There are at least three things in America that will come to an end as the year 2016 winds to a close.
Obama’s legacy
Actually, there won’t be one at all. The most divisive and ineffectual president in living memory will leave behind a number of broken promises and failed accomplishments.
During his tenure, his own party lost over 1,000 state and federal posts.
“We’re not even a national party at this point,” claimed Ohio Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan. “We have some support on the coasts, but we’ve lost the support of middle America, and we’ve got to make some changes.”
Obama promised hope, but in his 8 years as president 15 million more people dropped out of the workforce, yet they are not counted toward the unemployment rate. Since he took office, the US federal debt has grown by 9 trillion dollars against a GDP growth of 4 trillion dollars. The number of Americans on food stamps has increased by 13 million, with a 58 percent spike among African Americans. ObamaCare has been an expensive failure and 40 million people are still not covered. His legacy Affordable Care Act will be overhauled beyond recognition by his successor, Donald Trump.
The Iran deal has been an abysmal failure and will likely be scrapped.
His strategy of “leading from behind” has emboldened Russia (see the invasion of Ukraine) and allowed ISIS to grow and expand in the Middle East. His failure to confront Syria’s Assad has led to widespread genocide and the protracted siege of Aleppo.
He promised change and “the most transparent administration in history.” Change has been for the worse and Obama’s transparency has proved to be a joke.
Just days before the end of this year, Obama showed the world he’s a moral dwarf by colluding behind the scenes with the Palestinians to implement a UN resolution detrimental to Israel, thus breaking with his own policy and America’s traditional support for the Jewish state.
Actually, if you think about it, Obama’s only legacy is the grass-roots movement that elected Donald Trump.
The Clinton Machine
While some people say that twice-defeated Hillary Clinton may run for president one more time, the likelihood of that happening is dubious. Her health is shaky, her party’s support is waning and, frankly, even life-long democrats are disappointed with her because of her continuing scandals and flouting of the law. Under the Trump administration, she may even be indicted and therefore disgraced. That said, having been impeached and disbarred over the Lewinsky case did not prevent Bill Clinton from becoming actively involved in his wife’s campaign. It is actually believed that he tried in vain to get Hillary to campaign in Middle America, a strategy that her team rejected. Her failure to connect with middle-class Americans in the heartland ultimately cost her the election. How ironic is that?
Chelsea Clinton is reportedly being groomed to run for the Democrats in New York State, but she doesn’t seem to have the intellectual horsepower to ever amount to much. If the infamous Clinton Foundation is investigated and eventually wound up, she may even face an indictment for her involvement in its shady deals. So, it looks like the Clinton Machine has finally run out of steam.
The dominance of the Mainstream Media (MSM)
The MSM in America is dead. Its inability to provide factual and unbiased reporting has been uncovered during the 2016 election. Not only that, the MSM has been incapable of predicting Donald Trump’s upset victory over Hillary Clinton. Every single national newspaper and news outlet in the US was pushing for—and openly announcing—Clinton’s victory. Newsweek even distributed (and promptly recalled) 125,000 copies of a special issue featuring a Hillary Clinton cover under the heading “Madam President”. You can get one on eBay for about $500.
CNN even leaked to the Clinton camp some questions that members of the audience would ask during a televised town-hall meeting featuring Hillary Clinton and her rival Bernie Sanders.
Faced with relentless wall-to-wall media hostility, Donald Trump has taken to Twitter and hit his opponents with ruthless and snarky messages to great effect. He says he won’t stop even after his official inauguration on Jan. 20, 2017.
The role of the MSM has changed because people don’t believe the media any more. Well-known journalists have proved to be “in the tank” for Hillary, to have hidden links with the Clinton camp or the Democratic Party, and to have even made contributions to the Dem candidate’s campaign.
Because of its arrogance and entitlement, the MSM is in for a rough ride under Trump’s presidency.
Some journalists and anchors have now been seeking a rapprochement with the new president, others soon will. Inevitably, there will be those who will continue their opposition to Trump and there’s nothing wrong with that in a sound democracy, The fact remains that the MSM has taken a fatal beating from which it won’t ever recover.