MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

Barack Obama’s speech: Fine, if you’re from the Left, I guess

• Posted by Beth on March 18th, 2008 filed in 2008 election, Barack Obama, Candidates, General, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Moonbats, Politics   Jeremiah Wright · race · religion    

More platitudes:

Ironically, this quintessentially American – and yes, conservative – notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright’s sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.

Self-help is “quintessentially American” and conservative, but liberation theology or Marxism has little to nothing to do with “self-help.”

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright’s sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It’s that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country – a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old — is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know — what we have seen – is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope – the audacity to hope – for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

Is that the Reverend I see under the bus? Not quite, but if Barack Obama sees his basic theory as that our society is static, and that he’s wrong, why not seek out a pastor and theology that he sees as correct (as Oprah did years ago)?

In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds – by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.

There you go. Do you believe that acknowledging the very real legacy of discrimination–racism, sexism, bigotry, whatever-phobia–is best addressed by investing in the health, welfare and education of all children in the ways that Barack Obama supports? Does he support, for example, school choice and/or private school vouchers? Does he support, for example, a flatter, fairer tax system, which undeniably allows the disadvantaged poor to keep more of their own money? Or does he believe that we must “take care of” the disadvantaged by spending more on failing schools and raising taxes on those who provide jobs (”reverse the tax cuts”) to Americans AND middle-class Americans (what about that “renounce the middle class” thing?) so we can fund more government programs?

In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world’s great religions demand – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother’s keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister’s keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.

I don’t want the government to be “my keeper.” I can be my own keeper, thank you very much, and how is “be your brother’s keeper” consistent with “self-help,” anyway? This isn’t a government with programs based on selective Christian principles, anyway, is it? And if it is, why does Barack Obama support government actions that are so decidedly un-Christian? (Opposing a ban on partial birth abortion, for example, just to start.) His particular strain of Christianity simply isn’t the Christianity that most Christians–or Jews, or atheists, or anyone else–subscribes, anyway. Nor is Mitt Romney’s religion what most Americans believe, either, but the difference is, Mitt Romney didn’t ask us to accept his beliefs as part of how he has governed or would govern. Joe Lieberman is an Orthodox Jew, but he hasn’t asked anyone to accept his beliefs as part of how America should be run, either. And yes, John McCain is a Christian, but he doesn’t say we must be “our brother’s keeper” as justification for how he would govern. He believes that we do what we do because of our traditionally American values. Duty, honor, country. Independence. And yes, equality.

Of course, I don’t believe that Barack Obama thinks we should live under a theocracy, anyway. He does, however, believe in a theology that insists on social change–even revolution–to bring up the “oppressed.” In my eyes, this isn’t theology; it’s political ideology that uses Christian language (very selectively!) to support its theses.

This is ALL almost beside the point, anyway. Politics isn’t a zero-sum game. There’s more going on in the world than the legacy of discrimination; we can’t be focused solely on navel-gazing when there are other very pressing issues in America and the world that affect every American–and affect the entire planet, for that matter. Both Hillary Clinton and especially Barack Obama have consistently failed to recognize them, as is evidenced by their Senate records and during the campaign in pandering to their core supporters with their socialist ideals. Barack Obama in particular has chosen to focus on what he sees are the problems with oppressive America (”mean America”), and talked about “change,” rather than embracing what is right with America and where there are problems, finding NEW solutions to old problems. In the end, the only “change” he represents is a cosmetic change, and a much further leftward change from right now–but it’s still the same old Jimmy Carter politics: God damn America, it’s wrong unless it’s “fixed.” Fixed the Chicago Way.

[Previous posts]

UPDATE:
Fausta makes an excellent point:

Obama could have disavowed the church but chose instead to essentially say that rejecting Jeremiah Wright means rejecting the entire black community.

TUCC and Jeremiah Wright aren’t the entire black community, of course.

Here are just two (more)–make that five more–from whom you can find a different point of view.

UPDATE 2: Karl at Protein Wisdom examines Barack Obama’s religion and whether it matters. Excellent analysis, much more thorough than just giving links, as I’ve done.