What is a "small c" communist?
Well for starters, William Ayers, who Obama spent years associating with, describes himself as one. So let's look at Ayers more closely.
First of all, he never renounced his terrorist activities during the Vietnam War and now says he didn't do enough. Bombing innocent people, that is. So I guess a "small c" communist can still think violence to promote change is appropriate if the situation is right.
The SDS and Weatherman underground that sprang from it (and which Ayers helped found) openly proclaimed their goal was world Communism. And not with a "small c". Back then he wrote a manifesto titled "Prairie Fire" (
http://www.zombietime.com/prairie_fire/ ) in which he said "We are a guerrilla organization. We are communist women and men, underground in the United States for more than four years." He said "We need a revolutionary communist party in order to lead the struggle, give coherence and direction to the fight, seize power and build the new society." That document was republished as a book in 2006, coinciding with the start of Obama's run for President. Coincidence? Maybe.
Now Obama defenders say Ayers is reformed. Maybe they think that his abandoning violence as the way to the SDS and WUO goal of making our society communist turns a "big C" into a more palatable "small c"? Afterall, Ayers is now just an *educator*. Never mind that his live-in girl friend back then was also an educator ... of small children. And she died while building a nail bomb to murder hundreds of innocent people at a military dance. Never mind that communist societies (from USSR to Red China to Cuba to Venezuela) know the importance of controlling the education of youth. They put a lot of effort into brainwashing the young.
So why wouldn't Ayers decide that the way to change the world to his liking was to become a professor? That wouldn't require that he change any of his core views ... say about capitalism. Indeed it wasn't long ago (2006) that Ayers attended an education forum in Venezuala and stood on a stage before a large crowd with communist ("small c"? "big C"?) dictator Hugo Chavez by his side. He gave a speech in which he said he supported “the profound educational reforms under way here in Venezuela under the leadership of President Chávez. We share the belief that education is the motor-force of revolution. . . . I look forward to seeing how you continue to overcome the failings of capitalist education as you seek to create something truly new and deeply humane.” Ayers concluded his speech by raising his fist and shouting “Viva Presidente Chávez! Viva la Revolucion Bolivariana! Hasta la Victoria Siempre!” Has he really changed?
And disturbing as that is, it's even more disturbing that Ayers had years to shape Obama's views about education. Remember, Obama and Ayers spent 5 years as co-chairs of a 100+ million dollar effort to reform education in Chicago that focused on teaching "social justice" in the classroom. Ayers was explicit about the need to teach children that America is racist and militaristic, and that the capitalist system is unfair and oppressive. A study done afterwords shows that the project didn't accomplish much beyond that, with no noticeable improvement in academic performance which is what it was sold to accomplish.
Ayers is now the recently elected vice president for curriculum of the American Education Research Association, the largest organization of education school professors and researchers in the country. The president of AERA was Obama's top education advisor during the campaign and she recently coauthored several education books with Ayers. Hard to believe that Obama then doesn't agree with her ... and Ayers. Who knows ... she may even end up as Secretary of Education.
So has Ayers really changed? Or has he just found a different way to approach the problem of making us communist?
In April of 2002, Bill Ayers said the following "I considered myself partly an anarchist then and I consider myself partly an anarchist now. I mean I'm as much an anarchist as I am a Marxist which is to say I find a lot of the ideas in anarchism appealing." And Ayers still openly calls for the end of capitalism and American imperialism ... the same thing the "big C" communists said they wanted in the 70's. In 2002, seven days after Ayers made the above statement, he joined Obama in a panel discussion at a gathering at the University of Illinois-Chicago on working toward social change and an extremely liberal agenda.
Could it be that Obama didn't know what Ayers really was ... what he thought back then? Well as Ayers said back in 2002 "I'm very open about what I think and nobody here is surprised about what I think." And in 2002, besides that panel, they were also going to Board of Director meetings of the Wood Fund. Four meetings that year alone. They had lots of social contact and time to exchange ideas. In fact, Obama admits to their talking on the phone and emailing one another to "exchange ideas". Yet Obama claimed during the campaign he didn't know that Ayers was a radical with terrorist credentials. How could he not know? And how could those discussions with "little c" Ayers not shape Obama's current ideas and views? Say about education and "social justice"? They sure hold a lot of common views on various topics. Just coincidence?
And Ayers isn't the only avowed communist that has had Obama's ear over the years. He admitted in his book the important mentor role that someone named "Frank" had when he was a teenager. Well now it's known that "Frank" was actually Communist Party member Frank Marshall Davis. He was a the hard-core Soviet apologist who was actively trying to spread communism through the unions in Hawaii at the time. He wrote poetry championing the Soviet Union and communism that he recited to Obama. And no doubt he talked about many other things from a communist perspective. How could this not have had an impression on Obama during those teen years when we are most impressionable?
And regarding those impressionable years, Obama's father wrote a paper called "Problems With Our Socialism" that advocated 100% taxation of the rich, communal ownership of land and the forced confiscation of privately controlled land. Think he wasn't a communist? Friends of Obama's mother described her as a communist sympathizer. In fact, she met Obama's father in a Russian class. Obama said "the values she taught me continue to be my touchstone when it comes to how I go about the world of politics." Hmmmmmm. Obama's brother Roy and cousin Odinga are also marxists. As is his older brother Abongo "Roy" who Obama wrote was “the person who made me proudest of all". Hmmmmmm. Are we to believe that none of these family members had any influence on Obama's views?
And let's not forget Obama was introduced into politics by Alice Palmer ... at the home of communist Ayers and his communist wife, Dohrn. At that meeting was Quentin Young, who described Obama and Ayers as "friends", and who was once accused by the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities of being a member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). From 1983 to 1985, Palmer was on the executive board of the "US Peace Council". Several people, including Lawrence Wittner who was a 15 year veteran of the CPUSA National Council, say that the US Peace Council was created by Communist party activists. Several known communists served on the board beside Palmer. Nine years before that gathering in Ayers home, Palmer was the only African-American journalist to travel to the Soviet Union to attend the 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After that visit, she openly praised the Soviet Union in an article she wrote.
Yes indeed, the air around Obama has been thick with communists over the years.
Until it was noticed by conservatives, another communist member from SDS and Ayers school reform days, Mike Klonsky, had a blog on the Obama campaign website. Obama willingly accepted contributions during the campaign from various communist groups ... like the Communist Party USA and CODEPINK. He's had contacts with groups and individuals that espouse communism or communist agendas dressed up as something else. Like the Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS), which has several members of the SDS and WUO on its board, including Dohrn. The church he attended for over 20 years espouses Liberation Theology which clearly has it's roots in Marxism and espouses many of communisms themes. His campaign even allowed a band to play the Soviet National Anthem at the beginning of concerts which were given for Obama in places like Oregon.
So regardless of whether Obama "is" a communist (I suppose you could use the Clinton definition and claim he isn't), his views have certainly been shaped by them over the years and there are still many communists only an arms length from his campaign organization. They are delighted he won. Don't you think?
