Obama has now asked America to allow him to distance himself from the “God damn America” and anti-Israel remarks of the pastor who married him, whose church he has attended for 20 years and continues to attend.
Obama begins his argument with the curious observation that the pastor in question was a United States Marine, which suggests Obama wants us to think that is why he sought him out and joined his church.
Obama insists he never heard the pastor preach anti-Americanism from the pulpit or in private. It was all about social justice and God.
Social justice, as expounded by the left, usually involves a great deal of anti-capitalism and virulent opposition to American foreign policy, much like that voiced by the Rev. Wright.
Given that the last 20 years takes us back three Republican administrations, through a period of considerable public debate over U.S. foreign policy, it seems a stretch to claim the subject never came up in an activist’s church in Obama’s presence.
But fine. The offending social justice practitioner is silenced. In fact, the offending social justice practitioner has been taken out and, figuratively, shot. Obama’s pastor is no longer part of the campaign.
We are not to think the spiritual counselor of this candidate had anything substantive to do with the formation of the candidate’s thoughts, aside from informing him about God, AIDS, and social justice — whatever the definition of the latter might be. Stating actual beliefs in strong terms … forbidden.
Religious leaders were divided yesterday about remarks made by Barack Obama’s former pastor blasting America’s social inequities and foreign policy decisions.
In a sermon five days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright said, “America’s chickens are coming home to roost.”
For the Rev. Thomas Cross, overseer of the New England district of the Church of God in Christ, Wright was “telling the truth.”
“We love America. But why should he have to defend that when it’s the truth?” Cross said yesterday.
In that earlier sermon, Wright said:
“We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye.
"We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought back to our own front yards.”
In a sermon two years later, the pastor said:
“The government gives (black men) drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no. God damn America.
"That’s in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.”
In a blog Obama posted Friday on the Huffington Post, the Democratic presidential candidate said he has been pained and angered to learn of some of his former pastor’s remarks, saying, “I reject outright the statements by Reverend Wright that are at issue.”
Obama is willing to denounce his pastor to placate right-wing America. He is prepared to sell his soul for the presidency.
The Rev. Wright is the true voice of black America, not Obama's "vanilla version." Somewhere on Obama's body is tattooed the words: "do not disturb the Whites."
Aside from his positive message of unity,
there are a number of things concerning Obama
which appeal to conservatives,
not least his appreciative attitude
towards traditions and his understanding of
the importance of learning from history
He appeals to reactionaries
Social justice, as described by the left,
usually involves a great deal of anti-capitalism
and strong opposition to American foreign policy,
much like that voiced by the Rev. Wright
By denouncing his pastor's words Obama exposes his conservativism.
Despite running for the candidacy of the Democratic party,
Barack Obama is be the great hope of conservatives.
The following article is a fawning tribute to Obama as a "sensible conservative." It's important to realize that Obama is considerably to the right of Hillary Clinton. Backing Obama is tantamount to making the Democrats even more like the Republicans.
"Right speech, wrong party." That was the conclusion of a number of conservative commentators after Barack Obama’s celebrated performance at the Democratic national convention in 2004.
This speech was very different from anything else delivered that night. Unlike many other Democrats, Obama used his moment in the limelight to send out a positive and constructive message about an end to the bickering of partisan politics.
An end to the spin and cynicism that has defined political life in America since the 1990s. This is a message Obama has continued to spread in the run for his party’s nomination for president.
Obama's hopeful non-partisan tone appeals to those conservatives who have been disillusioned by the polarising Bush presidency.
After eight years with a leadership that has deepened the political divide in America, they long for a president capable of rising above the standard ideological fray.
The conservative blogosphere is currently flowing over with such comments, uttered by people who are tired of seeing their country torn apart by fierce arguments between the Bush and Clinton camps, and the cultural wars fought by the Christian right and die-hard secularists.
