Mr. Obama: A Competent President

Rope and Chains

If many people have styled President Obama as incompetent, they can be forgiven for their error; they are thinking that a robust economy and a position of strength in foreign policy are his objectives.  They are traditional Americans.  But seen from a Marxist point of view (the President's and that of his ardent Jacobin cohort) he has been extremely -- perhaps, spectacularly -- successful.  He has further divided America along  lines of race and class, hardened the ideology and dogma of the Left, increasingly marginalized capitalism in the public mind, and, by straining the economy to the point of collapse, he has set the stage for socialist revolution.  The uprising of the masses against the bourgeoisie that historicism demands.  He has succeeded beyond the dreams, so long unrealized, of Marxists planners who have so often been disappointed. [1]

Am I suggesting that a Marxist revolution is at hand?  No, but it is not beyond imagining.  It is well to remember that relatively tiny groups of anarchists (pace OWS) and true believers acting in concert and favorably reported by media can be enormously disruptive.  Add in a few Jihadis (allies of convenience), looters, arsonists and snipers up against ineptly led law enforcement and we have the makings of a perfect storm.  But, no, that's not my chief concern.  It's the cumulative damage that worries me most.

If one relies on government-school textbooks, he is given the impression that the Progressive movement had its origins in America -- a response to the Panic of 1873, the rural migration to cities, exploited labor, the plight of hard-scrabble farmers and discrimination against blacks.  As in so many cases, there is some truth in that narrative.  What is seldom mentioned is the intellectual history of Progressivism, dating from Rousseau and the French Revolution through Lenin, Marx and Engels.  The orthodox mischaracterization of  the McCarthy era has made it fashionable to laugh off the perils of communist conspiracy, allowing that there is no threat to America; to think otherwise is a certain sign of paranoia.  Records made available after the fall of the Soviet Union, however, not only vindicate the suspicions of the wary but make plain that they had seriously underestimated the encroachment of Marxist thought throughout American society and government. [2]

What is important in the context of this essay is the fact that the Marxist assault on American institutions and intellect is incremental and cumulative, systematic, well-funded and organized, and, most of all, unrelenting.  Mr. Obama is instrumental in this assault, and if he is unable (rather than unwilling) to de-stabilize the nation in a bid to hold power, he has already made great strides in a long march.  His acolytes in academia, entertainment and media, already enchanted by his ideas, rhetoric, extra-constitutional rule, and contempt for the public will be emboldened in promoting Marxist thinking and the familiar (USSR, China, Venezuela) cult of personality.  Worse perhaps, ordinary citizens, who may at first have been put-off by his extreme ideas, may come to accept them -- if not personally -- as legitimate elements of American debate.  Incremental creep.  No, Mr. Obama is not incompetent.

9/9/12.  My thanks to Doug Ross @ Journal for his kindness in linking this essay.

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1.  Bemoaning the various failures of CPUSA and the Progressive movements to vitiate capitalism and civil society, George Novack offers an analysis (published in the International Socialist Review) of strategic and tactical errors dating from the 1870's.  Two points are worth noting: praise for the success of John Dewey, et. al., in the Progressive shaping of American institutions, and his view (from 1956) that "...penetrating and transforming the Democratic party is unrealistic..."  On the second point, it is now clear that the Marxist mainstream has definitively proved him wrong.
2.  The body of work on this subject, though commanding little attention from legacy media, is considerable.  To readers who want to learn more I recommend for, starters, Paul Kengor's Dupes.  On the web Paul Weston's series of articles is instructive, well-written and concise.