Obama the War Hawk

Clarence Page is taking Bill Ayer’s recent denunciations of President Obama’s Afghan war plans as proof that Ayers and Obama are not brothers in radical ideology. Of Ayers’s fairly tame complaints, Page writes, “The 1960s Weather Underground radical-turned-University-of-Illinois professor sounds as steamed up against Obama as he used to feel about President Richard Nixon.” (“Bill Ayers dumps Obama”).

This proves to Page that all those crazy right-wingers were wrong that Ayers and Obama “were joined at the hip.”

“Meanwhile,” Page continues, “what are the Glenn Becks, Sean Hannitys and Sarah Palins of the world going to talk about now that Ayers says Obama's a conservative war hawk? Hint: I'm sure they'll find something.”

I’m sure they will, too. They’ll probably go for something obvious like the fact that both Obama and Ayers are disciples of Saul Alinksy. (“Revolution you can believe in”). I know I would. As Alinskyites, both Obama and Ayers are free to claim support or opposition for any position necessary to achieving their ultimate aim, as Andrew McCarthy describes:

. . . Alinskyites are . . . sophisticated, patient, and practical. They bore in, hollowing out the system from within, appropriating the appearance and argot of mainstream society. Their single, animating ambition is to overthrow the capitalist social order, which they claim to see as racist, corrupt, exploitative, imperialist, etc. Apart from that goal, everything else — from the public option to Afghanistan — is negotiable: They reserve the right to take any position on any matter, to say anything at any time, based on the ebb and flow of popular opinion. That keeps them politically viable while they radically transform society. Transform it into what, they haven’t worked out in great detail — except that it will be perfect, communal, equal, and just. (“Alinsky Does Afghanistan”).

As another prominent Alinskyite, Hillary Clinton, wrote in her Wellesley College senior thesis, “There is only the fight”, that is, the radical fight to remake society.

Leftists needn’t fear that Afghanistan has become Obama’s fight. This changes nothing.