By Ray Cardello for June 10, 2026, Season 31 / Post 46

I was talking with a friend who is starting up her podcast again, and she will be focusing on Jewish people returning to the homeland, and there are many more than you would think, and young Jews returning to their faith. The first scenario, not so much, but the second is a phenomenon experienced by Christian houses of worship. A pretty deep subject, and she is recruiting this individual to help her, especially with social media. She referred to this young lady as a Jewish college student, which made me stop for a minute, and I asked her when we started adding a religious adjective to college student. Isn’t just a college student enough? This conversation and question led me to this article, because I have a thought on that question.

We did not come to this place of dark clouds in our history overnight, and it had to have its roots somewhere in time. We can all concede that our government does not have the stature and luster it once did, and our societal issues are far too many to mention. When did it start, and who is responsible? The 60s and 70s were rebellious times, and yes, we still had some racial issues. The 80s and 90s seemed rather nondescript, and the turn of the century saw 9/11, which unified the country for nearly a decade, bringing me to 2008, where I put the X on the calendar to mark a slide in our great experiment.

It is probably unfair to single out Barack Obama as the villain, so I am going to include Michelle on the wanted poster. I think history will show that this couple did more damage to this country in 8 years than anyone could conceive, and that is both politically and economically, but also societal. They gave Americans, especially young Americans, permission to question and hate America, something we never would have done in our youth. With Barack on his many apology tours of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, actually bowing to foreign leaders, who we knew were partly responsible for two buildings coming down in New York, and Michelle telling the world she never respected this great country and felt we were still relying on the residuals of slavery, these two gave birth to the Radical Movement which has led to the divide in America. Barack had about as much on his resume to be President then as Sandy Cortez does now, and isn’t it ironic that their ability to stir and motivate a crowd was their strongest qualification.

It was never enough for Obama to be President and for a Black person to finally reach the pinnacle. He had to rub salt in the wounds of segregation and rekindle the concept of racism. When Obama ordained Hillary as his successor to battle Donald Trump for the keys to the castle, it forever marked Trump as the enemy of the Left. Not only did he stall Obama’s transformation of America, but he crushed Hillary’s belief that she was destined to be President. The Left, who once adored Trump and counted him as one of them, was now a Republican, the Anti-Obama, and he squashed the dreams of all feminists who were ready to coin the term, Madame President.

Things like abortion, election reform, gay rights, and even DEI had either a genesis or resurgence under Obama, and the Left saw Trump as a roadblock for all of them. Simplistic, maybe, but that is my belief. We on the Right see a difference of opinion and want to debate it. The Left sees the same and wants to berate us. We may heal but it it going to take generations and the same influence by the Right to solve the problem as it took the Left to get us here. There was a great line by Bill Clinton that I use often, “I have more yesterdays than tomorrows.” I don’t think this country will heal in my time left, but I hope my kids will see a unified country again.