These sentiments were recently summed up in an excellent essay in the Atlantic magazine by the conservative journalist and commentator Andrew Sullivan (known in Britain through his columns for the Sunday Times), where he came out as a passionate supporter of Obama.
The attraction of Obama to Sullivan and other conservatives is not surprising. In fact, their support is consistent with the constructive wing of the philosophy of conservatism.
Those stuck in the world of divisional politics can be baffled by this. How, they ask, can people who admire Reagan and Thatcher also have time for Obama?
Aside from his positive message of unity, there are a number of things concerning Obama which appeal to conservatives, not least his appreciative attitude towards traditions and his understanding of the importance of learning from history.
In her ambitious New Yorker profile of Obama published last May, Larissa Macfarquhar writes that Obama was critical of his parents and grandparents for breaking up from their respective communities and moving to other towns and countries.
They allowed themselves to be seduced by the American dream of individualism and mobility, something which to Obama seems "credulous and shallow."
To Obama, the abandonment of their surroundings in Kenya and Kansas to start anew somewhere else seemed, writes Macfarquhar, "a destructive craving for weightlessness." Freedom has a price, and this is shattered communities and loneliness.
Freedom from tradition is not an end in itself, and continuity is good for people—these seem to be governing principles in Obama’s universe, principles which are expressed in his political outlook.
On healthcare, he states that he does not wish to reform today’s system to the same extent as his main opponent in the primaries, Hillary Clinton:
"We may need a system that’s not so disruptive that people feel like suddenly what they’ve known for most of their lives is thrown by the wayside."
Obama believes that the introduction of a government-run health care system, as in Britain or Sweden, would most likely be impossible in the US, because it is at odds with certain traditions in American culture.
Obama criticises the war in Iraq on the basis that it is difficult to introduce democracy hastily and through violence.
Societies change slowly, and certain historical conditions for democracy have to be in place. Without such conditions, he rightly states, the new form of government is not likely to survive.
History is important, and when politicians don’t care about what is compatible with culture and society, things go wrong. That is not something one would expect to hear from a liberal leader, but rather something we find in the writings of Edmund Burke.
Obama has also made a name of himself as someone who neither takes anything for granted nor comes across as certain about his political stands.
In him we find the "reflective attitude" which the American philosopher John Kekes, a prominent figure in today’s conservative movement, associates with a conservative outlook.
All of these elements—the messages of optimism and unity, and the appreciation of the concepts which lie at the heart of conservatism—should make Obama a more attractive candidate to conservatives than, say, Rudy Giuliani or Mike Huckabee. Neither of these has an appeal than rises above party.
European conservatives should, like many of their American cousins, hope not only for an Obama nomination, but also for his election on November 4th. It has been difficult to present a strong case for conservatism in Europe, partly because of the Bush administration.
But Obama could change that; a charismatic and broadly supported president with ideas similar to Burkean philosophy would lend credibility to conservatism everywhere. Four more years of partisan trench warfare won’t.
by
Irrational Athiest
on Wed 26 Mar 2008 07:10 PM CET | Permanent Link
Thank you for summing up Obama in a single post. I ask people why they support the man and they tell me things like.. 'Oh.. he's for universal health care.' when he isn't. People are just making stuff up and voting for the black guy because he LOOKS the most different from Bush. Accuse me of schadenfreude, but I'm going to love watching all these Obamamaniacs become disillusioned by the man when he actually becomes President. Iraq will not go away. The economy will still blow, Gas will still be a rape of your bank account... and soon after his election, everyone will start to realize just how to the right he is.
by
Anonymous
on Sat 05 Apr 2008 02:48 AM CEST | Permanent Link
I am in accord with your impression of Barack Obama. I am less so with your critique of the Reverend Wright. His espousal of the Black Liberation Theology is meant to give hope to the hopeless and make public a national disgrace, that blatant and unstinting racism is alive and well in America.
I found it odd that someone as mainstream and centrist as Barack Obama would have a mnister as truthful and cutting edge as Wright.
