This is too funny. At the hilariously misnamed Accuracy In Media (AIM), Cliff Kincaid is on a tear about Barack Obama’s connections to international Communism.
In “Obama’s Communist Mentor,” Kincaid charges that Obama was imprinted with the cause of Communism by a “mentor,” Frank Marshall Davis. Back in the early 1950s, Davis (along with about half of the population of North America) was identified as a Communist by the House Un-American Activities Committee. Now it comes to light that this same Frank Marshall Davis was a friend of the family who gave young Barack fatherly advice before he went off to college. Hence, Obama is a Communist dupe.
Somehow, I don’t think Red-baiting is going to work on the young folks.
Yet, it gets crazier. Lisa Schiffren writes at The Corner (hat tip Too Sense):
… Obama and I are roughly the same age. I grew up in liberal circles in New York City — a place to which people who wished to rebel against their upbringings had gravitated for generations. And yet, all of my mixed race, black/white classmates throughout my youth, some of whom I am still in contact with, were the product of very culturally specific unions. They were always the offspring of a white mother, (in my circles, she was usually Jewish, but elsewhere not necessarily) and usually a highly educated black father. And how had these two come together at a time when it was neither natural nor easy for such relationships to flourish? Always through politics. No, not the young Republicans. Usually the Communist Youth League. Or maybe a different arm of the CPUSA. But, for a white woman to marry a black man in 1958, or 60, there was almost inevitably a connection to explicit Communist politics. (During the Clinton Administration we were all introduced to then U. of Pennsylvania Professor Lani Guinier — also a half black/half Jewish, red diaper baby.)…
… Political correctness was invented precisely to prevent the mainstream liberal media from persuing the questions which might arise about how Senator Obama’s mother, from Kansas, came to marry an African graduate student. Love? Sure, why not? But what else was going on around them that made it feasible? Before readers level cheap accusations of racism — let’s recall that the very question of interracial marriage only became a big issue later in the 1960s. The notion of a large group of mixed race Americans became an issue during and after the Vietnam War. Even the civil-rights movement kept this culturally explosive matter at arm’s distance.
It was, of course, an explicit tactic of the Communist party to stir up discontent among American blacks, with an eye toward using them as the leading edge of the revolution. To be sure, there was much to be discontented about, for black Americans, prior to the civil-rights revolution. To their credit, of course, most black Americans didn’t buy the commie line — and showed more faith in the possibilities of democratic change than in radical politics, and the results on display in Moscow.
Time for some investigative journalism about the Obama family’s background, now that his chances of being president have increased so much.
In other words, race mixing is subversive. Lisa — racist, much? See also the good Roger Ailes (’tis a hoot).
BTW, those Gen-Xers who think the ruination of American politics came about at the hands of Baby Boomers — read up on the late 1940s and early 1950s, folks. That’s when it went crazy, IMO. The Flower Children were just reacting to the insanity.
And for those of you who enjoy looking back on the Good Old Days, here’s an oldie but goodie — highlights of the Army-McCarthy Hearings from That Wonderful Year, 1954.
“BTW, those Gen-Xers who think the ruination of American politics came about at the hands of Baby Boomers — read up on the late 1940s and early 1950s, folks. That’s when it went crazy, IMO. The Flower Children were just reacting to the insanity”
Quite. Folks need to do their history homework. Thanks for this.
Red-baiting? In 2008? What’s next? Are they gonna push the Edsel? I guess I’m manically asking questions because I’m gobsmacked. It’s a stereotype to say these nuts are lost in their dreamworld version of the 50’s, but jesus – welcome to the last half century, dudes, the commies are done!
After spending this past winter studying some of the finer points of the Holocaust, I see that Lisa Schiffren is an ardent disciple of Herr Goebbels and that she would be much more at home in the ante-Bellem south of the US of A.
In order to win in November, the dems must have the support of those working class dems making under $50k. Else the election of McCain is certain and the margin will be akin those of McGoven, Dukakis, and Mondale.
Once Obama wins the nomination for sure all these nut-cases will be coming out from under their respective rocks. It is gonna get ugly, the only thing that fires up the wingnuts more than “god, guns, and gays” is interracial marriage, and the realization that we may elect an African American president. These Neanderthals heads are going to fucking explode! It will be fun to watch!
This is just 10,000 monkeys farting until they find their Shakespeare of race-baiting flatulence. It’ll happen soon enough.
