Denigrates the can-do spirit of Americans, calling it, in effect, right-wing propaganda
It Takes a Collective, Obama Believes
Red diaper baby Barack Obama’s collectivist beliefs go way back. We dug up an enlightening old article, “What Makes Obama Run?” (by Hank De Zutter, Chicago Reader, Dec. 8, 1995) that offers more insight into what Obama, the Democrats’ presumptive presidential candidate, thinks about America and traditional American values. The short answer: not much.
In it Obama, at that time a candidate for the Illinois Senate, criticizes individualism as what intellectual John Ralston Saul has called the cult of the Hero:
“In America,” Obama says, “we have this strong bias toward individual action. You know, we idolize the John Wayne hero who comes in to correct things with both guns blazing. But individual actions, individual dreams, are not sufficient. We must unite in collective action, build collective institutions and organizations.”
American individualism is poppycock, according to Obama. Explaining his theory on how communities can go about ”getting [their] fair share,” he denigrates the can-do spirit of Americans, calling it, in effect, right-wing propaganda:
“The right wing talks about this but they keep appealing to that old individualistic bootstrap myth: get a job, get rich, and get out. Instead of investing in our neighborhoods, that’s what has always happened. Our goal must be to help people get a sense of building something larger.”
In other words, Americans need the helping hand of government. And Americans on the political right are racist, stupid, and backward-looking, Obama says:
“We must form grass-root structures that would hold me and other elected officials more accountable for their actions. The right wing, the Christian right, has done a good job of building these organizations of accountability, much better than the left or progressive forces have. But it’s always easier to organize around intolerance, narrow-mindedness, and false nostalgia. And they also have hijacked the higher moral ground with this language of family values and moral responsibility.”
Elias Crim and I looked at Obama’s radical roots in the current Foundation Watch.
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Capital Research Center (CRC) was established in 1984 to study non-profit organizations, with a special focus on reviving the American traditions of charity, philanthropy, and voluntarism.
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