Frank Marshall Davis was Barack Obama's mentor. Kengor opines.
As more and more audio and video emerge on Barack Obama's desire to redistribute wealth, not to mention his views on the housing crisis that has torpedoed the U.S. economy, I keep returning to two columns I've read by Frank Marshall Davis, the communist journalist-agitator who mentored Obama in Hawaii. While much attention has been paid to Obama's relationship with communist-terrorist Bill Ayers -- and rightly so -- much less attention has been devoted to Davis. That's a mistake, since Obama was influenced more by Davis than Ayers.
It is interesting to note how so many have gone on tangents about the associates of Obama without any clear evidence of what the character of the man actually is. But there is something of pertinence in this article which pricks up my ears. Firstly, understand that I am firmly convinced that there are no accidents with Obama, that his voting record in the Senate is exactly what it's supposed to be - 83 points to the left of Hilary Clinton. I'm convinced that he comes from the radical left typical of most grass roots black political activism. I'm also convinced that he wants this suppressed.
I'm picking up a creepy vibe, but I'm not ready to say so fully. All I want to briefly mention is that the fact that Joe the Plumber has had his child-support records outed is creepy. Hat tip to Dennis Miller on that one.
But here's the pertinent point. What are the chances that this upstart who is all about change, given his radical socialist roots, is not above monkeying with some basic ways that the government deals with capitalism during this perfect storm of political crisis? One of the reasons I am listening to Bloomberg every day is that I am taking measure of how economic analysts of all stripes are paying close attention to what the Fed is doing and changing their predictions. So far, the scariest most authoritarian things is that they are essentially deciding which banks live and which die - this is tempered by a general understanding that nobody wants zombie banks, rescued banks that don't loan. But the consensus is that the rules of the game haven't changed.
As I listen to people continually attempt to rhetorically triangulate both Obama and socialism itself into the mainstream, it is my focus on the infrastructure of capitalism and global finance that gives me a greater grasp on what is at stake in this election and beyond. Obama's tax policy is clearly redistributive and moves the burden on the rich (a descending target, now 50k less richer) towards the direction of unsustainable leverage. And it clearly hands out checks to those who pay no taxes, which although preferable to a welfare bureaucracy, still marches towards welfare. If this were the sum of Obama's fiscal reforms, I imagine we could sleep better than we do. But Davis writes:
"Before too long, our nation will have to decide whether we shall have free enterprise or socialism." He pointed to actions in Congress, where he quoted the then-chairman of the Congressional committee on small business, who, according to Davis, warned that "at the present rate, either the giant corporations will control all our markets, the greatest share of our wealth, and eventually, our government, or the government will be forced to intervene with some form of direct regulation of business."
"President Obama resists temptation to go socialist". Is that a headline we are likely to see? "Obama punishes fat cats." That's more of a guarantee.
The essential problem with Obama's claim on the political center is that nobody believes him. We on the Right are always going to say that he's too left. The Democrats are, by definition, too left except for Joe Lieberman who we admire as getting the big things right, big things meaning the War on Terror. (I'll follow up on a very salient point in Stark Differences). Obama, when it has counted in his pre-nominated state of grace, has not banked up enough political equity as a moderate centrist Democrat.
If it is true that Obama is being pounced upon over a few soundbites and associations, it is similarly true that they are significantly important to the electorate. And none of this would be of consequence if Obama were Edwards or Kennedy. But he is not. And there has not arisen anyone, aside from Colin Powell at the last minute, who has come to do anything more than a perfunctory defense of the man's political record and experience. And so he has lost his double digit lead in the polls in a matter of days. It is down everywhere to around 6 at the most and some places 2 and 3. Perhaps that big boulder has caught the Obama parade after all. Perhaps all that Teflon is being chipped by a hammer that cannot be ignored.
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