Sunday, November 1, 2009

Moral Philosopher For The Democrats

Obama presidential adviser and communications director Anita Dunn recently made a speech in which she cited Mao Zedong (or Mao Tse-Tung, or Mousey Dung) as one of her favorite philosophers. And the speech wasn't in front of a crowd of jaded college students or SEIU members. She spoke to a gathering of high school students. She told them that Mao is one of the two people she turns to most for political guidance.

We expect college professors and radical politicians to say idiotic things like that. But this speech is one of a long series of appearances by Obama officials which frequently sound like organizational meetings of the Communist Party USA. For a man who ran for president as a moderate/liberal, Obama seems to have a very strong affinity for choosing national spokesmen and czars who are of a far left bent.

Part of Dunn's responsibility as an official and as an adult speaking to impressionable youth is not to make outrageous statements cloaked as serious discussion. One of those important responsibilities is to tell young people about past leaders who have advanced humanity, protected human rights, supported freedom and exalted the human spirit. From liberal to conservative, we disagree on who the most important of those leaders are, but choosing between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton is not the same as choosing among Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and Mao Zedong.

If you had told me in my most radical days that an official spokesman for the president of the United States would cite one of the worst mass murderers and destroyers of freedom in all of history as a philosophical guide, I would have told you that you were nuts. So used to talking leftist nonsense to her colleagues, Dunn was apparently surprised at the widespread negative reaction to her choice of moral guides. With the help of the mainstream media, she quickly tried to explain that it was "a joke." Some joke.

Nobody who attended the speech or later heard the audio or saw the video seemed to see anything that indicated that her comments were a joke. She took what she was saying very seriously, and expected the students to do so as well. She also forgot to include anything that might exculpate her later by failing to point out that she spoke to the students for the purpose of teaching them that choices produce consequences, and some choices are simply not acceptable in a free society. You like Obama? Great. You like Bush? Great. You like Mao, Stalin or Hitler? You don't belong in a civilized society. Even the far-out Beatles saw that in their song Revolution: "But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you're not going to make it with anyone anyhow." So, Ms. Dunn, tell us where the joke is.

Multiculturalism also seems to play a part in Dunn's world view. She couldn't find any epochal American hero-philosophers who weren't white (that's because she didn't look very hard), and in order to make everyone feel good, she needed to find one from a very non-white society. Hence, Mao. So, was the joke on the students, on the public, on the Chinese--who? Absolutely no explanation of her choice of one of the most vicious mass-murderers in history can justify her statement either seriously or as a joke, except one. She really believes that Mao belongs in her pantheon.

Oh. Her other favorite? Mother Teresa. A fine choice indeed, although it would mean that Dunn can't distinguish between good and evil, piety and oppression, gentleness and viciousness, tenderness and violence. Which just might be the other possible explanation for Dunn's choices. She's just plain crazy.


16 comments:

HamiltonsGhost said...

Lawhawk--The more things change, the more they stay the same. The radicals are temporarily in power, so that's a change. Their core beliefs haven't changed. But it seems that Mao has replaced Marx and Lenin as the great philosopher. That's change you can believe in.

Anonymous said...

HamiltonsGhost: I couldn't have said it any better. A communist is a communist is a communist, so it doesn't really matter which mass murderer you choose to praise "jokingly." Same crap, different package.

AndrewPrice said...

I'll bet she was surprised at the outrage. She sounds intensely ignorant. I'll bet she doesn't even know what Mao did to his people.

In related news, did you see that Putin made it illegal to equate Stalin with Hitler? So much for free speech. . . or truth.

DCAlleyKat said...

Self-indulgence will get you every time, and it's getting to be quite familiar as we watch the left in power...they so desperately want to be. The more the Obamatons appear in public the more their lunacy is displayed. Even Obama can't keep a tight enough lid to keep these people from scrutiny, from Van Jones to Dunn to Michelle's payroll...this administration is in trouble. I think the hope and change thingie may have backfired!

BevfromNYC said...

The big issue that is going to haunt them is their misguided idea of "transparency".

Valerie Jarrett is another misguided soul. Her explanation for going after Fox News was the WH was just "speaking truth to power". Huh?? And here I always thought the WH was the "power" not a television station. That is a change, now isn't it. How did Barack managed to gather such a confederacy of dunces around him?

