Bill Clinton, once hailed as America’s “first black president,” has been disavowed by a once adoring black community. Geraldine Ferraro has been accused of being a secret racist.  Oprah Winfrey is labeled a feminist sell-out. The major campaigns eagerly pander to racial and socioeconomic groups, and try different combinations of divide and conquer strategies.  Black Americans are for Obama, and overwhelmingly admit that it’s a vote based on race, women are for Clinton and overwhelmingly admit that it’s a vote on gender. The two campaigns eagerly fight to curry favor with Hispanics. The wealthy are targeted for income redistribution, the poor are promised free medicine, and free-market capitalism is under full-scale assault.  A party who once railed against supposed voter suppression now openly practices it in key states, and a party whose name is synonymous with ideals of populist governance adopts a delegate system reeking of undemocratic elitism. For those who have long understood the American left, none of the bigotry, racism, divisiveness, extremism or elitism that is emblematic of the 2008 Democratic Presidential contest is surprising.  To understand the modern Democratic Party, one must recognize that it is a party built on racial, economic and socio-ethno-centric divisions.  It is a cynical party; a party that depends on a culture of victimhood and division that in turn generates the demand for governmental redress. Without division, without racism, without inequality, there can be no government programs to remedy them, no election year pledges to change society, no mission or great societal crusade to endlessly fight for – no modern Democratic Party. Change is the undeniable, mechanical, political nature of a so-called “progressive” party, and the disharmony wrought from a perception of inequality is its engine.

Obama’s pastor, Jeremiah Wright is nothing more than a purveyor of disharmony, and sadly, far from atypical. Like the Democratic Party itself, he is a man dedicated to ginning up racial hatred, to sowing societal discord, and fostering ignorance as a means of creating a willing and motivated following. Like the liberal establishment at large, for Jeremiah Wright, race is both a spear and a shield. It provides cover for his own bigotry, hatred and apparent anti-American paranoia while at the same time supplying the very weapon to denigrate his country and foster the societal division needed to drive his wayward flock.  Jeremiah Wright’s message is not the message of Christ, it is not the message of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., it is not a message of peace, of reconciliation, or of hope.

The footage of Wright spewing hate-filled anti-American rhetoric was not the product of undercover video, or hidden cameras, they were excerpts from DVDs sold in his church gift shop. Far from slips of the tongue, or misconstrued remarks, they are messages Wright thoughtfully constructed and powerfully conveyed with all his rhetorical might.  These are messages that Wright is proud of, that he wanted others to see and hear, that he believes with conviction. Jeremiah Wright, believes that the United States government created the HIV virus to perpetrate genocide on people of color. He believes the U.S. government conspired to allow the Japanese to destroy Pearl Harbor. He believes that our country is controlled by “rich white people,” and describes his own nation as the U.S. of AmeriKKKa.  He is a man who curses and asks God to “damn America.”  On the Sunday following the 9/11 tragedies he used his pulpit to blame America for the crazed acts of 19 Saudi terrorists, claiming it was America’s “chickens coming home to roost” – an infamous line of the radical, black Muslim separatist leader Malcom X, and a forerunner of the virulently racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-American Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, whom Wright honored with a lifetime achievement award.  Wright even traveled with Farrakhan to Libya to meet with terrorist leader Muammar el-Qaddafi. Wright has devoted his life to building a church committed to the “Black value system” and with a stated policy of commitment to Africa, not America. He has asked his followers to “pledge allegiance to black values” and proudly displays a document entitled the “Black Value System” that is so thoroughly racist that were one to substitute the word “black” for “white” it could have easily been authored by Josef Goebbels.

Wright’s is a message of victimhood, paranoia and racism wedded to Marxist concepts of class warfare and societal struggle, it is born of the radical Liberation Theology of the 1960s and it has dominated much of the left and black America for decades. To the many however, who are ceaselessly fed a diet of anti-Americanism and division by their preachers, their political leaders in the Democratic Party, and a hopelessly biased entertainment industry and mainstream media, it is not even viewed as remarkable. So pervasive is this kind of divisive rhetoric on the left, and within the black community, that Donna Brazille, longtime Democratic strategist, admitted on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, “I’ve known Jeremiah Wright and actually Jeremiah Wright is one of the more moderate black preachers.”

Under the best of circumstances, it would be difficult for Obama to distance himself from Wright, but once the deep connection between Wright and Obama is understood, it is impossible. Jeremiah Wright is Barak Obama’s self described “mentor!” Wright has been Obama’s pastor for twenty years, the man who married Michelle and Barak Obama and baptized their children. Obama credits Wright with leading him to Christ, and indeed, it was from one of Wright’s “sermons” that Obama borrowed the title for his best-selling political book. In a final elevation, Obama even appointed Wright to an all-black religious leadership committee for his campaign for President of the United States.

