Posted on 09/07/2009 9:41:10 AM PDT by fiodora
With due respect, I think Charles Krauthammer had it badly wrong on Van Jones when he said (see post below), "I'm not even disturbed that this guy is a communist. It is not the first time we had a communist in the U.S. government. And anyway, with the death of communism, it is a kind of a pathetic intellectual anachronism to remain a communist."
It should be apparent by now that Communism never died. The Soviet Union died. Being a Communist, or a neocommunist, is not an intellectual anachronism at all — it is quite the fashion in the academy and our other institutions. Does Charles not realize, for example, that Obama's friend Bill Ayers — who proudly calls himself "a small 'c' communist" — was in 2008 elected vice president for curriculum of the American Education Research Association, the nation's largest organization of education professors and researchers? (See Sol Stern's profile of Ayers and education, here). I'm not sure "pathetic" is the right word, but what is a perilous intellectual anachronism is the belief that the communist threat ended 18 years ago.
The Jones incident, moreover, does not indicate that "we had a communist in the U.S. government." To the contrary, as I argued last night, we have a U.S. government in which Van Jones was quite consciously selected because his views are representative of the president who made him the "green jobs czar." Van Jones isn't Alger Hiss. There's nothing covert about him. He didn't snooker Obama into bringing him aboard. He is who he is, and that's why Obama wanted him. Having a Communist in that job was perfect since the "green jobs" initiative is an important part of the hard Left's agenda to use environmentalism as an additional justification for usurping command of the economy.
In fact, the death of the Soviet Union has actually been a boon for neocommunists. Now, Obama and his fellow travelers like Jones, Ayers, Wright, Klonsky, and ACORN, can spout all the same totalitarian, anti-American, central-planning ideas the hard Left has always pushed, but in the abstract — under such mushy labels as "social justice" and "green jobs." That is, they are liberated from having to defend the Soviet Empire, which, until 1991, was a living, breathing, concrete example of how horrific these ideas are when put in practice.
David Horowitz nails this in his terrific book, Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left (Regnery 2004):
Far from instilling humility in progressives …, the collapse of socialism has revived their self-righteousness and reenergized their assault on the democratic West. The disappearance of the Soviet bloc has had only one consequence of note. It has lifted the burden of having to defend … an indefensible regime. Because the utopian vision is no longer anchored in the reality of an actually existing socialist state, the left can now indulge its nihilistic agendas without restraint.
For anyone with common sense and a willingness to look at what we were allowed to learn about Obama's background and associations, nothing about Van Jones is the least bit surprising. Nothing about Obama's penchant for government by radical, unaccountable czars is the least bit surprising. What is surprising is that smart people continue to treat these developments as if they were abberations that somehow happen independent of Obama, as if the president just needs to do a better job of vetting staffers. The selection of Van Jones is who Obama is and what he is about. Bad things are not happening to our president; our president is doing bad things — as we should have known he would.
Jones claims to have done practically no studying while at Yale Law School. His account of his years there asserts that he spent most of his time agitating for the left. He says he went there because there were “no grades” and he knew that as a black militant the powers that be would let him slide through without doing much.
Apparently he did very little because no one has shown that he ever passed a bar exam anywhere, which means that Howard Dean lied yesterday when he called Jones a Yale-educated lawyer. All he’s ever been is a “community organizer,” just like his alter-ego, Obama.
Bump
Like Clinton though, the secret handshakes and powerful handlers helped as well. Likewise, no one can give a rational or plausible account of what Obama actually did as editor of the Harvard Law Review besides smile for the photographs. And then those missing transcripts and college thesis.
It's interesting about those liberals who view law school not as training to practice law or even to understand law or the Constitution, but as a ticket into the ruling class.
“It’s interesting about those liberals who view law school not as training to practice law or even to understand law or the Constitution, but as a ticket into the ruling class.”
Good point. Conservatives often accuse leftist Dems of trying to turn the US into a “banana republic.” One thing very noteworthy about poor Latin American countries is the use of a legal education as an entry into the political class. How many liberal Democrats gone to law school for that same purpose?
Does anyone really believe that Barry Obama, Van Jones, and Bill and Hillary
Clinton are "the best and the brightest" America has to offer?
Yale's Best and Brightest
With the fall of the USSR, the Commies jumped onto the “green” movement and any other high-sounding “social justice” facade they could create wherein they could continue their never-ending war against the USA and Capitalism.
I went to school back in the 50’s and 60’s when the evils of Communism were taught in US public schools. I would never have believed the United States could come to this.
I keep my arsenal ready.
Nobody who lives in the real world thinks so!
Unfortunately, many writers and so-called “intellectuals” have never done that.
But that line is repeated.
Howard Dean was on FOX News claiming Van's OK because he went to Yale Law.
There's an article posted on FR by some liberal claiming that since Obama speaks in calm, smooth tones and went to Harvard, he can't be a radical and, hence, no reason to worrry about a few communist czars.
These are "educated" people from elite universities saying things like this.
Apparently, they now consider Fabian Socialist, Communist, Alinskyite, and
Frankfurt School to be the "center" and evidence of being "moderate."
Dean even lied and said that Jones was a “lawyer”—he is not. He hasn’t passed the bar.
I really wonder if some of these people really believe that silly stuff or do they just think the public is dumb enough to buy it?
Roger that.
It may be that they are so biased and so emotional in their anger at Republicans and Bush-Cheney that they just wish whatever is opposite to conservative opinion would be true. In this case, because Glenn Beck was focused on Van as a Communist.
The Dean syllogism and fallacy would be as follows:
Glenn Beck says Van Jones is a Communist.
We hate Glenn Beck.
Van Jones is just a lawyer from Yale.
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Obama Says A Baby Is A Punishment
Obama: “If they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”
Kiddin'. Just watched the Wajda film Katyn. A must see! I thought of how the Axelrods and the Obambis are the wannabe Stalins of today, and my rabid in-law J. a willing fanatical follower. Nothing ever changes. The believers in utopia want to kill you to make you happy.
Who happens to sign petitions without knowing what he is signing.
One of the best American movies ever made, dude.
I am very distrubed that Van Jones is a communist. Do you know that we have several communists in Congress too?
One of the best American movies ever made, dude.
Now, actually, there may not be that much difference between the Fabian Socialism Dean promotes and Van's version of armchair Communism.
After all many of them spent years in the Congress and Senate telling Americans there was no threat from the Soviet Union. Ted Kennedy even seeking out Yuri Andropov’s help in trying to thwart Reagan. So they may not view it as a big deal that Obama appointed a Communist as White House czar. Or commissar.
Amen. I’ve been trying to put this in heads to no avail.
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