Barack Obama has implied that the riots of 2020 and 2021 were an extension of the racist history of the United States. He did not explain that this was a history of the Democrat Party with its southern slavery, Civil War, the Ku Klux Klan, the Jim Crow laws and the institutionalized racism of the south until many northerners gradually went south and updated the politics of the contemporary south.
In a campaign speech during a period of extended Antifa and BLM riots in the United States, Obama opined:
“In a lot of ways, what has happened over the last several weeks is challenges and structural problems here in the United States have been thrown into high relief. They are the outcomes not just of the immediate moments in time, but they’re the result of a long history of slavery and Jim Crow and red lining and institutionalized racism that too often have been the plague, the original sin of our society.”[i]
Without saying so, BHO here provides a brief outline of the history of the Democratic Party, which enters this drama as the political party of the southern United States fighting against Republicans in the North under Lincoln. Lincoln’s party gave much blood and treasure to free the United States from Slavery. The racism of the south continued, long after the war, strictly as a product of the Democratic Party with their exclusive promotion of Jim Crow laws, and the dominance of southern political power through the Ku Klux Klan. As Republicans began to move into the southern states in more recent decades, the heritage of racism has gradually begun to disappear and many of good will wish the country to heal. That is a long process which began some time ago under Christian blacks and many others of good will.
The process of healing was impeded by the callous neglect of Democratic governors and mayors in both the north and the south. Their policies failed to eliminate obstacles to the education that is necessary to liberate people from poverty. The destruction of the nuclear family in black urban communities was also a disaster for the black community, and it has been exacerbated over time as those communities have degenerated into crime, drug use, and gang violence. Decades have passed as conditions have deteriorated in black communities. The Democratic Party’s response has been implied clearly. If the congress can’t pass laws to stop urban violence, there’s nothing we can do other than continually advocate gun control laws which Republicans reject. But, unfortunately, nothing has been done by the Democratic Party to address the education, employment, and public health conditions which inspire hopelessness, violence and crime.
In the course of eight years, the Biden/Obama administration did precious little to solve urban problems. They did what they could subtly to encourage the Antifa and Black Lives Matter, both of which organizations scream for black liberation while simply using their oppressed communities to seek to overthrow the free government and economic system of the United States through their attacks on American capitalism. These are Marxist organizations to whom the black lives they use in their promotion of violence and looting truly do not matter. Given the large supply of young revolutionaries available for the cause, any loss of black participants can easily be made up from the large supply of irrational, indoctrinated millennials nation wide. They are more interested in disruption and rebellion than in liberating the black communities from the impoverishment of democratic policies.
Finally, black lives matter to the BLM socialists only when those lives are already of a given age. Supporting all the social policies of the liberal left, abortion is also enthusiastically endorsed by Black Lives Matter. It is common knowledge that a disproportionately large share of all U.S. abortions are performed on black women. Babies in the womb are not clearly defined; they may be black, they may be lives, but they most certainly do not matter to the BLM movement’s leaders.
Obama subtly puts a stamp of approval on the post-pandemic violence that broke out in so many of the urban centers of the United States. He says: “In some ways, as tragic as these past few weeks have been, as difficult and scary and uncertain as they’ve been, they’ve also been an incredible opportunity for people to be awakened to some of these underlying trends. They offer an opportunity for us to all work together to tackle them, to take them on, to change America and make it live up to its highest ideals.” Like so many commentators who have refused to condemn the violence, the lawlessness, the looting and the aggression against both police and non-revolutionary bystanders that have taken too many lives, Obama says we should look at the upside of the revolution, it gives us a great opportunity to “change America.” He has continued, beyond his presidency, to encourage people to continue to “transform America.” Reform isn’t what the revolutionaries have in mind, it is as Joe Biden’s political slogan: we shall transform America completely. We must rebuild and rebuild it right. Bring on the socialism! Es lebe der Aufstand.
America doesn’t need transformation. It needs to be made great again. It needs to have its cities changed so that places like San Fransico, Seattle, and New York can be saved from the blind and insidious policies of democratic managers. They have provided inferior education for their minorities, if it can be honored by the euphemism “education.” They have provided welfare policies that guarantee the decline of the nuclear family in black communities, they have provided no hope for the future of black lives locked in gang socialization, poverty, hopelessness, drug use, and a genecide approach to “choice” as abortion affects the black community far more than proportionately. And now that Obama is no longer president, his current policies have the same ameliorative effects as they did when he was president. Zip! There was a distinct contrast in what the succeeding administration did for black communities and black youth. Unfortunately, President Trump’s policies were the first hope seen in black communities, but they were not given the opportunity to develop.
Obama says that “Part of what’s made me so hopeful is the fact that so many young people have been galvanized and activated and motivated and mobilized because historically so much of the progress that we’ve made in our society has been because of young people… When sometimes I feel despair, I just see what’s happening with young people all across the country and the talent and the voice and the sophistication that they’re displaying, and it makes me feel optimistic. It makes me feel as if this country is going to get better.” Yes, the Antifa and BLM are the children of Obama and the Democrats who have defended them so steadfastly as they have tried to burn down the country, while their political leaders claim ridiculously that they deliver “peaceful protests.”
After teaching over forty years as a professor, nobody knows better than I what bright and competent young people we have in this country. But young people, like their seniors, need to be able to understand history – every country that has tried socialism soon came to understand why their leaders were either ignorant or dissembling when they claimed their launch of a new socialist experiment would finally “get it right.” Our bright young people can no longer be the hope of our future if they remain indoctrinated and continue to buy into a dogmatic, revolutionary doctrine rationalizing lawlessness and violence. They must first open up to alternatives. I have written a long tome on all the basics of socialism – its thoughts and theories, the attempted application of the system in socialist countries, and the attempt to revive socialism in the United States. I have recently published a sequel, much shorter for the modern reader and updated to include the implications of current socialist policy proposals for our country’s future. I recommend a serious reading of the book to those tempted to follow the socialist crowd.
I have spent many years studying and researching socialist systems, living in contemporary and former socialist countries, teaching and writing about the fallacies and follies of Marxism, and reviewing the equally nonsensical doctrines of cultural Marxism. We have heard the Obamas complain of their depression quite a lot lately. The message they should be sending to black communities is that we live in a great country where, given the right preparation and education, there is no honor or beneficent situation to which young people cannot aspire. The attainment of success is much sweeter than government handouts and many are the exemplary black people who have been successful in their lives and professions. Unfortunately, this is not the message likely to emanate from individuals who have a preference for the economic ideology of Marxism. Thus, BHO closes: “I’ve been hearing a little bit of chatter in the internet about voting versus protest, politics and participation versus civil disobedience and direct action. This is not a (sic) either/or this is a both/and. To bring about real change, we both have to highlight a problem and make people in power uncomfortable.” So he invites our young people to take to the streets. Es lebe der Aufstand!
[i] This and other BHO quotes are from a recent address. See “Obama used his foundation last night to encourage protesters (not rioters, which some are making a distinction between,) to “make those in positions of power uncomfortable” as well as voting on top of protests.” See: https://www.strictlynews.com/2020/06/obama-encourages-protesters-to-make-people-in-power-uncomfortable-and-to-vote/