Anxiety disorder or depression of any sort can be a debilitating mental issue for millions of Americans. Though I am not a medical person, it is clear to me that there are many triggers for the onslaught of this malady. Financial issues, medical problems, family dysfunction, loss of loved ones … there are any number of underlying problems that are magnified through anxiety. In Michelle Obama’s case she indicates that her depression has been brought on by none other than President Trump and the racial issues that have roiled the nation.
Generally, most people tend to keep their health problems between themselves, their doctors, and perhaps, their friends and family. So, it is puzzling to see how the media is falling all over themselves to report that Michelle Obama is suffering depression issues. A cynic would say she is trying to garner attention for herself and her cause, a generous person would say she is trying to bring to light the problems of anxiety disorders. Who knows what her motivation, but she is certainly not alone in her suffering.
Though Americans should really sympathize with anyone suffering through depression, the media surely knows that during her husband’s terms in office millions of average Americans suffered similar psychological distress resulting from the direction he was taking the country. In their millions these folks responded to their angst as they rose to form the now nearly forgotten Tea Party Movement. And today there are millions whose anxiety has turned to outright fear, as Marxist rioters savage our history and culture to reshape our nation into their socialist mold.
Perhaps the root of her discomfort can be found in the statement that she made after her husband was elected President.
“And let me tell you something — for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction, and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment. I’ve seen people who are hungry to be unified around some basic common issues, and it’s made me proud.”
Though my suspicion has always been that her pride was one of seeing her husband and family elevated to the rare air of the Presidency, let us take her words for what they are. And those words make clear that she interpreted Obama’s election to be a mandate for some definition of change, the nature of which she clung closely to. But shattering her dream, within eight short years by electing Trump, the nation rejected the image of change that she was so profoundly engaged with. This event alone could have been the trigger that started her down the long dark tunnel of depression.
A major underpinning of her coveted pride must have been Obama’s famous apology tour of world capitals. She must have rejoiced in how he humbled himself and lowered the mighty office of President to world leaders, be they friend or foe. After all, in doing so her husband literally knocked the America that she clearly resented for so long off its pedestal as world front runner. To her that must have been a source of great joy. But to her chagrin, average Americans resented Obama for it, and they did not forget.
Trump’s election was fueled by his slogan “Make America Great Again,” and the meaning of that phrase was obvious from the start; he intended to reverse Obama’s actions and policies and return America to something that average Americans saw as their nation’s rightful place. And that place was not the changed nation of Obama. It must be maddening for Michelle Obama to see Trump overturning so many of the globalist ideals and government-centric policies that her husband had subjected our nation to and to see Trump reasserting America’s international authority and reversing big government policies.
It must be exasperating for her to see Trump succeeding in doing so much for people of color, especially for African Americans that Obama had assumed as his own base. To see him reform Biden’s devastating sentencing law, to see him fund HBCUs, to see him create more jobs and higher wages than ever in history for women and African Americans. She must terribly upset that Trump undertook and succeeded in doing all this and getting credit for it, while Obama was either unwilling or unable to do so.
I suppose a President in the White House who reflects a rejection of all she holds dear is more than ample cause for her to be suffering from depression. But now, worse of all, she must live through the campaign of a very weak candidate in Biden, the same Biden that Obama clearly did not regard too highly, as he tries to supplant what she considers her husband’s special place in history. It must be excruciating for her to know that if Trump is re-elected or if Biden is elected and as expected, he mindlessly allows others to drive him to the extreme left, then Obama’s legacy will be washed away as sand on the beach.
I do feel sorry for anyone who suffers, but this is the life she and her husband chose. It is a life with ups and downs. She and her husband have been in their glory for many years, they have made a literal fortune from that glory and they live far from the poverty of so many that they had professed to want to help. But now just as sands are washed away by the high tide, Michelle Obama is trying to avoid the inevitable irrelevancy of time. And the penalty for once being in the spotlight, now to be relegated to the sidelines, may well be the strongest trigger for her anxiety. To return to happiness, she must get over it because for the Obamas, like the Bushes and all other past First Families, time and obsolescence are the enemy. These are the facts of life over which she has no control and trying to fight them only deepens depression.
As quickly as it arrived, the era of “Hope and Change” promised by Obama has been cast aside by the American people, now to be relegated as a footnote in history. No matter how hard the Obamas try to be relevant, the nation has moved on. She should relax and enjoy her popularity and wealth. After all, she and her family are the shining examples of the relevancy of the American Dream and the refutation of the claim made by today’s Democrats and Social Warriors as they tell us that the American Dream can’t exist in a racist America.