Post-Obama Apocalypse

PREVIOUS POST RE-POSTED:

My grandfather died today. He didn’t live to see the end of the play. I’d hoped it would all end in time for him to know that he and all the others who brought this about had been forgiven, their sins expunged, their penitence served. I know I should burn his collection of Obama memorabilia, but it’s all I have left of him. He could never bring himself to get rid of it, even when it was banned and anyone found possessing such materials could be arrested and imprisoned. Luckily, his cache of buttons, coins, posters, T-shirts, and books were well hidden – not in an attic or basement where they’d be easily found. These things have been buried under a tree for forty years. I dug them up a few days ago at his request. He wanted to tell me the story. I’ve heard it all before, but he wanted me to understand how he and his contemporaries let it happen.

“He was hope,” Grandpa said, looking at a photo of the deposed President on a campaign poster. “He made us proud to be American, to be black, to be men. Every word he said, everything he did was seen as divinely inspired by many of us. We thought God sent him to save our country and our people. Even after all the expansive programs he created started to fail, many of us believed in him. Some still believed in him when he left office in disgrace.” Grandpa paused not wanting to talk about the tawdry scandal that ended the first black presidency and that made Clinton’s dalliance with an intern look tame by comparison. In his former profession as a journalist, Grandpa said he and his colleagues joked that Clinton’s mistake was having sex with a woman. However, in early twenty-first century America where the religious African-American community that voted down same-sex marriages in California, Ohio, and several other states, there was little tolerance for “alternative” lifestyles, regardless of who lived them. Skipping the scandal, Grandpa talked about what happened just before and right after Obama left office.

“We accepted martial law as necessary because of the crime that ensued when
police officers were laid off as city after city was decimated by debt and the failed
economy, particularly in the President's hometown, Chicago. People had stopped
fearing terrorist attacks following the annihilation of Pakistan and Afghanistan by
Obama-ordered nuclear attacks. Although those attacks pushed Iran and Korea to
arm themselves with nukes and inflamed other Muslim nations, as well as China
and Russia, Al Qaeda, radical jihadists, and terrorist cells were disabled.” I
remembered reading in my history books that Obama was heralded a hero when
Ben Laden’s body was found among the radioactive rubble, causing even
uncertain European allies to approve of the destruction of the two countries where
the terrorists lived and trained for their attacks against the West. “Everyone was
prepared for retaliation from Iran, China, Russia, or North Korea, but it didn’t come
for decades," Grandpa said, continuing his historical account.

“Instead, due to budget cuts in cities all over the country, America was overrun by
criminals who were often jobless, hungry young people who had no hope and
robbed people on the street in broad daylight, using clubs, knives, and illegally
purchased guns. Gun bans didn’t help and only disarmed law-abiding citizens. We
demanded protection as more and more people were gunned down for a few
dollars. We didn’t blink when the cameras were installed to monitor every street
and alley or when the curfews were imposed. We felt it was necessary. Even
when the military was sent into police the streets after being brought home from
Iraq and Afghanistan, we thought it was for our protection. When they started
searching our homes to see if we had guns, we still felt secure because most law-
abiding citizens had turned theirs in as ordered by law. Then the protests started,
at first just on the internet. Later, I found out anyone who sent or received any of the anti-Obama emails was put on a list of ‘subversives’ by the FBI.

"My name was on that list because your great aunt sent an email to my dad who
sent it to me. But it was my editorial that disagreed with but supported anti-Obama
forces’ right to dissent that moved me up to the top rung of the list. I was just
defending free speech, but it wasn’t long before people were being arrested for
speaking out. My website was one of the first taken down as freedom of the press
was completely eroded. Online newspapers and magazines that even questioned
the President’s policies disappeared suddenly and those that openly opposed him,
not only disappeared but their creators were tracked down and arrested. Yet, as
soon as one website was destroyed, another one was created and the online
protests continued, despite efforts to either control or even destroy the internet.
Years after Obama’s exile, it was revealed that he’d ordered the destruction of the
medium used to spread his message of hope during his Presidential campaign.
Public protests, meanwhile, were outlawed and all unauthorized assemblies were
stopped by the military that arrested those who organized these events, spoke at
them, attended them, wrote about them, or even observed them.

"People started disappearing and there were rumors that some were imprisoned
and tortured and others executed. All were called ‘enemy combatants.’ The Patriot
Act, which many had hoped Obama would repeal, was strengthened so that every
constitutional right Americans had vehemently fought for, including the right to
vote, was revoked.” Grandpa paused, his face contorted in pain as he
remembered the nightmare he’d lived and that was now our nation’s history.
“America had turned into a fascist government and Obama was its ruler. Just
when he sat posed to pass a law that would make him ‘ruler for life,’ after
outlawing elections due to ‘potentially unruly mobs’ gathering at polling places, the
scandal was leaked by his most loyal press sycophants who didn’t have the
restrictions that had been placed on the ‘less friendly’ media. Despite those
restrictions and heavy monitoring of the internet, the story got out, although it was
never reported on the broadcast news, which continued to spew Gibbs’
propaganda showing Obama with his children and his dog, despite having leaked
the story in the first place.