Anonymous said...

Andrew: Ignorance is a hallmark of the allegedly educated denizens of the Obama administration.

And Hitler and Stalin shouldn't be compared. Their mustaches were entirely different.

Anonymous said...

DCAlleyKat: I don't want to tell you how many times I've heard moderate/liberals ask "where were the vetters?" Well, the chief vetter resides in the White House. He can play the game all he wants, but these radical nutcases are his soulmates.

Anonymous said...

Bev: Bev: The mindless repetition of leftist slogans is a symptom of the disease that affects Obama's administration. It's a form of political tourette's syndrome. Speaking truth to power makes absolutely no sense when you are more in power than any president in recent memory. A comfortable majority, and two heavily Democratic houses of Congress. How much more power do they want? Wait, don't answer that question.

As for transparency, this is the most opaque government in my lifetime. 1900 pages of backroom dealing that will destroy the American economy. And that's just the health disaster bill. By transparency, Obama really means "sleight of hand."

Writer X said...

She tries to explain it away as a joke? Wow. What I find amazing is that this woman actually holds the title of "communications director."

Another nutjob running a piece of the asylum. What makes it worse is that she doesn't have the courage to defend her own convictions. Makes you wonder what else she's lying about.

Anonymous said...

WriterX: You know the old joke. "How can you tell if they're lying?" "Their lips are moving."

I'm truly convinced that this cadre of crypto-communists who surround Obama spend almost all their time chatting with each other and like-minded radicals in the universities. It really shocks them to find out that outside their incestuous circle other people may not only disagree, but vehemently disagree.

As for the courage of her convictions, the Obamists have plenty of convictions (civil and criminal), but courage is a trait entirely missing from this administration.

StanH said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
StanH said...

I’m not a Svengali, but this is the kind of thing that I expected. Mao is a catch phrase that to them means anything not American. In every fiber of their beings they hate this country, and if you ask why? …you’ll get the normal radical tripe. The part that really irritates me is this is what the press is suppose to expose, why not? …because they believe the same worn out tripe. It’s like a dumbass kid wearing a Che shirt. They have no idea who Che is and what he did. This is what we’re up against people, envious, overeducated, spoiled brats, that don’t know when they’ve got it good. Anita Dunn is a walking talking symptom of exactly how radical “Barry” and his Marxist myrmidons are, vigilance is required, these people are dangerous.

Anonymous said...

StanH: Their argument is always that we have not fulfilled the American dream (their version), and that fundamentally transforming the nation means instituting their pseudo-educated version of what the Founders wanted. After all, it doesn't mention "capitalism" in the Constitution, does it? Of course, the least bit of reading of history, and it's exactly what they were talking about, among other important things. When you have complete socialism, who needs the "right to contract?" The government will take care of our every need, and we'll all be sedated, happy drones.

Obama's crew is located somewhere between the gang that couldn't shoot straight and the neo-Bolsheviks. Either way they're dangerous, as you said.

StanH said...

The American dream requires effort, hard work, moxy, intelligence. You have to accept the challenge of a free life, and this requires taking risks, and invariably, failure. This is the very thing that makes this country great, it forces people to strive to be the best. This is the entrepreneurial spirit that gives us American Exceptionalism. There are so many people in this country that are willing to give up their freedoms for perceived security. This false sense of entitlement, gives us Anita Dunn, Van Joneses of the world espousing the virtues of Mao. We have a lot of work to do

DCAlleyKat said...

StanH: There are so many people in this country that are willing to give up their freedoms for perceived security. This false sense of entitlement, gives us Anita Dunn, Van Joneses of the world espousing the virtues of Mao. We have a lot of work to do.

We certainly do have a lot of work to do! I am so thankful that people have become awakened and are seeing, perhaps for the first time, that there really are people that want to destroy our way of life that aren't Muslim fanatics in some far off land. They are our fellow citizens indoctrinated in slave state ism's and worshipping at the feet of Mao, Stalin, Che,etc.

Individualist said...

If I wanted to I could float off the desk like a bubble. So long as you and I both perceive that is so then it is so.

...

He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.

Obrien from the book 1984


I guess after Mao kills them Mother Theresa parys for their souls. She is a compassionate communist then.

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