How did America reach the point where political disagreement can turn deadly? Once, we held fast to the mantra: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Today, that principle feels all but forgotten. For years, calculated decisions and divisive leadership have steadily fractured the nation’s unity. The collapse of civil discourse didn’t happen by accident—it was deliberate, a slow unraveling of the bonds that once held us together. To understand the crisis we face now, we have to confront the uncomfortable truths behind this political transformation.
Megyn Kelly recently laid the blame for the nation’s deep political divides squarely at Barack Obama’s feet, arguing that his style and policies fundamentally reshaped the country in a way that fueled division.
“We haven’t felt like ourselves since Barack Obama,” Kelly said bluntly. “I just think he was such a slick snake.”
She described Obama as outwardly polished but politically corrosive, noting, “You know, he was this affable guy who was, like, wearing good suits and looked the part and sounded the part and dressed the part, but was so divisive in his messaging.”
She noted how Obama’s approach ignored the perspectives of half the country, cultivating a climate where Americans felt misunderstood. “The left… they look at you like, when you say this, they don’t know what you’re talking about,” she explained. “Because you don’t pay attention to the other half of the country. You only pay attention to your absurd news sources, which spin and spin and spin to protect Democrats, especially if they’re named Obama.”
Kelly argued that Obama exacerbated tensions by racializing everything and pushing his radical agenda.
“He’s the one who started to inject race where no one had been doing it," she said. "He’s the one who started to use his pen and the phone to shove things down our throat that we didn’t want. He’s the one who shoved through an entitlement on our healthcare and our personal doctor visits, that he promised he wouldn’t mess with and then he did, really hurting people, causing massive anger and open lies.”
She also criticized Obama’s willingness to break long-standing presidential norms. “For the first time, we had a president who weighed in on legal cases before they’d played out. We never did that. That was a taboo that had never been crossed before him,” Kelly noted.
Ultimately, Kelly tied Obama’s divisiveness directly to Donald Trump’s rise: “Barack Obama was the reason Donald Trump came about, that he was born as a political figure. They say Trump’s divisive? He was the antidote. He was the answer to the divisiveness of Barack Obama.”
Barack Obama doesn't get the credit he deserves for the divisive politics we have in this country. We had vigorous debate in this country before Obama. We have rancid hatred after.
— Jim Pfaff (@jimpfaff) September 14, 2025
Megyn Kelly is correct. Donald Trump is the antidote to that. pic.twitter.com/s8dnl4k0Z4
Let’s be honest—Megyn Kelly is right. I’ve written a few books about Obama, and I can tell you this: his presidency was an absolute flashpoint for the country. Obama claimed to be a uniter, but he pushed America dangerously to the left. He laid the groundwork for our cultural, racial, political, and social polarization, with his coup de grâce being the Russiagate hoax, which poisoned the nation’s trust in its own institutions.
Then Joe Biden stepped in and doubled down. From targeting parents at school board meetings, to embracing DEI with full force, to waging lawfare against conservatives, to trying to lock up Donald Trump, Biden carried forward Obama’s legacy of division, with relentless zeal.
The truth is undeniable: Barack Obama set the stage for a country where political disagreement could turn deadly. He normalized dismissing, ridiculing, and punishing dissent, creating an environment where the left no longer valued free and open discourse. Under Obama, power became a tool not to govern, but to dominate—politically, culturally, and socially.
Today, the consequences are all around us. Political violence, lawfare against conservatives, and constant attacks on anyone who challenges the left’s orthodoxy are not anomalies—they are the predictable result of Obama’s approach. Donald Trump narrowly escaped an assassin’s bullet because of this environment. Charlie Kirk, sadly, did not.
If America hopes to reclaim itself and restore even a shred of civil discourse, we have to face this reality head-on. The hostility toward dissent didn’t spring up overnight—it was nurtured and normalized from the very top. America’s division is not inevitable. It’s the product of deliberate leadership that prioritized partisan power over unity, and until we acknowledge that, our political culture will only continue to unravel.
