The Disappointment of Colin Powell
From Mark Levin over at NRO’s The Corner:
I want to introduce Colin Powell to Nyack police Sgt. Edward O’Grady, Officer Waverly “Chipper” Brown, and Brinks security guard Peter Paige. Powell may want to downplay Bill Ayers’s relationship with Barack Obama, but he does so out of ignorance and expediency. Obama knew about Ayers when he befriended him and throughout their relationship right up until the time it became an issue a few months ago. And keep in mind, Ayers wishes he and his fellow Weather Underground terrorists could have done more damage than murdering these three men. I have no respect left for Powell. None.
There is something very defective in American politics where anyone who comes within a country mile of someone like Ayers could be elected dog catcher, let alone be a step away from President of the United States of America. But this is, also, the fruit of poisoned tree of liberalism - poisoned by the New Left back in the 1960’s.
We’ve allowed a lot of nonsense to seep into our political life - and given the amount of tax dollars we spend on colleges, universities and various public groups, the really sad thing is that we “Joe the Plumber” sorts of Americans have heavily subsidized the “Bill the Terrorist” sort of Americans. They are rich, entrenched in the heights of American culture and twisting our laws and customs into unrecognizable shape on our dime. And the final insult to this self-inflicted injury is that by allowing them to rise in our institutions, we have given them a patina of respectability. I won’t go as far as Levin on Obama - my view is that Obama simply didn’t know any better and was unequipped by training to even get curious about who was advising and supporting him in his rise to power - after all, people like Ayers, like all leftists throughout history, talk a great game of liberty and justice, and only someone well versed in leftwing thinking understands that they leave off the “for all” part of that.
For people like Ayers - and their pupils, like Obama - liberty means the freedom to be a leftists. Justice means leftists win, all the time. To accord liberty and justice to non-leftists is to give them something they don’t deserve, as they are the roadblocks on the path to utopia. This is why we’re seeing a renewed demand for the so-called “fairness doctrine”, which will be a tool to force conservatives off the radio; this is why we see attempts at using the courts to censor conservative criticism of Obama, because to criticize Obama is to be evil, because Obama is a good leftist; this is why we see stories about holding war crimes tribunals for President Bush and his Administration, because they are non-leftist, and are thus evil and must be punished. For Obama and his like, freedom means the freedom to praise Obama and his like in any manner we choose, and that’s all.
For Colin Powell to not recognize who Obama is or who those around him are is to reveal a stunning level of political blindness - Powell is essentially throwing his support to those who called him and his like “baby killers” in Vietnam. And before you think, “well, that was a long time ago”, remember that Obama, himself, opined that all we were doing in the war is bombing villages and killing civilians. Obama is the good student of his New Left teachers - he’s bought it all; and Powell - out of who knows what motivation - has decided to endorse the folly of Obama and the wickedness of Ayers.
22 comments October 22nd, 2008
