and more currently a Marxist
Can't imagine why we would think that?!
Perhaps it's the Saul Alinsky('god-father' of the community activist radicals ) words that Michelle Obama attributed to BO as being the words they live by.
Barack stood up that day, and spoke words that have stayed with me ever since. He talked about "The world as it is" and "The world as it should be." And he said that all too often, we accept the distance between the two, and settle for the world as it is even when it doesn't reflect our values and aspirations...
"All of us driven by a simple belief that the world as it is just won't do - that we have an obligation to fight for the world as it should be."
Text of Michelle Obama's speech at the convention - Yahoo! News
Now here is a quote from chapter 2 of Alinsky's book 'Rules for Radicals' :
"The means-and-ends moralists, constantly obsessed with the ethics of the means used by the Have-Nots against the Haves, should search themselves as to their real political position. In fact, they are passive -- but real -- allies of the Haves...The most unethical of all means is the non-use of any means... The standards of judgment must be rooted in the whys and wherefores of life as it is lived, the world as it is, not our wished-for fantasy of the world as it should be."
"just words ....just speeches"
Alinsky's goals were radical socialism and redistribution of wealth.Alinsky taught his proteges to hide their true goals by any means necessary. Lying was fine. A successful organizer should be
an abrasive agent to rub raw the resentments of the people of the community; to fan latent hostilities of many of the people to the point of overt expressions. Once such hostilities were
whipped up to a fighting pitch, the organizer steered his group toward confrontation, in the form of picketing, demonstrating, and general hell-raising. At first, the organizer tackled small stuff, like demanding the repair of streetlights in a city park; later, when the group gained confidence, the organizer could take on bigger targets. Ironically, Evita wrote an undergraduate thesis on Alinsky.
Obama went to work in Chi-town with Jerry Kellman an Alinsky student .
Jerry Kellman: Obama Pulled Together A Variety of People That Others Could Not. Jerry Kellman, who was the basis for the character "Marty" in Dreams from my Father, was Obama's supervisor at the Developing Communities Project.
Barack Obama | Change We Can Believe In |
2008 Democratic National Convention: Remarks As Prepared For Delivery by Jerry Kellman, Hired & Supervised Sen. Obama At Developing Communities Project - Chicago, Illinois
At some point however ;Obama decided that community organizingwas not lucrative enough. He cited the fact that his father had been booted out of the Kenyan government and had died drunk and destitute. Obama decided to cash in and go to law school and enter politics.He also realized that in politics and law is real power . Kellman also had similar thoughts and would soon drop out of community organizing . But what is important to note is that it was in these years that Obama's political views were formed . He was introduced to Alice Palmer, as an Illinois State Senator. Palmer was the only African American to cover the 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1986. Obama was later named to be her hand picked successor . He was introduced to Bill Ayers and Bernadin Dohrn and his political career began.