In 2008, while Barack Obama was campaigning for the presidency, many Americans were deeply concerned about his background as well as his ideology.  Among many other issues, they were profoundly disturbed by his admitted friendships with Marxist professors and assorted socialists and anti-American zealots.  His notion of wealth redistribution was also, at that time, a concept foreign to Americans, who had always believed that success and wealth come from hard work, not redistribution by the state.  His critics were afraid that the country was about to elect a president like no other, a president whose values were antithetical to American values, and a president who saw only America's flaws, not its greatness. 

Just before his election, Obama proclaimed: "We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America."  It was one of the most disturbing and prophetic statements ever uttered by an American politician.     

Under his administration, anti-American sentiment by our own citizens grew to new levels.  Organizations like Occupy Wall Street were invigorated.  New ones, like Black Lives Matter, were formed.  Both exist primarily to condemn America and its policies. 

And we saw drastic changes in the public at large under Obama's administration.  Americans became envious of wealth and success, and more selfish, demanding more handouts from the government, to include free college education. 

They also became filled with a new sense of self-loathing, assuming shame and guilt over events that happened decades, even centuries before they were born.  Despite the Civil Rights Act, affirmative action programs, and the tremendous progress on race relations after the tumultuous 1960s, they came to believe that America has always been and remains today an inherently unfair, racially biased country. 

But perhaps the most dramatic change came in attitudes toward national sovereignty, immigration, and illegal aliens.  Not that long ago, all Americans, including Democrats, understood the concept of sovereignty and the importance of secure borders, but like Obama, the self-proclaimed "citizen of the world" and open-border advocate, his followers now do everything they can to encourage illegal immigration.  They welcome illegal aliens into their sanctuary cities and condemn their critics using those same tired allegations of racism.      

Well known conservative Rush Limbaugh was just one of those who foresaw all of this, who believed that Obama's values conflicted with American values.  After Obama's election, Limbaugh famously said, "I want him to fail."  The uproar, especially by the left, was deafening, even though Limbaugh had made it clear that what he was really wanted to see was the failure of Obama's radical agenda. 

But Obama did succeed, at least in transforming the country.  With help from academia and the media, he managed to warp the belief system and long held American values that once made our country exceptional.  Now his followers, those most fanatic Trump critics, share the same hateful, anti-American sentiments as Obama's longtime mentor, Jeremiah Wright.  They regurgitate the same socialist doctrine of Obama's early Marxist associates.  And while innocent Americans die at the hands of illegal aliens, they drone on about building bridges instead of walls.

And they, Democrats and all loyal disciples of Obama, are more than just hoping for President Trump's failure.  All of them are working hard to see it happen.

They mock him relentlessly, competing in some perverted contest to see who can hurl the most loathsome insult.  They root around for shreds of evidence pointing to some misdeed that might lead to his impeachment.  Many have gone so far as to encourage America's enemies abroad, wishing them success.  For them, nothing, including casual references to assassination, is off the table. 

That is not political opposition.  While they've convinced themselves they are standing for American values, they have become radicalized – just as radical as Obama's early associates.  Their rhetoric and actions reflect a deep-seated anti-American sentiment, cultivated during the last administration.           

The changes Barack Obama helped bring about have been profound and may be irreversible.  Any hope of returning America's greatness hinges on the restoration of those traditional American values lost to Obama: personal responsibility, self-dependence, and national pride.  That may be President Trump's biggest challenge.