Excerpt
There's a big mystery at the heart of Barack Obama's Dreams For My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. What was Barack Obama doing seeking out Marxist professors in college? Why did Obama choose a Communist Party USA member as his socio- political counselor in high school? Why was he spending his time studying neocolonialism and the writings of Frantz Fanon, the pro-violence author of "the Communist Manifesto of neocolonialsm", in college? Why did he take time out from his studies at Columbia to attend socialist conferences at Cooper Union?
And there is more mystery in the book. Why does Obama consider working in a consulting house for international business like being "a spy behind enemy lines?" Why does he repeatedly find it so hard to explain his political views to others? Why was he driven to become a left-aligned political organizer? It's a question Obama again and again can't seem to answer to the satisfaction of the interlocutors in his own memoir.
If there is a mystery at the heart of Barack Obama's Dreams For My Father, one thing is not left a mystery, the fact that Barack Obama organized his life on the ideals given to him by his Kenyan father. Obama tells us, "All of my life, I carried a single image of my father, one that I .. tried to take as my own." (p. 220) And what was that image? It was "the father of my dreams, the man in my mother's stories, full of high-blown ideals .." (p. 278) What is more, Obama tells us that, "It was into my father's image .. that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself." And also that, "I did feel that there was something to prove .. to my father" in his efforts at political organizing. (p. 230)
At the site, there's a reprint of an article written by Obamania's father. It's an interesting read and it follows right in line with a narrative that this guy has surrounded himself all his life with anti American marxist.
Something that has always bothered me about Obamania is something my pastor taught in a service.
"If you can't change the people around you then change the people around you"
Meaning, there are some people who will always try to bring you down to the lowest common denominator of life. For instance, want to be a good spouse, hang out with people who exhibit good marital habits; not New York governors.
But the converse is also true. We have an obligation to uplift others, but there will be a time when you have to ask as Jesus did "do you want to be healed". When you reach that place you may need to drop people from your life to avoid having them suck you into their drama.
Obama has consistently hung with people with very anti American sentiments. That's no sin in and of itself. But what does it say about Obama when
1) His leadership hasn't been able to convert these people to a "pro-American hope and change vision of America"; the one he selling to the electorate today.
2) When he realizes that he can't change these people yet still keeps them within his inner circle.
In the words of Marvin Lewis " I see better than I hear ", when someone continues to have all these anti-American marxist types in his life without public rebuke I see an anti American marxist.
3 comments:
"fellow traveler" phrase is used to describe his mother in Hawaii and Indonesia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fellow_traveler
Was his mother a "fellow traveler"?
His mother seems very sweet, but I wouldn't be surprised if she were friendly with socialist-communist believers or anti-American offshore causes...
Chavez in California was a trade-unionist and crypto-socialist, who popularized "si se puede" or "yes we can"
"Audacity of Hope" taken from Rev. Wright, an intelligent but angry Afro-liberation preacher, whose "chickens coming home to roost" echoes same statements by Malcom X
The real question remains, is he an American?
Could we have the first election where neither candidate is a native citizen?
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