President Trump has been in an uphill battle to reverse Obama's efforts to "fundamentally transform" America.  Trump's successes in the past 20 months in erasing the damage of the Obama's eight years are well documented.  But he has a long way to go based on what we saw in the Kavanaugh hearings.

Trump's biggest challenge is to push back Obama's primary legacy of identity politics, which is destroying the fabric of our nation.  Neighbors, family members and old friends have been split apart, by design.  Obama polarized America according to race, ethnic background, sex, sexual orientation, and politics.

Like a deadly cancer, the Obama legacy has metastasized into widespread hatred among Americans that was on display at the Kavanaugh hearings.  Obama's primary legacy is dangerously malignant and more toxic than ever, fueled by cynical and destructive politicians, the Alinsky Rules for Radicals, and billions of dollars from the evil George Soros.

Statements from the hearings and the left-wing mobs and commentators attempting to disrupt the proceedings tell the story.  "Call your senators and tell them to vote no for Kavanaugh – the future of our country deserves more than a privileged white boy."  Were you able to catch the code words?  "Privileged."  "White boy."

Hawaii Democrat Mazie Hirono made headlines when she told all men to "shut up and step up and do the right thing for a change."  In other words, men rarely do the right thing.  Men, did you get it?

Democrat Senator Cory Booker used his "Spartacus moment" to suggest that Kavanaugh was guilty of "racial profiling."  Racial profiling, presumably against minorities.  Get it?

"Women deserve to be angry all of the time," said talk show host Andy Richter.  "This country's government is an abuser.  We live in the most shameful of times."  Yes, of course, the Trump government is an abuser of women.  Now armed leftists, some with funding from George Soros, are calling for mass violence if Kavanaugh is confirmed.

Here's one certain to win over a lot of Americans: "The Antifa Website Calls for 'Slaughter' of 'Fascistic Border Patrol Dogs and Their Bosses."

In short, the Kavanaugh nomination reveals the obvious: we no longer have a viable two-party system in which both parties embrace our current Constitution-based system, share the same set of core values and fairness, and agree on certain standards of ethical conduct regardless of who wins an election.

This all sums up the primary legacy of one Barack Hussein Obama.  You'll remember he's the one who appointed to the Supreme Court Sonia Sotomayor, who famously suggested that a "wise Latina" on the bench would come to more just decisions than a white male.  Did you get the code words there?  Some Republicans in a show of good faith actually voted for her.

Go back to July 2009, when Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates was arrested outside his home in what was clearly a misunderstanding between him and the police.  Obama, just a few months in office, immediately politicized it.

I don't know ... what role race played in that.  But I think it's fair to say ... the Cambridge police acted stupidly[.] ... We know separate and apart from this incident is that there's a long history in this country of African Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately.

Did you get all of that?  Police acted stupidly.  A long history of black Americans and Latinos stopped by police acting "disproportionately."

After Trayvon Martin was killed after attacking a partially black Latino who happened to have a "white" name, George Zimmerman, Obama quickly jumped in, noting that if he had a son, he would look like Martin, a black hoodie-wearing 17-year-old.  Get it?  I'm black.  The kid is black.  He must be innocent.  The support Trayvon movement led to the formation of "Black Lives Matter," an incendiary project funded by George Soros that brags that it is now global network with more than 40 chapters.

When Michael Brown was shot dead after assaulting a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, a large fuss was made over the racial composition of the police department.  Obama wasn't going to let this crisis go to waste.

The death of Michael Brown is heartbreaking, and Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to his family and his community at this very difficult time.  As Attorney General Holder has indicated, the Department of Justice is investigating the situation along with local officials.

The Department of Justice subsequently found no civil rights violations in the case.  But the damage was done. Obama had already identified with Michael Brown, showing "compassion" for his – as it turned out – so-called family.

And who can forget Freddie Gray, Jr., a 25-year-old black man who was arrested by Baltimore police for possessing an illegal knife?  While in a police van, Gray fell into a coma and died.  Obama wasted no time getting involved.  "This has been going on for a long time.  This is not new, and we shouldn't pretend that it's new."  Get it?  Black people getting killed by police has been going on for a long time.  Riots followed.  Homicides with a preponderance of black victims spiked.  Ultimately, the six Baltimore police officers involved (three of them black men and one black woman) were all found not guilty or charges were dropped.  But again, the damage had been done.  Obama's DOJ reluctantly announced it would not bring federal charges against the officers.

It isn't just race that Obama has used to divide us.  The Obama legacy is also about sexual politics.  Remember when Obama ordered all U.S. public schools to allow students to access opposite-sex restrooms in a move that escalates the national fight over LGBT rights?  That escalated battles at the statewide level.  Michelle Obama has also been part of the effort.  After leaving the White House, she said, "Any woman who voted against Hillary Clinton, voted against their [sic] own voice."

Over 60 million Americans saw through this.  Trump was elected president.  But the Obama damage was obvious.  At the end of Obama's presidency, just 27 percent saw the U.S. as more united, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted after the 2016 election.  Far more – 44 percent – said it was more divided.  USA Today has just reported that a third of American voters think a civil war is coming.

The Kavanaugh hearings were a major opportunity for the left.  Former House speaker Newt Gingrich blasted the Democrats for behaving:

... in an evil way unworthy of the United States.  This has been the most despicable behavior by a major party in modern history.  This is a deliberate, vicious, character assassination – hurt the guy's daughters, hurt his mother, hurt his wife, hurt his reputation – they didn't care[.]

Writer Patricia McCarthy called the Kavanaugh hearings:

... [t]he historical low point in American politics – and make no mistake: this was all about politics, not Kavanaugh.  If there was any doubt before, there is no longer: the American left today is malevolent.  The Democratic Party has demonstrated for all to see just how soulless it has become.  The Democrats on the committee disgraced themselves.  The two youngsters, Harris and Booker, are callow, shallow, rude, and power-mad.  We have seen what they are made of: pure narcissism.

But for Obama, they are the future of his America.  New York University professor Jonathan Haidt notes that "diversity, immigration and multiculturalism are right at the heart of the problem in Western democracies[.] ... Identity politics is like throwing sand in the gears ... a world in which factions are based on race and ethnicity, rather than economic interests, that's the worst possible world."

Obama is not stupid.  He knows this.  It's his road map.

The Obama legacy of hatred among identity groups is a viral cancer in our society.  It pits race, ethnic, and religious groups against each other.  It pits women against men.  It is pitting gays and others who claim LGBTQ victimhood against heterosexuals.  As this disease further metastasizes, our country faces an even more seriously divided future.  It is pushing us toward tribalism, balkanization, and potentially, dissolution.  The hatred of Trump by the left is deep.  He is a forceful barrier to their destructive aims.  We can't afford to lose him.  But the question is whether even Trump can put the Obama legacy into remission and prevent the left from ripping our country further apart.

Frank Hawkins is a former U.S. Army intelligence officer, Associated Press foreign correspondent, international businessman, senior newspaper company executive, founder and owner of several marketing companies, and published novelist.  He currently lives in retirement in North Carolina.

Image credit: Adapted from official White House photo by Pete Souza.