The man who incited division in America while bowing to enemies of state will receive an “ethics in government” award from a university system that has barely survived a decade of corruption scandals.
How freaking ironic.
Yes Americans, former President Barack Obama will accept the award named after longtime Illinois Democratic politician, Paul H. Douglas, from the University of Illinois (UI) this week.
The University did not release just how Obama qualified as an ethics awardee with his questionable government practices. Let’s review: the Benghazi incident and subsequent cover-up, the IRS targeting scandal, Fast and Furious, and lest we forget, his “boneheaded” business dealings with Syrian-born Antonin “Tony” Rezko, the influence-peddling businessman whose fortunes tended to be intrinsically tangled with Chicago’s politicians.
But this award shines its light on “public officials who have made significant contributions to the understanding and practice of ethical behavior in public service.”
Stop laughing – I’m not done yet.
Birds of a Feather
It is rumored that Illinois is the master to mimic in pay to play scamming – politics invades all industry, including academic institutions such as the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana. In 2009, University President B. Joseph White was forced to resign in disgrace after it was discovered politically connected applicants were labeled “Category I,” tracked separately, and given preference over more qualified candidates for admission.
A practice frowned upon in state-run schools. Or as Andy Shaw, executive director of watchdog group Better Government Association reminded us, “This was ‘pay to play’ at the highest levels of academia, where people are supposed to know better.”
One of the 800 students admitted without ‘making the grade’ was one of Tony Rezko’s family members. Can you imagine?
The University medical system also got in on the politically connected pay to play. In 2004, they were forced to settle a lawsuit after being investigated for improperly diagnosing and hospitalizing patients in the 1990s to move ‘preferential’ patients up on the liver transplant waiting list.
Now who wouldn’t want an award attached to this institution?
Virtues Abound
The honor of a Paul H. Douglas award has been bestowed upon some of America’s great and not-so-great public figures — I’ll let you decide which is which. Previous awardees include Senator John McCain, Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and John Paul Stevens, Senators Barbara Mikulski and Olympia Snowe, Archibald Cox, and Representative John Lewis.
But Barack Hussein Obama? Are they working a desperate fundraising angle?
Obama ripped the newly scabbed skin of an America healing from the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and sowed hatred for people of color that had been summarily removed from most Americans thoughts and actions – not all, but most.
He brought that division back with a vengeance. Historians will remember each speech, to every minority, brimming with the words of hatred and disdain toward white people. Obama’s rhetoric created Antifa. Obama’s hate-speech spawned Black Lives Matter, further pushing the racial divide. Obama’s hate elected President Trump.
But apparently, the left will hold him up as the standard of greatness. At least for the time being.
The as-yet (give it time) untarnished University president, Tim Killeen, penned this missive for his campus newspaper:
“We are honored that President Obama will personally address our students. And we are grateful to IGPA for bringing President Obama here, and giving his home state’s flagship University System an opportunity to recognize his dedicated service to our state and nation.”
Obama himself has not publicly spoken about this “honor.” His minions have been tasked with those tedious deeds as the man himself wanders the world seeking praise and admiration. Spokeswoman Katie Hill has indicated he will revert to his last year in office for a message, or in this case:
“He will echo his call to reject the rising strain of authoritarian politics and policies … And he will preview arguments he’ll make this fall, specifically that Americans must not fall victim to our own apathy by refusing to do the most fundamental thing demanded of us as citizens: vote.
His post-presidency is the next chapter in the cause of his life – bringing people together to change the world for the better.”
Really, Mr. Obama? Now you want to bring people together? That job belongs to the man who currently resides in the White House.
Thanks, but no thanks. We’ll get by.
An Award by any Other Name
Paragons of liberal, or neo-communist ideology, were a career stop-gap for the man for whom the award is named. Douglas was educated at Bowdoin, Columbia, and Harvard but taught in the UI system before joining the political jungle. His life was repeated paradoxes – a political reformer who was sent to Washington by the corrupt Chicago Democratic machine. A practicing Quaker who went to war and became a decorated Marine. A rube farm boy who became a world-renowned economist. The man who would become the “conscience of the Senate.”
By all respects, a good liberal man with only the good of the order on his agenda.
And now a man who did nothing to earn a place in history for ethics in government is being praised by the alt-left scandal-ridden university with no grasp of the definition of ethics.
Is Douglas madly tumbling in his tomb? You bet.
