John Hinderaker has done an excellent job in assembling clips from speeches given by William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, both in the past and as recent as a 40-year reunion of Students for a Democratic Society in 2007. Even as Barack Obama tries to pass them off as mainstream, these clips show how futile that task really is. Last year, twelve years after Obama sought out their blessing for his first political race and five years after Obama’s association with them at the Woods Foundation ended, both Ayers and Dohrn still preach that America-hating gospel.

Here’s Dohrn on how she sees America:

It was an incredible thing for him to say [Martin Luther King’s assertion that the US was “the greatest purveyor of violence” in the world], the greatest purveyor of violence on this earth is my own country. There were certainly other purveyors of violence. I think that’s still true today. If we think it’s true today, that has incredible implications for all of us right now. We who are, as we used to say, in the belly of the beast … It again means not that we are the only purveyor of violence in the world, but that we have an extraordinary, special responsibility, not necessarily the most enviable one, of how to act here, inside the heart of the monster.

How does Barack Obama see Dohrn? Let’s see what his website says:

AYERS AND DOHRN BECAME RESPECTABLE FIXTURES OF THE MAINSTREAM IN CHICAGO

Here’s Ayers at the same reunion in 2007, approvingly quoting Chou En-lai, Mao’s right-hand man, on revolution:

Chou En-lai was asked by a European reporter if he could comment about the impact in his thinking of the French revolution in terms of the Chinese experience. And Chou En-lai thought about it for quite a long time, and he said, “The French revolution? Too early to tell.” And I think there’s something to that. I mean, if you take the long view, empire is in decline. If you take the long view, there’s a lot to look forward to. So many of us have watched with absolute horror as we’ve been marched step by step towards an authoritarianism that was unthinkable 40 years ago.

Hold the phone. On one hand, Ayers is praising a man who helped brutally oppress a nation of over a billion people, in a government that literally killed millions through neglect and deliberate starvation, and to this day imposes abortions on women as part of its population control program. On the other, he has watched in horror as the US has done — what? Hold free elections? Feed its people? Allow for personal liberty on a scale unmatched in history?

Ayers thinks that the Bush administration is a horror of authoritarianism, but that Mao and the Beijing Communists just need a little more time to tweak the revolution? And what does Barack Obama have to say about William Ayers?

AYERS IS A TENURED PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO AND WAS A “RESPECTED ADVISOR” TO MAYOR DALEY ON SCHOOL REFORM

Ayers Is A “Sensitive And Gifted” Writer And Teacher.

 

 

Ayers “Served No Time.”

Well, at least the latter is more than he’ll be able to say about Tony Rezko in a few weeks. Be sure to read all of John’s post.