obama lets his brother George live in the slums of Nairobi because he doesn't share the same views as his father. When Obama talks about the 1%, he's talking about the worldwide population, not the population of the USA.Now we see Joe Biden and journalists talking about how D'Souza is crazy in verbally degrading Obama and how his writings are garbage, and that Obama is one of the most talented men to ever enter American politics. They and the rest ot the Democrats need more evidence to go against Obama. D'Souza made three predictions in his book. 1: Obama will not do anything to stop Iran from getting their nuclear bombs; 2: he will increase the deficit; 3: he may cut the military and raise taxes. The first two are correct, and the other may come true if he is re-elected. We haven't seen all of him yet, because in the first term, they don't play all their cards. If elected again, he will be free to move it towards socialism. At the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, Iran reps didn't show up, and Obama didn't care. Obama's goal is to not have any nuclear weapons. We have gone down 1,500 weapons, and Obama dreams of a nuclear free world. However, no one else is lowering their weapons.Obama gave a speech in Egypt, saying how we all need mutual respect and need to share the same ideals tolerance, etc. However, it comes across that America is the bad guy.D'Souza states: "Since the so-called 'Arab Spring' revolutions in 2012, many countries in the Middle East are now run by radical Islams forming the United States of Islam.. whom are hostile against the USA and the rest of the non-Muslim world. Annual debts for old US presidents are now annual debts for Obama. The greatest threat to our future is our own fiscal responsibility. We cannot stay great with this economy. From George Washington to Bill Clinton it was a total of five trillion dollars in debt. Obama has added $10 trillion to that in just four years. We are not as bad as Greece, due to us simply being America; however, we are not invincible."We now see a little girl singing a song about Obama. "It's a childrens choir singing a song about Obama changing the world. Its called Sing for Change. We didn't know what change would look like before, but now we do. Will we carry Obama's dream or America's dream in 2016?""The future is in our hands."
Storyline
- Barack Obama wins a second term, where will we be in 2016?"
