The paranoid answer

Thanks for taking a stab at this Steven – although I thnk the piece lacks a certain, excuse the phrase nuance by simply breaking it down into an either/or formulation.

There are aspects to this that supporters of the President would love to have consigned to the ‘paranoid conspiracy theory’ bin, and thus automatically ‘discredited’ as being topics for serious discussion. However, a number of historical and factual aspects make one pause – because the pieces do fit, into a logical narrative.

Barack Obama is neither black, nor white – he is something else entirely – the outsider. Truly. His formative childhood took place outside the United States in large measure, and his introduction to the United States was in about as unique an American environment as there is available, Hawaii. Where his worldview was mentored by his left-leaning Grandparents, and influenced (although to what extent is uncertain) by his Grandfather’s card carrying Communist buddy Frank, while he was insulated from the day to day interaction with the random assortment of individuals present in a public school environment as a student at a rather exclusive private institution.

Following this, his initial 2 years at Occidental were spent, according to several accounts, socializing with students and faculty with an ideological bent that was undoubtedly very familiar and comfortable for him – those with a ‘progressive’ outlook. And this pattern continues through his tenure at Columbia (where circumstances make it fairly believable that he came into contact with not only CLoward and Piven, but the cadre present during that period at the New School, including Ayers, Dorn, and the other SDS survivors). His only experience in the private sector following graduation from Columbia was with an outfit that culled and tailored news and information flows into synopsis fed to influential subscribers who occupied mid to upper level corporate and governmental management positions, giving him ‘experience’ in seeing how the shape of a message could influence decision making.

His apparently sudden decision to pull chocks completely, and move to Chicago wasn’t so apparently random if one considers his extra-curricular ‘community organizing’ initial forays during his period in New York – and that the timing of his move coincided rather closely with the move of the SDS/New School cadre back to the Windy City. Where he rather quickly began to have contact and work with them – including possibly gettin an introduction, via Dorn, to Michelle, who was working for Dorn as an entry level associate.

Considering that by this point, there exists a perfect Trojan horse – the black man who is not really an American Black man, well versed, no steeped in the rhetoric of the left, the far left, the outsider – he was perfectly positioned in both timing, placement, and connections – to take advantage of what others in this thread have described, and I refer to as the ‘long march through the institutions’, having seen the label used to describe the uncoordinated but unmistakeable efforts to advance ‘progressive’ ideas, viewpoints, and, yes indoctrination via the higher educational establishment and by extension the news media.

The result is what we see today – a country ideologically divided, with large percentages of the population aghast at the implementation of long stated progressive ideals, and equally large percentages of the population either indifferent through ignorance, or actively applauding the efforts – with the fault line being the divide between the Keynesian/Hayakian on the one front, and the Voltaire/Hegelian philosophical divide on the other. That power and rights either flow from the State, or are inherent within each individual, with the latter derided as the old, unworkable ideals, despite their record of success, and the former heralded as new again, despite their track record of misery and failure. And again, coincidentally, it has been approximately one full generation since the abject failures of the previous attempts to implement such a vision (the period of LBJ’s ‘Great Society’ followed up by Jimmy Carter’s disastrous, if idealistic Presidency) to be ‘rehabilitated’ and re-packaged, ready for a ‘do-over’.

Such that in a sense, John Edwards spoke truthfully (although for the wrong reasons) when he said there are ‘two Americas’ – because at this point, possibly no more starkly than since before the Civil War, we are a Nation divided.

But to the topical question – is what we’ve seen deliberate? It’s hard to come to any other conclusion, although the good/bad motivational aspect is one of perspective. There may actually be good intent involved, however, intentions are worthless when all you are left with are results at the end of the day. Does Obama really believe that top-down, centralized command and control is the one size fits all answer? Based upon his track record of actions to date, apparently so. Is he a true believer? Maybe, maybe not – there are enough indications of the narcissism often seen with individuals who use such methodologies to attain, wield and hold power, often for its own sake, to seriously question whether or not that ‘true belief’ stems from his realization of the efficacy of such a course for those in charge, and that his actual concern for the outcome, which will be after he’s gotten his 15 minutes, is fairly irrelevant.

So, call it barking mad conspiracy theorizing, or call it sane – the hypothesis certainly explains quite a lot of what we’ve seen over the past 18 months. And does not fill me with very much optimism for either the near or longer term future. And the sooner we are rid of the active and energetic progressives from as many levers of power as possible, the better.

Wind Rider on July 6, 2010 at 12:22 AM