The Real Ayers Issue

National Review magazine ^ | Nov. 3, '08 | Andrew C. McCarthy

[T.L.Sink]

No. It wasn't Ayers's terrorism that attracted Obama. It was Ayers's leftist revolution. We can take Obama at his word that he condemns the bombings. But Obama was front and center for the revolution. Ayers's revolution is Obama's "change." Ayers's "participatory democracy" through "popular empowerment" is Obama's ACORN. Ayers's rage against the criminal justice system [Obama wrote a rave review in 1997 of Ayers's "a Kind and Just Parent," a leftist polemic against the criminal justice system] that paints America as an apartheid state and prison is Obama's "searing and timely account" description of Ayers's book. The joint Ayers/Obama pursuit of "social justice" is seen in their joint underwriting (through the Woods Fund) of Marxist black-liberation theology at Jeremiah Wright's church, and of Khalidi's Arab American Action Network - an organization that condones Palestinian terrorism while promoting public welfare and drivers' licenses for illegal aliens in the U.S. Further, when it comes to "education reform," the most significant of the duo's shared passions, capitalism is the root cause of racism, while Hugo Chavez's Venezuela is the "beacon to the world."

[T.L.Sink]

A terrific essay. McCarthy exposes the intimate and close associations between Obama (and, yes, Michelle, too!) and a shadowy world of revolutionary figures who truly hate America, capitalism, and the legal foundation provided by our Constitution. It should be read in its entirety to fully grasp the fact that our next President may be a revolutionary. NO HYPE!

[JimSEA]

It wasn't Ayers's terrorism that attracted Obama. It was Ayers's leftist revolution.

Exactly right. What we are seeing is a reflection of the revolution so many demonstrators screeched about in the 60's. Obama isn't the only one, most of the Democrats have at least a little of this in their blood.

[livius]

I’m not a subscriber, so I couldn’t read the article. However, this little tidbit here is perfectly accurate. What is happening with Obama is that the 1960s student left “revolutionaries” failed to carry out their plans at that time to take over the US government - but they have waited 40 years, and found the perfect vehicle in Obama. And, even though he’s a cipher in every other way, it’s clear that he agrees with every bit of their program.

[UCANSEE2]

Thanks for posting this article.

---

“Obama wrote a rave review in 1997 of Ayers’s “a Kind and Just Parent,”

One question. Does Ayers have any children?

[snarks_when_bored]

I have a close friend who has said she's voting for Obama. She has zero interest in Obama's associations with America-hating radicals, zero interest in Obama's desire to make the government a major, if not primary, allocator of capital in the American economy, zero interest in Obama's desire to nationalize healthcare. Until I mentioned them, she'd never heard of Tony Rezko, Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright. Her one and only interest is that Sarah Palin not become President if McCain dies since, she believes, Sarah is a "religious nut" and would run an anti-science administration. When I asked her to cite a single instance in which Sarah's religious views had influenced her behavior as governor of Alaska, she was unable to do so. But that meant nothing to her. She's convinced that Sarah is a danger.

What's scary about my friend is that, although she's a very smart person who has a Ph.D. in a difficult subject, she's unreachable on Obama. I wonder how many more like her are out there?

[bert]

.....It was Ayers’s leftist revolution.....

Of course. The terrorism was but a failed attempt at the revolution. The terrorism was a crude attempt to establish the revolution. Terrorism of youth failed.

The Obama candidacy is the result of that failure. The revolutionary attack is from within the system after the institutions supporting the system have been safely captured.

[mad_as_he$$]

Ayers does not mean jack to the undecided. It is the economy - McCain needs to pound away at the economy issue.

[Bernard Marx]

the 1960s student left “revolutionaries” failed to carry out their plans at that time to take over the US government - but they have waited 40 years, and found the perfect vehicle in Obama. And, even though he’s a cipher in every other way, it’s clear that he agrees with every bit of their program.

No, the 1960s radicals have burrowed their way into every nook and cranny of American life -- the schools, the media, the bureaucracy, the courts -- and Obama is their long-planned Creation. It's not a coincidence he's such a cipher. He's the embodiment of their radical program to turn America into a totalitarian Marxist state. I despair for my children, who believe he's the Savior. They've been carefully taught to hate America.

[illinifan]

In William Ayers' Forgotten Communist Manifesto: Prairie Fire , which, by the way, was republished in 2006 and dedicated to Sirhan Sirhan, I noted a passage where Ayers said, "our job is to tap discontent seething in many sectors of the population, to find allies everywhere people are hungry or angry to mobilize poor and working people against imperialism." Ayers also said, "We have an urgent responsibility: to destroy imperialism from within in order to help free the world and ourselves from its grasp."

