My Examiner column considers Barack Obama’s radical associations. It concludes by asking whether these associations portend a radical presidency if Obama is elected:
Perhaps not. Ayers and especially Wright were influential figures in the community where Obama hoped to advance his political career. It’s possible that Obama attached himself to these two figures for purely opportunistic reasons. In this scenario, Obama was deplorably cynical, but not necessarily radical.
Alternatively, Obama may have believed significant amounts of what his leftist associates espoused, only to cast it off over time. In this scenario, Wright and Ayers played Falstaff to Obama’s Prince Hal.
But there are at least six reasons to fear that Obama will govern from the far left.
First, it’s all he really knows. Obama grew up in a left-wing household, attended elite left-wing dominated universities, and spent the remainder of his formative years as a community organizer alongside the likes of Wright and Ayers.
Second, it’s how he votes. In 2007, according to the National Journal, Obama’s voting record was the most liberal of any senator.
Third, it’s what he falls back on. Obama is scripted to be “post-partisan.†But when off-script he’s liable to blurt out that those who resist the leftist agenda bitterly “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to those who aren’t like them.†And when his wife said that, as an adult, she has never been proud of America, Obama defended her statement as applied to American politics. This is “god damn America†lite.
Fourth, it’s what his base wants. There really isn’t much distance between Reverend Wright and Bill Ayers and the “General Betray-Us†crowd.
Fifth, it’s what he can pretend the times demand. When economic hardship causes people lose their faith in free markets, all kinds of radical mischief becomes possible.
Sixth, with the Democrats almost certain to have substantial majorities in both houses of Congress, who would constrain a President Obama?
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