{"id":1078,"date":"2025-07-25T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tidbitsofaudacity.com\/wordpress\/?p=1078"},"modified":"2025-07-21T11:07:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T17:07:22","slug":"the-real-obama-just-stood-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tidbitsofaudacity.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2025\/07\/25\/the-real-obama-just-stood-up\/","title":{"rendered":"The Real Obama Just Stood Up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Former President’s Focus on Men and Boys<\/em> <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Post-president legacies are a strange thing. By the time Reagan was out of office, he didn\u2019t know who or where he was, mirroring Joe Biden\u2019s experience. W. Bush backed out of the spotlight just long enough to return by forming friendships with Clinton and Obama in an attempt to show solidarity for a country they all love. Jimmy Carter had one of the best post-president legacies, offering his time for humanitarian causes. He was often mislead by his feelings to ignore facts, the same dysfunction that soured his presidency, but his efforts were driven towards peace and love for other human beings, causing him to be very loved by most Americans. As it turns out, Obama may go down as having the best post-president legacy in history, other than maybe George Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I was not a fan of much of what Obama did (and did not do) in office. The entire time he was in office, I felt like he was regurgitating buzz words for the demographic party that further ensured division. The democratic party drew the hard line that \u201cwe\u2019re over here and you stay over there\u201d, and Obama seemed forced to fall in step. I didn\u2019t get the sense that he was saying exactly what he wanted to say. He wasn\u2019t promoting ideas he really believed needed to be emphasized. He was a champion for ideological dichotomy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He always struck me as someone who was very common sense oriented, level-headed, and a deep thinker. But during his presidency, his actions, and often inaction, were very divisive, lacked evidence necessitating emphasis, and was void of issues that were important to most Americans. But they lined perfectly with every flyer posted by the democratic party and their super PAC donors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is Obama Up to Now?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Now he\u2019s out of office and doing podcasts. The recent podcast<\/a> with his wife and brother-in-law, Craig Robinson, came out and got mixed reactions. The first thing many Americans lamented was highlighting that he called for men to have gay friends so if their son comes out, he has someone to look to. In context: He was not highlighting sexual orientation. He was highlighting diversity in friend group. Don\u2019t just have a bunch of guys in your circle that look and think exactly like you. Challenge each other and yourself. That was his point. But leave it to hardline conservatives to refuse to remove the side blinders and focus on what was not being focused on. Yes, the right can be ideological too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obama Talks About Men and Boys<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The focus of this podcast was on young men. Right away\u2014that\u2019s new! Since when did someone care about boys and men? I am of the belief that Obama cared the entire time but was not allowed to address it, except the one time he did in a speech, and received backlash from his party. After their slap on Obama\u2019s wrist, he never did it again. But listening to him here, it is clear this is something on his mind. It is also clear Michelle (Misha- as Craig called her) has read research and is equally as concerned about where boys are headed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other Criticisms<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Some have criticized the podcast as them saying what needs to be fixed about boys so that it benefits girls. They have two daughters. What other perspective would you expect from girl-parents? I\u2019m a girl dad and I thought the same thing. My daughters need good men to marry. But even that criticism has no merit. Obama literally said,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have spent so much time talking about what boys do wrong that we have failed to say what they did right.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Obama\u2019s Marriage<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Obama covered the laughable rumors that their marriage is in peril. Michelle did openly state that there was one time during their long marriage when she thought it was about to end, but that they worked through it. She did not cover when that was. Obama shared openly that he did not know his father and was raised by a very young single mother who did her best but was ill equipped to raise a young man. So he knew the importance of having a good father and set out to be that for his daughters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What They Really Got Wrong<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There were at least three times when they (really Michelle) were way off in their approach to issues with young men and boys. They basically kept referring to boys\u2019 natural tendencies, like risk, adventure, and aggression, as broken and how they needed to be more like girls. This is so incredibly false. You will not convince a dog to purr. It just doesn\u2019t know how. At one point. Michelle made the statement,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s time to look at stepping away from sports and looking towards the arts, theatre, music, to give them an outlet for their feelings.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Wrong<\/strong>. It\u2019s not that the arts are bad. They\u2019re not. I was in the music industry for 15 years. It is a great outlet for expression and the people I became friends with were very good people. But stepping away from sports is a terrible idea. Sports brings out the best in boys and young men. Camaraderie, teamwork, adversity, resilience, all get built in sports. The only idea in this part of the conversation I liked was that boys and young men need to diversify their interests and find outlets for expression. That\u2019s true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all of that, Obama did attempt to keep the focus on the idea that we are pathologizing boys and young men, rather than allowing or creating spaces where they will thrive. Michelle quoted Obama as saying that the education system in its entirety is feminized, having no space for boys to be boys. Thus, instead of allowing boy traits to shine, we pathologize them because they can\u2019t adhere to guidelines of sitting still the same way girls can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My Assessment<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Overall, the theme was clear. Young boys and men are suffering. Whether its due to failed parental strategies of trying to make them be more like girls, or even a more systemic dysfunction of making all learning spaces feminine and wondering why boys are<\/p>\n\n\n\n