I googled "people against imperialism" and found a Statement by Comrade Mao Tse-tung, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, in Support of the Afro-American Struggle Against Violent Repression : A New Storm Against Imperialism dated April 16, 1968. In this statement Mao states, "Racial discrimination in the United States is a product of the colonialist and imperialist system... Only by overthrowing the reactionary rule of the U.S. monopoly capitalist class and destroying the colonialist and imperialist system can the Black people in the United States win complete emancipation"

Is this what Obama meant when he said in 1995 that "my salvation is tied to their salvation"? Is his salvation tied to the destruction of our colonialist, imperialist system?

[T.L.Sink]

I apologize. I’m a subscriber and the article should have been posted for all to see. I never had any problem before but for some reason I can’t explain it didn’t work this time.

[doc11355]

She's convinced that Sarah is a danger... although she's a very smart person who has a Ph.D. in a difficult subject, she's unreachable on Obama.

I'll bet that, if you probe deeper, you'll find that the unstated "danger" she really fears from Sarah revolves around abortion and that the rest of her explanation is a smokescreen.

[Logical me]

What's scary about my friend is that, although she's a very smart person who has a Ph.D. in a difficult subject, she's unreachable on Obama. I wonder how many more like her are out there?

My favorite line is 2/3 of Americans are brain dead. Over half of those are cult followers who's mind are so closed and warped they have to be led to the bathroom. The rest just don't know the real facts and just sit on the fence waiting for some kind of a bolt of lighting from on high to make the decision for them. Pathetic.

[snarks_when_bored]

No, not in this case. But I understand your point.

[illinifan]

the hate America thing is, indeed, deeply entrenched.

in A Balance sheet of the Finnish Events (April 1940), Leon Trotsky wrote, “The Marxist line of conduct in war is not based on abstract moral and sentimental considerations but on the social appraisal of a regime in its reciprocal relations with other regimes. We supported Abyssinia not because the Negus (Haile Selassie) was politically or ‘morally’ superior to Mussolini but because the defence of a backward country against colonial oppression deals a blow to imperialism, which is the main enemy of the world working class."

I could never understand why so many were vested in our defeat in Iraq. I guess I naively thought it was to blame the loss on GWB. I'm now beginning to believe that there is a faction, and I include Obama and William Ayers, who believe that if we lose in Iraq, it is a blow to our imperialism, which is the main enemy of the "working class". They are not against war, per se. They are for our defeat.

[snarks_when_bored]

My favorite line is 2/3 of Americans are brain dead.

I wouldn't go quite that far...(laugh)... And my friend is very far from brain dead in general, although her thinking about politics, in this case at least, is clearly flawed (as I've pointed out to her on more than one occasion).

[CajunConservative]

That is true. It really is about these two people that have the deranged leftist going bonkers.

http://www.daylife.com/photo/01WI2aEfsE3AH

[rockrr]

Andrew, you may “take him at his word” that he condemns the bombings, but I (and others) do not. At the very very least it means that the “0”ne adopts an ultra-cynical “It doesn’t directly involve me so I don’t care” attitude. At the worst it means that, since ayers got away with his crimes without punishment they don’t matter.

It doesn’t matter to me what else ayers says - in my opinion he should take a dirt nap. Nothing else could be worse than trying to kill innocents.

As to the “0”ne - either way it proves his lack of judgment and character.

We now live in an age of moral equivalence characterized by “it depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is”. We are seeing it played out in countless instances where the truth about obeyme is greeted with rolling eyes (or eyes rolling in the back of their heads), and vehement denial.

They’re determined to have their messiah and nothing is going to stop them.

God help us and our nation...

[Seeing More Clearly Now]

One question. Does Ayers have any children?

He and his FBImost wanted list wife, Bernardine Dohrn, together the two masterminds of the violent terrorist group, the Marxist Weather Underground, adopted the two children of another of another terrorist couple who didn’t have the high levels ties they themselves and did go to jail for the terrorist violence and killings of the Weather Underground. I an not aware whether Ayers and Dohrn had children of their own also.

[T.L.Sink]

I know what you mean. It’s very frustrating but some people who are very intelligent and capable in their areas of specialization are really completely ignorant politically. They don’t seem to realize that it takes some effort to be a responsible citizen by becoming as informed as possible. In my opinion, a lot of this is the result of the failure of the public school system to provide a solid foundation in American history and the high value the Founding Fathers placed on the necessity of an electorate familiar with the mechanics of a participatory democracy. I’m sure you’ve seen some of the shocking things that I have when, for example, some high school students can’t even answer some of the most elementary and basic questions about our government. We may laugh but it’s really quite pathetic.

[T.L.Sink]

He does but I don’t know how many or where they are.