NY Times Beaten to the Punch by GroundReport Internet Writer

Ground Report ^ | April 12, 2008 | Richard Cooper

[lpnykahuna]

New York Times Op-Ed opinion columnist William Kristol compared Barack Obama's remarks about the bitterness of white working class voters leading them to nationalism, religion and guns to Karl Marx. "The Mask Slips" published New York Times on April 14, 2008.

[lpnykahuna]

Some dare call it watered-down Marxism.

[wastedyears]

There’s nothing ‘watered-down’ about Obama’s “Hope and Change.”

[SandRat]

liberal Fascism it be.

[rmlew]

But aside from guns and religion don't Kristol, McCain, and most neocons agree with Obama? They don't like rootedness, they are for open borders, and love free trade. Part of the reason is the way that Schumpter's "creative destruction" works not just on the economy, but on culture.
And as for Kristol, he is not the most religious person and has shown no personal affinity towards guns.

[Minn]

This Richard Cooper guy is giving himself a little too much credit for apparently beating Kristol to the punch. I’m sure Kristol’s column is on a schedule, and every man and his dog has been commenting on the Marxist overtones of Obama’s moment of candor.

[The_Reader_David]

I’ve been making the same point since 12 April here on FR. Who knows Kristol might have picked up the idea lurking here. Or maybe it’s just obvious to anyone with a clear recollection of old-fashioned Marxist ideology. Of course, I guess bloggers are a little more vain that Free Republic posters, so pointing out that he (along with I’m sure lots of us) made the point before Kristol’s column ran must be a big coup. Whoopie.

[Enchante]

This blogger is wrong if he thinks he had the Internet ‘scoop’ on Wm. Kristol. OK, The_Reader_David may call it vain and I’m sorry to cite my own posts, but I have to correct the digital record since FR had the scoop right here on Friday night (April 11) when The_Republican referred to the Marxist echoes in Obama and then I posted more specifically on the textual Marxist background to Obama’s now cliche idea ... including the very quotation from “Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right” that Kristol cited today. Several others here were referring to the radical and/or Marxist background to Obama’s condescending remarks, and I knew where the “opium of the people” theme was first sounded in Marx in 1843 (although other radicals before then had had a similar idea, without the evocative phrase equating religion with opium).

Sorry to deflate you Mr. Cooper, but “false consciousness” and Marx and the religion is “the opium of the people” were all discussed on FR on April 11: :^)

---

To: Williams

This nonsense is straight out of the “false consciousness” vein of thought in the Marxist tradition, where the workers of the world are too dumb and downtrodden (unless enlightened by community ‘activists’ like Snob-ama)...... our current Demagogues really do think that workers won’t know their true interests until they have it explained to them properly that worrying about “God, Guns, and Gays” is just a distraction from pursuing the revolution of the working classes, led by the noble vanguard of the party elites.

208 posted on Friday, April 11, 2008 7:23:00 PM by Enchante (Obama: I want to lead all you dumb ignorant “typical white people” so shut up and follow me!!)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2000236/posts?page=208#208

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2000387/posts?page=35#35

To: The_Republican

Yes, I think Snob-ama, is echoing, through generations of condescending leftist rants, the origin of this type of ‘analysis’ (not that Obama has performed any intelligent analysis of these issues)..... it comes from Karl Marx, as you note:

“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people [Emphasis added] The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.”

Karl Marx, “Contribution to Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right” (1843)

35 posted on Friday, April 11, 2008 8:27:05 PM by Enchante (Obama: I want to lead all you dumb ignorant “typical white people” so shut up and follow me!!)

To: Enchante

p.s. My source for the translation of that quote was here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_of_the_people

[just in case anyone is eager to look it up]

40 posted on Friday, April 11, 2008 8:32:38 PM by Enchante (Obama: I want to lead all you dumb ignorant “typical white people” so shut up and follow me!!)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2000387/posts?page=40#40

[TBP]

Why doesn’t he just use a hammer and sickle and a swastika for backdrops?

[doug from upland]

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

"Some dare call it watered-down Marxism. "

1 posted on Monday, April 14, 2008 11:38:49 PM by lpnykahuna

The Times also seems to have missed that Obama and Richard Hofstadter's theories of alienated, bitter masses were the subject of strategy points discussions on talkleft.com back in 2006: What Barack Obama Needs To Learn From Richard Hofstadter, Abraham Lincoln and FDR. There had to be much forethought and relection on the ideas behind his comments.

No word from The Times on this? Maybe The Weekly Standard or National Review could pick it up since this appears to be where Obama's ideas came from. More here.