The Conservative Revolution

There is some debate over whether or not Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s comments matter when considering the presidential campaign of Barack Obama. For a few key reasons, I believe that this relationship does matter.

Yesterday’s speech at the National Press Club was a big mistake on Wright’s part. He kept his name in the news and refused to back down from his ludicrous claim that the government created AIDS to kill black folks. He made the outrageous statement that criticism of him is “an attack on the black church.” And he praised the racist and kooky leader of the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan.

Barack Obama is running a campaign based on being a post-partisan and post-racial candidate who will change America. And he argues that his judgment trumps the experience of John McCain and Hillary Clinton. If we are to assess Obama’s ability to lead based on his “judgment” then we must conclude that he doesn’t have very good judgment at all. Would someone with good judgment stay in a black supremacist church that promotes black liberation theology? Would someone with good judgment maintain friendships with Tony Rezko and William Ayers? I think not. This is not guilt by association, but guilt by volition. Obama knew what kind of characters he was dealing with, and still made bad decisions by continuing these relationships and associations. His judgment is lacking, and without that, what is his rationale for being president?

There is another reason why the Rev. Wright controversy matters. His blame-America first ideology is part of mainstream leftist thought. The arguments he makes against America’s history and social organization fit right in with arguments made by leftist icons Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn and Che Guevara. There is nothing new here, just the same tired rhetoric meant to deconstruct America and, by extension, the West. This analysis is best exemplified by Dan Flynn’s book Why the Left Hates America. It makes sense for someone with a Marxist view of the world to vilify the country that best proves the Marxist paradigm to be unworkable and a nightmarish system for human beings. Rev. Wright, along with the other plethora of leftist academics and politicians, hurl attacks at this nation and its representative government because they cannot allow it to prove their leftist worldview to be the miserable failure that is is.

When you consider that Obama has made an issue over wearing the American flag on his lapel, and his wife has repeatedly bashed this country, it makes you wonder whether they agree with Rev. Wright’s comments. This is why Rev. Wright’s comments matter to the broader debate about who should, or should not, be president.

UPDATE: Obama denounces Wright

Obama just gave a press conference where he disavowed Wright’s statements at the National Press Club. Clearly the pressure from bloggers and the media convinced him he had to throw the pastor under the bus. I really don’t know whether Obama agrees with Wright and is just trying to save his political career, or disagrees with Wright but has not wanted to disown him. Either way, this won’t put the issue to bed. But I am glad that he at least addressed Wright’s statements more directly.

I finally got around to watching Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s interview with liberal hack Bill Moyers today. First, I want to congratulate Rev. Wright for his new $1 mansion in a white suburb of Chicago. Pointing out liberal hypocrisy is like shooting fish in a barrel. Should we even take seriously the views of people who don’t practice what they preach?

Putting that aside for now, let’s look at the interview with Moyers. Here are my thoughts.

1. Rev. Wright replaces so-called Eurocentrism with Afrocentrism. Why is one better than the other? And he is a proponent of black liberation theology, which takes this Afrocentrism even further.

2. Rev. Wright states as fact that the U.S. government gives drugs to African Americans. Conspiracy much?

3. Rev. Wright argues that “governments fail people.. they lie.” Well, why does he and his follower Barack Obama want to substantially increase government power in health care, energy, regulations and other things. If governments fail people, why not work to promote freedom and limit government?

4. Corporate owned media? You mean like the now “green friendly” MSNBC with Keith Olberman, Chris Matthews and David Gregory? I haven’t heard anything about how these liberal hosts have been prevented from espousing liberal views by their corporate masters. Besides, DailyKos and the Huffington Post are becoming as influential as corporate media outlets.

5. Those friendly “native americans” that Rev. Wright refers to were enslaving, killing, torturing and eating people on this continent before any European arrived. Man’s treatment of his fellow man has been good at times, but most often bad. The history of this continent, or any other continent bears that out. Wright says that “we” committed acts of terror to wipe out the “natives” and therefore we somehow deserved 911. I refuse to be blamed for acts that I had nothing to do with.

6. Wright has his own lies. Consider that he lies about the number of dead in Iraq and the number killed in the retaliatory strike on the empty facility in Sudan. He just makes numbers up to push his moral equivalence agenda on us.

7. Wright apparently opposed the retaliatory strike on the Libyan dictator Qadafi, which killed one of his sons. But did he condemn the Libyan acts of terrorism on innocent civilians that brought about that strike? Of course not.

When you constantly point out the bad in our culture and history, and refuse to see good, you are either delusional, angry, miserable or just a liberal. Or maybe all of the above. I’m simply not impressed with anything Wright has said. I’ve already read most of Noam Chomsky’s books on why we should hate Amerikkka.