"Once the scandal broke, black people took to the streets in numbers so large, the
protests couldn’t be ignored. Even after the water hosing and tazzing started,
others joined these anti-Obama protests. Finally, after months of using military
tactics to attack his own citizens and creating anti-American sentiment throughout Europe, Obama was forced to step down by his own military leaders. However,
once Biden was sworn in to finish out Obama’s term, the military stepped down as
the law enforcers in the country. Obama’s final speech to the nation was so bitter
and unremorseful, people booed their TVs.” I recalled having to learn that speech
in school as an example of the result of the corruption of power. “His wife had
already left him and returned to Chicago with his children. She was given a speedy
divorce and by the time he boarded that plan with Oprah Winfrey, he was no
longer married to Michelle. No one was surprised when he married Winfrey and
her billions, safely in a Swiss bank account, or when he used her power and
money to take over the African nation that became their home in exile.

"Most Americans weren’t even surprised when the Obamas joined the anti-
American nations once called the axis of evil by George Bush, the President
before Obama whose approval rating was the second lowest in history when he
left office. We were surprised, however, that the fascism Obama put in place
continued after he was gone. We supported the clean sweep of the Obama
administration and the indictment of those who helped put him in office. Biden selected Hillary Clinton as his Vice, and they started dismantling the military
control of federal government and returning control to the three branches of
government. Once the Obama political team was imprisoned, Congress went after
the journalists that were in the tank for Obama during and after the election,
dismantling the news organizations of all three major networks and CNN. Fox had
long been demolished by the Obama administration following a long feud that
began when they refused to air his speech to a joint session of Congress in the
summer of 2009. The only broadcast news network allowed to continue was
CNBC. Americans demanded the heads of those who’d supported Obama:
Matthews, Olberman, and Maddow from MSNBC and Martin, Braziel, Borgia,
Cooper, and Blitzer from CNN, in much the same way they went after Congress
members who voted for the Iraq War they supported.” Grandpa’s voice was a little
bitter as he paused reflecting the demise of his chosen profession.

“Journalism and journalists were outlawed with the people’s approval because it
was believed that we put Obama in office by convincing people that he was the
man they believed him to be. They were right, of course. It was the media that
overlooked his faults, never reporting his rants against anyone that criticized or
opposed him, even though we all knew about them and sometimes even
witnessed them. I saw him at the 2008 Democratic Convention making up to his
wife onstage after his acceptance speech and wondered about it, then later found
out from a fellow journalist that he lit into her earlier because their youngest
daughter had talked over his scripted dialog when he was shown watching
Michelle’s speech with a family in another location. Of course no one blamed
Michelle for supporting her husband. Many even suggested she suffered from
battered wife syndrome and women all over the world applauded her when she left
him after finding out about his clandestine double life. When she ran as Hillary’s
vice, it was a sure thing. No media hype was needed to elect the two spouses of
the Presidents who’d put the country through the biggest two scandals since Nixon
and Watergate.

"They were sympathetic figures, matching the mood and temperament of the
nation and they were a shoe-in for election. Each served her eight years
gracefully, repealing any of the laws remaining that took away our rights and
restoring our democracy. Clinton commuted the sentences of the imprisoned
journalists, the very ones who’d brought her down when she ran against Obama.
However, neither President was able to restore America’s faith in the media, and
journalists are still regarded with disdain and distrust. Anyone and anything
associated with Obama is still loathed in this country. I think the Obama
memorabilia is outlawed in deference to former President Michelle Robinson. But I
want you to keep this so you can remember that it wasn’t a scam. We really
believed in him. I know it was wrong of us not to tell the public the truth about him.
We knew about his trysts and the rumors about the men from Rev. Wright’s
church who knew about his secret life that turned up dead. We just wanted to
keep his image pure. We just wanted to believe.”

I listened to my grandfather, trying to hide my own shame of being related to one
of the journalists who helped elect Obama. I didn’t succeed because my
grandfather looked at me pleading for understanding and absolution. He didn’t get
either from me. How can I forgive him? I’ve been drafted to fight in the war against
Obama and his allies, a war being waged on American soil. I will be going to boot
camp in less than a week, then on to California to try to keep the enemies from
advancing. That state is completely occupied by the enemy. Seismologists say the
heavy mortar fire has created conditions for a massive earthquake. Luckily, my
relatives in Northern California got out before the attacks from China and North
Korea. They say they wanted to put America out of the movie business after that
documentary about the downfall of Obama was released last year and distributed
worldwide, making over a quadrillion dollars. That say it’s just propaganda. Obama
should know. It was propaganda that elected him and allowed him to almost
become a dictator. Now, he and several Muslim nations, along with Russia are
said to be preparing to invade the East Coast, which will divide our troops between
the two coasts in defense of our nation.

I will bury my grandfather tomorrow and all of his Obama relics with him.
Hopefully, some day someone will find those pieces of history and understand
what I cannot.

July 4, 2048