PrintOctober 12, 2008
The Exact Word
What is the right word for Obama. He once told us "words matter."
In his commentary "The Real Obama," Thomas Sowell rightly points out the importance of using exact words to communicate effectively. Sowell argues that Senator Barack Obama's critics are making a strategic mistake when they use the word associate to describe the Senator's ties to William Ayers, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and Father Michael Pfleger. According to Sowell, the word ally is the more appropriate word to describe Obama's connection to these people. Obama is not guilty by association; his guilt is through alliance. He is aligned to leftist radicals in that he shares in their fierce opposition to the ideas of a free market, individual liberty, and religious freedom, which are America's founding principles.
Sowell is right; ally is the more accurate term for Obama's relationship with these people. The one thread that binds them is their radical, leftist politics. Obama has been called the most liberal Senator in the U.S. Senate by right-of-center commentators and radio talk show hosts; but again the word choice problem crops up. Obama's politics are not liberal; his politics match those of Saul Alinsky and the leftist radicals of the 1960s.
Obama's radical leftist politics explain his political and theological ties with such radical and revolutionary pastors the likes of Wright and Pfleger, who incidentally are part of a nexus along with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan that aligns black-liberation theology with black Muslim nationalism. Stanley Kurtz connects the dots of this unholy trinity in his National Review article "Left in Church: Deep inside the Wright Trumpet."
Black-Liberation Theology is a type of Marxist Liberation Theology that promotes an Afrocentric social gospel. Inspired by Black Muslim nationalism, James Cone combined Marxism with black religion and a black Gospel and created Black-Liberation Theology. Cone's theology is designed to liberate African-Americans from the economic slavery of the white man's free market system and to build a completely new society. Cone is Wright's mentor, and Cone credits Wright for lifting his theology from his books and making it work in Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ. Cone's theology is the core doctrine and his books are required reading in the church Obama attended for 20 years.
Cone's theology proposes that the black Jesus (Wright's church believes and teaches Christ was black) will give black Americans the ability to do away with the white man's greed and free market system and replace them with a black value system. In addition, Cone writes "black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy" and that being black means "committed to destroying everything this country loves and adores." Obama has said that black liberation theology is sensible, has called Wright his mentor, has said that Wright has given him the best education he ever had, and throughout his campaign has declared America's institutions as broken and in need of fixing. For a more comprehensive look at Black-Liberation Theology, read "Obama: Stealth Socialist?" by Investor's Business Daily.
Obama's radical leftist politics are so meshed with his socialist religion that it's difficult to know where one leaves off and the other begins. For example, in a 1998 radio interview, Obama discusses how certain portions of the African American community are not doing very well with crime, education, and employment, and he recognizes his fate is tied with theirs. He goes on to suggest that his "individual salvation is not going to come about without a collective salvation for the country." He further states, "Unfortunately, I think that recognition requires we make sacrifices and this country has not always been willing to make the sacrifices that are necessary to bring about a new day and a new age."
On the stump, Obama divines the time has come "to perfect this nation." Not long ago, I brushed such statements aside, without a second thought. When Hillary playfully mocked Obama's remarks, "a light will shine through that window, a beam of light will come down upon you, you will experience an epiphany ... and you will suddenly realize that you must go to the polls and vote for Obama," it never occurred to me to take such remarks seriously. When the Obama Sith, Chris Matthews, said, "This is bigger than Kennedy....This is the New Testament," I just figured he was caught up in the exuberance of the moment. And when Halle Berry said that she'd "collect paper cups off the ground to make his pathway clear"; or Eve Konstantine said he is "our collective representation of our purest hopes, our highest visions and our deepest knowings," I unthinkingly whisked them away as so much sophomoric giddiness and bizarre tripe.
Now, that the antenna is up and the red flags are waving, I am astounded when I reconsider that Bill Rush of the New York Times actually believes Obama's election to the U.S. Senate, "was divinely ordered....God's plan"; that Oprah Winfrey thinks his "tongue dipped in the unvarnished truth"; that Gerald Campbell sees him radiate "truth and goodness"; that Gary Hart deems him not to be "operating on the same plane as ordinary politicians"; and that Deepak Chopra considers him "A quantum leap in American consciousness."
It's apparent that Obama not only believes his individual salvation depends on collective salvation, but he also desires to bring about a new day and age. Maybe next time Charlie Gibson will ask the hubris question of Obama.
On second thought, hubris is not the exact word, megalomania is more appropriate.
