Obama was a member of the "New Party"

It is looking like the choice of Mrs. Moosebreath was the beginning of the collapse of the McCain campaign. As of today he's ten points behind in Wisconsin and I don't think even the Bradley Effect can compensate for that. He really needed an expert on the economy for a running mate, not someone who's only talents seem to be giving birth over and over again and screeching.

Brooks decried Palin's anti-intellectualism and compared her to President Bush in that regard:

"He [Bill Buckley] thought it was important to have people on the conservative side who celebrated ideas, who celebrated learning. And his whole life was based on that, and that was also true for a lot of the other conservatives in the Reagan era. Reagan had an immense faith in the power of ideas. But there has been a counter, more populist tradition, which is not only to scorn liberal ideas but to scorn ideas entirely."

via Crunchy Con

Though I hate to even dignify the sort of smear tactic that most Americans are coming to see as the characteristic strategy of a campaign in its last throes trying to exploit the deep-seated racial prejudice that remains a underlying force in the US, socialism and Marxism are most definitely not the same thing. There might be some similarities both in terms of origins and ideology, but anyone with even a cursory knowledge of politics outside the United States should be able to point out that the label socialism applies to a wide ideological spectrum that, though it may include Marxism on one extreme end, certainly doesn't necessitate such a connection. Countries like Sweden and even Canada, though they may have certain socialist aspects to their political system, are not Marxist. Confirmation of this can also be found in Marx's own writings, where the socialism of his contemporaries is often the main target of trenchant critique. Not only that, but it is obvious to anyone who is capable of using the Internet to check things on their own, that applying the term socialist to The New Party is misleading at best.

In addition, the fact that Obama may have some sort of sympathy with a Marxist account of history or some form of socialism should not really be that troubling to someone writing from "a Reformed perspective." Perhaps the greatest American Reformed theologian of the twentieth century, Reinhold Niebuhr, was an ardent supporter of many socialist causes throughout his life. More recently, Nicholas Wolterstorff, a philosopher/theologian who is most certainly in the Reformed tradition laid out a number of ways in which Calvinism and Marxist accounts of history share much and might fruitfully engage in dialogue in his book, Until Justice and Peace Embrace.

The fact that you immediately without any discernment jump from a loose association between Obama and the New Party, a third party that may have loose socialist inclinations, to the proposition 'Obama=Marxist' is a perfect illustration of the dangers of conflating American civil religion with the Reformed tradition. Its also a bit disturbing to see someone who approaches politics from a Reformed perspective buying into the McCain campaign's recent efforts to try and exploit prejudice and paint Obama as an associate of Terrorists/Marxists/Muslims, etc.

I was recently at a McCain campaign event and the kind of things that were being thrown around about who Obama was were absolutely disgusting and showed the worst parts of America's political history. You may have seen some of this going around the internet lately as well with videos of people calling obama a terrorist or Muslim or using his middle name. Maybe there not coming from McCain or people in his campaign but it would be nice to see them move toward a way of campaigning that doesn't encourage this or at least come out and try to tell their supporters that this kind of junk should is inappropriate and needs to stop.

The thing about small "c" communists is that, as a general rule, they really don't have much love for this country. In fact, deep down, they're kinda like Ayers and Pfleger and Wright in their fundamental antipathy to what most people would consider to be basic American values (little things like independence, achievement, competition, entreprenuerialism, private property, national borders, patriotism . . . etc., etc.).

But golly, I guess no one here gives a sh*t!

For anyone interested in a run down of the "troubling associations," here's a good precis (in a British publication, of course) - and may the MSM be d*mned for refusing to vett - and more often than not actively WHITEWASHING - this guy's background.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/2178136/subversives-for-obama.thtml

fearmongers unite. and let's call ourselves republicans.

Today Cindy McCain was excoriating Obama for voting against funding the troops. She neglected to mention that her husband just received a grade of "D" from the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America for his lousy voting record on veterans' issues, including funding the troops, while Obama and Biden received B's. McCain repeatedly tried to block passage of the new G.I. Bill and then when it passed despite his opposition, tried to take credit for it. He missed 6 out of 9 of the votes on such issues in the last congressional year.