Attempting to distance himself from Wright was inviting the press to dig further into the murky relationship between Wright and Obama and the radical teachings of their organization. On Tuesday, an uncharacteristically unsure Obama took the stage before an overt display of American flags, designed to pay silent testament to Obama’s true love of country, a country his wife described as “downright mean,” populated by a people whose “souls are broken,” and a country in which she has admittedly never had pride until her husband’s late candidacy.  Obama himself reversed his earlier statements that he had not been present during any of Wright’s diatribes, and admitted to having personally heard controversial comments. Obama condemned the now publicized and indefensible statements of Wright, but far from distancing himself from Wright, Obama reaffirmed their close connection, saying he could no more “disown” Wright than he could the black community. In what could be dubbed the race-bait and switch speech, Obama delivered hackneyed platitudes on racial disharmony in America, and sought to parlay the issue into credentials for why he alone could solve America’s racial and socioeconomic inequities.  Obama’s attempt to refocus the media spotlight away from his own apparent bigotry by imputing racism to all of America was pathetic. Indeed, Obama even stooped so low as to criticize his own white grandmother for her alleged bigotry, a woman he admitted, greatly loved and sacrificed for him.

Far from saving Obama’s political hide, the speech was a pitiable smoke and mirrors show that unmasked the real Obama.  Inescapably, one must come to the conclusion that Obama either agrees with the teachings of his mentor, Jeremiah Wright, or alternatively that he joined the biggest church in his community for the sake of pure political advancement despite its overt radical racism and anti-Americanism. Obama is therefore either a radical, anti-American bigot or a man of pure political ambition, lacking significant conviction who continues to embrace a mentor with repugnant and indefensible views. In either event it is a devastating indictment of his personal beliefs and political ideals, a thorough evisceration of the core message of his campaign, and a political circumstance that makes Barack Obama both unelectable and unfit to serve as President of the United States.

Prince Charming is starting to gain some wrinkles … and grey hairs. Last week Fox News and the Drudgereport broke the “news” that Barak Obama’s pastor of twenty years has, since at least 2001, filled his sermons with hate filled rhetoric – helping to drive a wedge between the black comunity and every other community in Chicago and indeed America. That is, the leading Democratic candidate, who has based his campaign on a platform of unity and change has been preached to for twenty years by an overtly bigoted man who is working to maintain the racist status quo. To imagine that Barak Obama and his wife could be unaware of pastor Wright’s preachings or otherwise unaffected by it stinks of incredulity and phoniness. 

The distinction has been drawn by many in the mainstream media, that we cannot automaticaly impute pastor Wright’s beliefs to Mr. Obama.  Yet, we cannot ignore that casting aside the fiery rehetoric of his pastor and close confidant of twenty years speaks to Barak Obama’s insincerity and ambition. Specifically, Barak Obama has built a crazed following on a platform of unity, change and a being different from ordinary polictcs (traits all Presidential candidates speak to). Despite all this, however, and despite his fancy campaign slogans and excited college followers, Barak Obama has shown that he will act as any other politician would: He will manipulate and exploit for gain. Mr. Obama expolited the church’s connection with the black community when joined more than twenty years ago. Now, when his relationship with that same church is called into question, Mr. Obama abandons the church and pastor of twenty years, abandons the black community of Chicago for the hills of white America with claims of “I did not sit in the pew when that man was preaching”. Obama’s explanation does not pass the smell test for a sincerely response to the claims; such a hollow statement smells like a page from slick Willy’s book “I did not have sexual relations with that woman …”

Ultimately, this is a question of judgment. First, Mr. Obama’s decision to even join the Trinity church and be an outstanding member who donated tens of thousands of dollars to the church which openly supports the anti-semite Louis Farrakhan must be called into question. Secondly, if attends a church for twenty years – how ignorant can he be to not be aware of its mission and the oratory damntaion cast by its leading paster – also his friend and confidant. Furthermore, everyone must question the judgment and loyalty of a man that would so easily turn on his community and his church of twenty years, when the grey clouds start to gather.

Later today, Mr. Obama will attempt to explain his association with Trinity church and pastor Wright by couching the criticism in terms of racism. Mr. Obama will do something he has not done in pretty much the entire campaign – he will focus on the race issue, attempting to again, exploit the black connection. The damage is done, however, Mr. Obama, your campaign should just move on.

The black community should be offended that Barak so quickly abandoned his community for the simple reason Fox News has chased this story.

 Update

“I was not in the pews, with that man, Reverend White”

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed. Obama speech 3/19/2008

“indeed I was”