How appropriate that Barack Obama would give his farewell speech in Chicago. The Windy City has suffered for generations under one-party Democrat hegemony, leaving nothing but an urban poverty plantation suffering horrific murder rates and despicable “hate crimes” against a mentally disabled white man. Naturally, Obama didn’t mention any of that as he gave his last great paean to himself before leaving office next week.

It wasn’t for lack of time, either, given that his 53-minute address was longer than George W. Bush’s, Bill Clinton’s and Ronald Reagan’s … combined. And while the other three gave their speeches from the White House, Obama packed out a public venue for the party. He certainly does think an awful lot of himself.

Naturally, he spent much of his time reciting all the great things he accomplished. It was Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet, “How Do I Love Thee?” — to Obama, from Obama.

For example, while discussing homeland security, the way he parsed his record would make even Bill Clinton blush: “No foreign terrorist organization has successfully planned and executed an attack on our homeland these past eight years.” He’s made this outrageous claim before, so it was no surprise. But of course, he’s dismissing Islamic State-inspired jihadi attacks in Fort Hood, Boston, Chattanooga, San Bernardino and Orlando, just to name a few. And he neglected to mention that he created the Islamic State and the ensuing humanitarian crisis because of his stubbornly disastrous withdrawal from the Middle East. His record is one of deadly failure.

But the big takeaway was simple: His theme was to promote “unity,” all while reciting and fomenting discord.

Among other things, he did it with a sly use of vocabulary that emphasizes leftist goals. He used the word “republic” once — and that is what our nation still is — but he repeated “democracy” and its variants no less than 25 times. “We, the People, through the instrument of our democracy, can form a more perfect union,” Obama opined. “This is the great gift our Founders gave us.”

In 1814, John Adams wrote, “Remember democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” Does that sound like our Founders wanted to give that “great gift”?

No, they warned against democracy precisely because of the demagoguery that would ensue from craven men like Barack Obama.

Obama also waxed eloquent about how we should “strive together,” “embrace all” and “restore the sense of common purpose,” because, he admonished, “for all our outward differences, we are all in this together” and “we rise or fall as one.”

That’s all well and good, but he then proceeded to divide Americans via the typical leftist template: rich and poor, men and women, black and white, etc. Indeed, he declared, “race remains a potent and often divisive force in our society.”

We’ll give him some credit for quoting the immortal but fictitious Atticus Finch, who said, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view — until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” Obama challenged all of us to feel some empathy for the struggles other Americans and immigrants face.

He’s right, but it was also one of his most obnoxious “do as I say, not as I do” moments. Obama and his ilk have showed nothing but contempt for the people he accused of “bitterly clinging” to their worldview. Or, as one prominent wealthy liberal called us commoners, “irredeemable … deplorables.”

He declared, “I reject discrimination against Muslim Americans,” but he made no mention of the Christians facing hateful discrimination from the Rainbow Mafia here at home, or, worse, deadly persecution from Muslims abroad.

In that light, it’s no wonder his caution that we not “allow our political dialogue to become … so coarse with rancor that Americans with whom we disagree are not just misguided, but somehow malevolent” rings so hollow. If ever there was a reason for Donald Trump’s rise, it’s that Democrats treat so many Americans as not just misguided but malevolent.

That’s especially true when Democrats speak of Republicans. As The Daily Signal’s Fred Lucas notes, “He once accused Republicans of having a plan to create ‘dirtier air, dirtier water,’ for instance, and said Republican opponents of the Iran nuclear deal found ‘common cause’ with hardliners in the Islamic regime.”

Even last night, Obama called our elected representatives in Congress “dysfunctional,” which is something most conservatives might concede, albeit with a different definition. Obama means that Republicans are bound to “rigid extremes” and won’t pass leftist legislation. A better definition of “dysfunctional” would be Obama himself, if the meaning is consistently losing Supreme Court cases regarding executive overreach.

In other words, there is disunity, but Obama created it by pushing the most far-left agenda this nation has ever seen, all while abusing power and slandering his political opponents.

You see, when Obama calls for unity, it’s only under his banner of statism and politically correct intolerance. Americans have largely rejected that banner. Obama’s legacy includes Democrats losing control of the House and Senate, the White House, and state legislatures and governorships nationwide.

Come to think of it, maybe he fostered unity after all.