Sympathy for Obama

Our poor President Obama, he’s doing his very best by everything he was ever taught and it’s not coming out right. If we see America through his eyes for a moment we can feel his frustration, the disappointment that humanity is not following its proscribed Marxist path toward truth, justice and the Workers’ Paradise.

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First we must appreciate Obama’s rearing within the Soviet sphere. Forty years ago I visited “community action centers” run by the “social action arm” of the Black Panthers in Oakland, California, and taught in a commune in Liaoning Province, Manchuria in ’87-’88. All the educational materials, wall posters and videos intended for children, were the same in all places. Though his past is nearly impossible to research, we can bet that Obama’s childhood, whether in other countries or here in the USA, was spent in this propagandistic environment, dominated by the international struggle of Socialism over the Running Dogs of Capitalism: America. The personality cults of his secular gods, Mao and Stalin, posted visages of these mass murderers all around Obama and idolized them as saviors of humanity—Obama must have taken this as truth; he was offered no alternative. The propaganda of his early years was overwhelming, ubiquitous, beautifully designed to convince by some of the world’s most brilliant minds and proved true by current events: America’s defeat in Vietnam, successes of the Red Brigade in Europe, the SDS and Weathermen in America, the Shining Path in South America and so on.

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In young Obama’s world, the Green Frontiers of Socialism were in constant struggle against the evil Capitalist

In young Obama’s world, the Green Frontiers of Socialism were in constant struggle against the evil Capitalists. He was groomed day to day to take up the red flag and assume his heroic role in that struggle. At some point his handlers must have realized what a perfect stooge they had on their hands and began a special effort with him. He was at singular advantage among most socialist youth, being spawned and reared completely by revolutionaries within the Soviet Sphere but outside the horrors of the Communist Bloc. He grew up hearing glorious fantasies of the People’s Revolution but without having to see the reality of it. Because Socialism/Communism is a European philosophy, it’s based on European concepts of class and class struggle—concepts that seem foreign to Americans. Children raised by its strictures must identify with a social class—the working class or the proletariat—then gain rank by following the Party Line.

Obama grew up a pure Socialist/Communist Red Youth

Free of any competing ideologies, Obama grew up a pure Socialist/Communist Red Youth thinking of himself as a worker who, due to strict adherence to Party Thinking, earned the right to see those smiling faces of Mao and Stalin when he looked in the mirror. His chin raised, his smile broadened, he now assumes the identical pose as his heroes in their best propaganda images—and, seeing him, many Americans glow with hope. Following this path he has gained the presidency of the United States, further reinforcing the truths of Marxism and Maoist Right Thinking. But things are starting to go a little haywire now. When Stalin got to the top he controlled every aspect of his command society with the threat of life and death, with just a pen. When Mao pushed the Kuomintang out of mainland China he took total control using his People’s Liberation Army, with the consent of most Chinese. Later, his Red Guard—born in revolution, separated from their history and forming the core of the Cult of Mao—nearly destroyed all signs of ancient China at his order. Only the intervention of Chou En Lai prevented that total destruction. Why, then (Obama must wonder), can’t the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protestors and their ilk nationwide rise up and destroy the revisionists, capitalists, religionists and other counterrevolutionaries? The Red Guard did such a great job for Chairman Mao, why can’t the OWS do the same for President Obama? In Obama’s world this makes no sense. Stalin got Russia, Mao got China, Ho Chi Minh got Vietnam, Castro got Cuba, the Great Leader got North Korea, Pol Pot got Cambodia--why can’t Obama get the USA? Well, there’s this whole matter of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights including a free press, right to assembly, free speech, concepts of a limited government, the people’s stubborn adherence to regular, free elections and basic American cussedness that gets in the way. Obama’s heroes didn’t have to deal with these things and in his propagandistic upbringing all these American traditions were minimalized. He was told they were all lies, a means to control the working class. Oops, turns out most Americans take these rights very seriously, are willing to die for them. We don’t want the argument to end—we enjoy the marketplace of ideas regulated by our venerated rules, don’t need any Workers’ Paradise. So, thoroughly indoctrinated since birth, Obama cannot conceive of the challenge he faces. In the movies of his youth, Stalin steps off the airplane and the crowds rejoice; people cease fighting because the renowned example of peace and justice has arrived, the secular Jesus, oil upon troubled waters. At home he was taught the myths of Socialism/Communism by adults who believed they were true, whereas most Americans eventually accept there is no Santa Claus. In America, Obama keeps stepping off planes and buses, the crowds cheer—but the debate doesn’t stop. To most Americans, Obama is not the obvious living god sent to bring us hope. He’s just another politician and, it turns out, not a very good one. All the glowing beauty of Communist propaganda that forms Obama’s world fades in a fair fight, in the open market of ideas. We should feel sympathy for Obama. November 7, ’12 he may find that he’s not a Great Helmsman or a Man of Steel, that he’s lucky to be just one of us: another American with another opinion. He’ll need a hanky. Richard B. Jones is a bilingual probation officer, migrant teacher and welfare worker in rural West Texas; he has lived and worked in many places including China and the Middle East. His blog is: TheCaprock.com

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