Kincaid reads like something from the Onion. Not a bad piece of work in writing in the simpleton genre. His weavings of innuendo and associations are a little too tight though. He should have allowed more space between Frank the Commie mentor, the SDS,the weathermen, and terrorist organizations. Just to give the reader a less rapid fire understanding of how insidious Obama is.
Full disclosure: I read Dalton Trumbo…But I am not,or never have been a member of the communist party.
A spectre is haunting the GOP.
Back in the 50s and 60s, National Review regularly asserted that MLK Jr. was a conscious Communist agent, taking his orders directly from Moscow. When African Americans were subjected to terror bombings, NR suggested that the perpetrators were not white racists, but black Communist saboteurs.
Schiffren is just carrying on the proud traditions of a noble publication. While Republicans wonder why those silly Negroes insist on voting Democrat.
Whoa, Lisa Schiffren could give Lulu a run for her money in the psychotic-bitch department.
If that’s what the Right is trotting out against Obama, they are in sad, sad shape. (I think I knew that already.)
Also… sniflheim, you caused some serious beverage inhalation just now.
You gotta hand it to the Republicans — they’re nothing if not creative. (Too bad they never use that creativity to govern the country well, but that’s another issue.) See, they’re not talking about race — they’re talking about Communism. ‘Cause no one ever falls in love with someone of another race unless it’s politically motivated. And you’d better not level “cheap accusations of racism” at them, because this isn’t about race! It’s about Communism.
I predict Obama will soon be labeled the antichrist in some circles.
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So we have at least two “news”/opinion types who both managed to dredge up from the distant past a “commie red” angle on the same day. Sounds like the Repug noise machine is up and working in fine form.
This all sounds like Karl Rove has found something to do while he’s not spending time with his family. It will get worse. The intent is NOT to make any charges that can stick, the purpose is to get Obama off-message. None of the crap will come from McCain directly. But ‘they’ will try to get Obama to respond directly.
What needs to happen is a rapid overwhelming response every freeking time. But NOT from Obama. He has to stay on message, not waste time explaing thet he is not communist, not racist, does not have an ingrown toenail or whatever other wierd story the wingnuts can dream up.But stay with me; the charges can NOT be ignored and almost never should be addressed by the candidate. Or he will spend the whole campaign there.
The blogosphere is one army (gang) of shock troops. The Obama campaign would do well to open lines of communucation not to use the liberal blogs but to be a source for them. Barbara is an independent; Obama (or Clinton) has to respect that as a universal characteristic of liberal blogs. Unlike many wingnut blogs, liberal bloggers won’t be fed talking points and surrender their analysis.
But Barbara has engaged the wingnuts today for a blatent false and mean-spirited attack. That’s how the war should be waged, regardless of who the Democratic candidate is. Kudos, Maha.
Where do I go to get my “Proud to be a Fellow Traveler” button?
So people like me who got to be mixed race because some of my ancestors got off on doing some of my other ancestors whom the first set just happened to own are okay?
It’s heating up, folks..I read today in separate articles about reminders of Hillary’s extremely successful excursion into the cattle futures market, and McCain’s zeal in helping out his old amigo Charlie Keating. It’s strange how unsatisfactorily resolved questions still have the power to alter perceptions and do damage when brought to mind after all these years. It should be interesting to see what skeletons get dragged out of the closet in the coming months.
pluky : So people like me … are OK?
Yes.
grannyeagle — that has already happened. I googled Barack Obama yesterday and the first two references were to his campaign web site, the third was to an anti Obama site (which meme I forget) but the fourth one was “Obama: the Antichrist.”
“It should be interesting to see what skeletons get dragged out of the closet in the coming months.” That comment from Swami hours before the McScandal broke. Your crystal ball(s) are aligned with the cosmos, I think.
>BTW, those Gen-Xers who think the ruination of American politics came about at the hands of Baby Boomers — read up on the late 1940s and early 1950s, folks. That’s when it went crazy, IMO.
I am a Gen-Xer, and I whole-heartedly agree with you on this statement. Our generation and Gen Y really do need to read I.F. Stone’s Nonconformist History series.
Stone always gets credited for the truest, most concise dictum ever to reporters, “Governments lie”, but he really does need to be more widely recognized for this other relevant observation on modern American life: “Nothing is more dangerous than weak men who think they are tough guys.”