Now that his time as president has come to an end, it’s time to ask what Barack Obama has done to the country, and how he has been able to do it.

Obama is the most left-wing president in American history. Never mind his speech at the 2004 Democrat National Nomination Convention, or during the run-up to the 2008 election, when he was presenting himself as a moderate.

Someone scrutinizing Obama’s history, including his early years in and out of the U.S., his time in school, his stint as a Chicago community organizer, his law school experiences, and his political career as an Illinois state senator and a U.S. senator, should have recognized him for what he is: a radical leftist, steeped in Marxism, contemptuous of America’s Constitution, hostile to traditional values, and committed to Alinskyite notions of social justice.

It’s stupefying to realize how little the Mainstream Media (MSM) vetted him before January 20 2009. Perhaps it is therefore understandable that some who could not, or would not, recognize Obama for what he was believed he was some kind of moderate capable of uniting the nation along post-partisan and post-racial lines.

Obama’s term as chief executive has been disastrous for the U.S. in terms of both domestic and foreign affairs. There is no need to reprise the litany of Obama’s deleterious policies. If one wants a partial glimpse of the damage Obama and his minions have done to our domestic institutions, read Yuval Levin’s article in the December 2016 issue of Commentary. His disastrous cuts to America’s military, and his commutation of “Chelsea” Manning’s sentence show how little he cares about U.S. national security.

These terrible developments stem from his successes in fundamentally transforming the country.

One hopes that Donald Trump’s presidency, along with GOP control of both houses of Congress, and perhaps even a future Supreme Court majority leaning rightward, will be able to offset the myriad damages the Obamians have inflicted in the last eight years. But if history teaches us anything, it is that once a nation has been fundamentally transformed, it’s very difficult to set it aright. Study, for example, the history of Rome from the Republic’s demise to the first decades of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, or that of Germany from the advent of Kaiser Wilhelm II to the end of the Hitler regime in 1945.  

Yuval Levin’s article in Commentary also indicates that Trump may exacerbate damages already done by Obama. John Daniel Davidson wrote in The Federalist (January 9 2017) that Trump’s presidency is already inducing some Republicans to “love big government more.”

It would be one thing if the damage done by Obama and his tong were strictly a matter of the accidental takeover of Washington by progressive elites in 2009. Were that the case, come January 20 2017 things could readily be set aright.

Alas, there’s the rub.

The sad truth is that millions of ordinary Americans now vote to support left-wing candidates and the Democrat Party. From Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996, to Obama in 2008 and 2012, and the Red Queen in 2016, leftists have drawn enough votes either to win the presidency, or to come perilously close to doing so. Leftists -- some, such as the Black Caucus because of race, others, such as Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin, Patrick Leahy, etc. out of some kind of ideological conviction -- occupy seats in Congress. Those types also draw substantial popular support.

It is small consolation to note that large slices of voters who back leftists live on the east and west coasts, in big cities, or work in government or the educational establishment. Like it or not, their votes count the same as people in small towns, rural areas, and/or flyover country.

If we are to prevent a future left-wing inspired fundamental transformation of America, as well as to begin dismantling what’s already been done, we must understand why these people -- we already know who they are -- are inclined to back leftist candidates and the Democrat Party.

Undoubtedly, one reason why so many people vote left is because, for this or that reason, they are dependent upon some sort of government largesse. As Mitt Romney noted in 2012, 47% of the American populace receive some kind of government benefit, and are therefore unlikely to react favorably to the prospect of that beneficence being curtailed or eliminated. After four more years of Obamaism, that percentage may actually be higher. Republicans will find it hard to wean people from the government benefits bestowed during Obama’s presidency.

Okay, start dismantling as much government largesse as possible. One assumes that is what some of the “swamp draining” notion amounts to. Get government out of people lives, and, presumably, they’ll have less reason to vote for candidates and parties plumping for more big government.

But, even if it is possible, that will be only one step toward coping with Obama’s successes.

We must acknowledge that millions of people not in the ruling class vote left for reasons other than the expectation of a quid pro quo.

Some do so because of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual preference, or whatever. Take 2016, as an example. No doubt some of those who voted for Hillary Clinton did so just because they wanted to see a woman elected president. Nothing one could say about the many flaws inherent in Mrs. Clinton’s character and background would keep those types from backing her.

The same was true in 2008 and 2012, when overwhelming percentages of African-Americans voted for Obama just because he identified as black.

Since Obama has further divided Americans into quarreling tribes, it’s unlikely that this pattern of voting behavior will change greatly in the near future. A candidate like Trump can substantially shift the particular tribes backing the major parties, but he’s not likely to be a uniter. He will more likely continue the pattern of America’s chief executive being a divider.

We must realize that there are also people -- such as Hollywood trendoids, denizens of the MSM, leftist teachers and professors and their brainwashed acolytes -- who want to see America’s proverbial nose rubbed in the muck. Who, for example, lauded Obama’s multiple apology tours during his presidency? Probably not many who read the American Thinker.

America’s haters have been around since at least the 1960s, and some even before then. Sadly, there has been a relatively small, but very influential, group of radicals who have rejected virtually every facet of American culture and politics for over half a century.

Granted, Obama leaves the Democrat Party in disarray. But parties have been in disarray before -- the GOP after Hoover and Goldwater, and the Democrats after McGovern and Carter -- but they come back. Today’s Democrats just have farther to go than parties in the past.

Obama’s real legacy is his damage to America, and, unless we find some way to peel portions of his backers away, there is a risk that another leftist could do it again.