Obama's "New New Left" Ideology -- And It Won't Go Away If He Loses In November

Barack Obama is not a Communist, a fascist, a Muslim, a Marxist, a Progressive (in the pre-1920s' meaning of that word, before it just became a cover for Communists and other leftists), or even a socialist.
Barry Rubin

Barry Rubin writes about the attempt to pigeonhole Obama -- to pinpoint just what his politics are, and what his actual goals are as president. He writes that many of the categories that pundits try to fit Obama into are just not adequate, even granted that Obama is on the far left. Instead, according to Rubin, Barack Obama Is A Dangerous Leftist of a New Kind, not a Communist, Muslim, Marxist, or Socialist, an ideology he refers to as the New New Left (NNL).

After drawing a number of key distinctions and contrasts, Rubin gets to the heart of the matter:

So what are we dealing with here? A radical leftist movement pretending to be liberal, growing out of the New Left of the 1960s, painfully aware of how the far left miserably failed in American history, and trying to create a twenty-first century stealth leftism. The first step was to gain hegemony in the key institutions that created ideas, rather than the factories that created material goods. They succeeded brilliantly.

The next step was to shape millions of Americans, especially young Americans, to accept their ideas that the United States was a force for evil in the world; a failed society; a place of terrible racism and hatred for women; a country where the vast majority didn’t have a fair chance because the system was unfair. In fact, if you take away the varnish rhetoric, they argue that America is a virtual dictatorship of a small minority of wealthy people who just set everything up for their own convenience. Obviously this parallels both Marxist and non-Marxist historical leftism.

The fact that their description of America has so little to do with the actual country makes it all the more impressive that they’ve been able to sell this set of ideas. Having one of their indoctrinated products become president was a special bonus. That doesn’t mean Obama was backed by some conspiracy or singled out for highest office. There are thousands of such people who are in positions of power, including one-third of the Democrats in the House of Representatives. Obama just perfectly fit the needs of the moment.

Read the whole thing.

The ideology of the NNL goes beyond Obama. Thus, even if Obama were to lose come November, the far left has so permeated the mass media, academia, schools, and much of publishing and entertainment world that there would be no change in these institutions.

Similarly, even without Obama, the Democratic Party will likely remain the same, barring a truly jarring defeat at the polls and the willingness to push back against what has become the status quo.

But first let's concentrate on November.

-----

If you found this post interesting or informative, please it below. Thanks!

Technorati Tag: Obama and Election 2012.