This is the kind of rank hypocrisy that is so characteristic of McCain and the Republicans in general. It frankly turns my stomach, especially as someone who grew up in the military and saw firsthand the kind of sacrifices military families make. I hope the truth of McCain's record on veterans' issues gets out there, loud and clear. People need to know that just as the Republican party has cynically used and abused religion and religious people for political ends, they are using and abusing the military and the flag.

Hey, Michele...what does the GOP have as a plan to help our economy? What do they have as a plan to resolve the trade imbalance? How about moving beyond petroleum and into alternative forms of energy?

No answer?

*crickets*

Yeah...thought so.

www.barackobama.com/index.php

McCain Ties to Nazi Collaborators and Ultra-Right-Wing Death Squads

Probably a fraud. No evidence except for some supposed deleted web page from twelve years ago? Why no MSM coverage? Wouldn't fox noise be all over this?

Forcing the guy to come clean about his basic political outlook is not an act of hatred or bigotry - and I'll venture to guess Obama's membership in an overtly socialist party are something most people would find highly relevant - yet the information in this report was SCRUBBED from several locations - it finally turned up in an out of the way internet cache for non-profits! The guy is doing everything in his power to prevent a full examination of his past. He flat out lied about his extensive prior involvement with Ayers - even CNN was forced to admit it, to the obvious chagrin of Cooper Anderson; he refuses to release a list of legal clients or the work he did for them; his Illinois Sentate records are missing; he won't release his bar application, senior thesis or his school records from Columbia or Harvard. This is stuff we ought to be entitled to see before a presidential election.

I just came across this at the Society for Biblical Literature (SBL) website, on English Bible translations; it seems related to our discussion here:

The Revised Standard Version (RSV)
This 1952 American revision of the ASV took further steps to modernize the language of the translation and to embrace textual criticism. ... Some of the changes to the text led to controversy as the translators, mostly SBL members, and their translation were deemed communist by Sen. Joseph McCarthy and others!

Imagine!

http://www.sbl-site.org/educational/bibleandcommentary.aspx

You're full of bull, Reaganite--and so was your hero, whose huge tax cuts for the wealthiest and resulting exploding deficits started us down the road to this disaster.

There is no way your Republicans are going to steal THIS election. You're toast.

But don't take my word for it. Go to www.fivethirtyeight.com or better yet, Intrade.

Only in your dreams, my dear.

Keep telling yourself that if it gets you through the day. McCain's camp is desperate and flailing, and at the rate they're going, they will be trounced soundly. That's just a fact.

While you're at it, get used to the phrases "President Obama" and "Vice President Biden", since you'll be hearing them a lot after November 4th.

"The polls are tightening, indeed, which may explain YellowDogNC's nasty temper this morning."

What bizarre masturbatory fantasy is hitting you today, Reaganite?

Research 2000 - Obama +10

Reuters/Zogby - Obama +4 (zogby.com/news/index.cfm)

Battleground - Obama +3 (www.tarrance.com/results.cfm)

Rasmussen - Obama +5 (www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/daily_presidential_tracking_poll)

Diageo/Hotline - Obama +6 (www.diageohotlinepoll.com/)

Gallup - Obama +11

Ipsos - Obama +7

These numbers are as of today, the 9th. Now maybe you are on the same drugs that make John McCain think that the fundamentals of our economy are still sound, or that people really give a rip about the Ayers matter. I don't know. But I would strongly suggest that you stop this behavior before you go totally blind.

"Liar, liar, liar! William Ayres and his terrorist bedmate, Bernadette Dorn, hosted B.O.'s first ever campaign event as a budding young Marxist candidate for state senate back in 1996."

you're uninformed, or misinformed. perhaps you need to stop hanging out in those lunatic fringe right-wing groups.

"The polls are tightening, indeed..."

actually, that's your butt-pucker that is tightening. hold on, reaganite, the republican party that ronald raygun destroyed with his "trickle down" deception is in for a bumpy ride!

several key swing states show obama breaking away from mccain in the polls. not only does he lead national opinion polls, he leads especially where it matters: on the electoral map.

"actually, that's your butt-pucker that is tightening. hold on, reaganite, the republican party that ronald raygun destroyed with his "trickle down" deception is in for a bumpy ride!"

Ah, yes...the demented old fossil who started us on this ride to economic failure. You really have to wonder, with all the stories about Reagan falling asleep at meetings, if that Alzheimers was really more of a factor earlier on in his administration.