Monday, September 13, 2010

I Wish Newt Gingrich and Dinesh D'Souza Were Right!

Today, Morning Joe reported that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told the National Review that President Obama follows a "Kenyan, anti-colonial" worldview. To support his ridiculous argument, Newt Gingrich cited a so-called "insightful" article by Dinesh D'Souza. Gingrich's statement is despicable. When I heard about it, I thought, "Here we go again." Clearly, Gingrich was pandering to Birthers, Tea Party extremists and other fringe lunatics by portraying Obama as a radical, socialist foreigner. Later, I read the two news articles mentioned in the story.

In his Forbes article, conservative Dinesh D'Souza asserts that Obama is fulfilling his father's "anticolonialist" dreams. D'Souza wrote:

"Anticolonialists hold that even when countries secure political independence they remain economically dependent on their former captors. This dependence is called neocolonialism, a term defined by the African statesman Kwame Nkrumah (1909--72) in his book Neocolonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism. Nkrumah, Ghana's first president, writes that poor countries may be nominally free, but they continue to be manipulated from abroad by powerful corporate and plutocratic elites...This was the anticolonial ideology of Barack Obama Sr. and many in his generation, including many of my own relatives in India..."

"From the anticolonial perspective, American imperialism is on a rampage. For a while, U.S. power was checked by the Soviet Union, but since the end of the Cold War, America has been the sole superpower. Moreover, 9/11 provided the occasion for America to invade and occupy two countries, Iraq and Afghanistan, and also to seek political and economic domination in the same way the French and the British empires once did. So in the anticolonial view, America is now the rogue elephant that subjugates and tramples the people of the world."

"It may seem incredible to suggest that the anticolonial ideology of Barack Obama Sr. is espoused by his son, the President of the United States. That is what I am saying...He came to view America's military as an instrument of neocolonial occupation. He adopted his father's position that capitalism and free markets are code words for economic plunder. Obama grew to perceive the rich as an oppressive class, a kind of neocolonial power within America. In his worldview, profits are a measure of how effectively you have ripped off the rest of society, and America's power in the world is a measure of how selfishly it consumes the globe's resources and how ruthlessly it bullies and dominates the rest of the planet."

Those two articles confirmed my initial impression. However, in some respects, I wish Gingrich and D'Souza were right. If Obama was anticolonialist, he would have immediately withdrew all U.S. troops from Afghanistan and Iraq. Instead requiring citizens to purchase private health insurance from avaricious companies, Obama would fought for a single payer health care system. If Obama was an anticolonialist, he would not have bailed out the Wall Street. Instead, he would have bailed out Main Street by imposing an immediate moratorium on foreclosures. If Obama was an anticolonialist, instead of lecturing Africans about nepotism, corruption, democracy and the rule of law, Obama would have demanded reparations for slavery and colonialism.  In college, I studied Kwame Nkrumah and Frantz Fanon.  Obama is no Nkrumah.  He is no Fanon.

As always, I welcome your comments.


10 comments:

  1. Newt is no historian or he would have know the Luo were not a part of the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya. That's why I say Newt - a slimy idiot with a PHD

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  2. Rawdawgbuffalo,
    Thanks for commenting. I checked out your blog. I agree. Great article. I'm going to add your blog to my list.

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  3. Mr Asaka:

    Did Newt Gingrich say that Obama was born anywhere other than the USA? How then is this an appeal to the "Birthers"?

    Do you find it ironic that the very CONNECTIVITY that we as Black people were told to maintain with regard to the past and present struggle of our people in the Diaspora is now being disassociated because Newt Gingrich and D'Sousa have put forth a hypothesis that Obama is mindful of the oppression suffered by the Kenyans and he seeks to check the global powers that were guilty of executing the centuries of oppression?

    I guess I'll have to wait until John Perkins ("Economic Hitman") is interviewed on Democracy Now to get his viewpoint on the notion that someone is taunting Obama for being shaped by actual events from history.

    Seriously man - I wonder what else a conservative might trigger you to distance yourself from.

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  4. Feedback...Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I am not saying that one should negate or deny Obama's connection to the Motherland. All Africans should be proud of their heritage. However, although Gingrich did not explicitly state that Obama was foreigner, Gingrich was implicitly supporting the Birther narrative. By stating that Obama has a "Kenyan anticolonialist" worldview, Gingrich is basically attempting to alienate Obama from the American people. Such demagoguery feeds the xenophobic segments of American society. Gingrich is essentially asserting that Obama is not one of "us".

    In addition, Gingrich and D'Souza are dead wrong. Obama's father had a nominal role in Obama's life. Finally, Obama's policies are far from socialist or anti-imperialist.

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  5. [quote]Obama has a "Kenyan anticolonialist" worldview, Gingrich is basically attempting to alienate Obama from the American people.[/quote]

    I don't see the "mutual exclusivity" OR offensiveness of having an ANTI-COLONIST viewpoint.

    If a president self-proclaimed the title of "Pro-Israel" would this cause the same stain upon him in the eyes of the people that you fear as they throw around the label "Pro-Kenyan"?

    If there is one frustration that I have with "Progressives who are Black" it is that they/you confine yourselves to a "transaction by transaction" stance rather than a holistic view. If you can get "punked" about standing by Obama's ancestral home land what else can your right wing adversary cause you to vacate next?

    [quote]Gingrich and D'Souza are dead wrong. Obama's father had a nominal role in Obama's life. [/quote]

    This is IRRELEVANT. Obama documents his search for his father. His father has a long paper trail as an economics professor. One only needs to look at the leftists that Obama seems to find favorable company with to bear this out.

    [quote]
    Finally, Obama's policies are far from socialist or anti-imperialist.
    [/quote]

    Can you say that the "Black Progressive Establishment" policies that dominates our communities and which Obama has at his core develop ORGANIC COMPETENCIES upon our people - OR is the push for "social justice" merely a vector by which the government nationalizes more of our living standards?

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  6. Feedback,

    You condemn the "Black Progressive Establishment" for nationalizing our living standards. What have progressives nationalized? Nothing. What has the Republican Party or the Tea Party done for the Black community in the last 50 years? Nothing.

    The term "anticolonialist" is not inherently offensive. However, in D'Souza's article, the term is used as an insult, not as a compliment. It is used to assert that Obama is socialist who is undermining America's standing in the world. In desperation, the Right has resorted to "red baiting" and "race baiting" to prevent Democrats from advancing a relatively progressive agenda.

    Yes. Obama searched for his father. Nonetheless, college and community organizing helped shaped Obama's views. His mother and grandparents played a far greater role in shaping his views than his absent father.

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  7. Bravo! A little anti-colonial sentiment -- something that some rather revered Founding Fathers thought was important (at least for white people) would be a good thing these days.

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  8. Janinsanfran,
    Thanks for sharing your comments. I agree with you. Anti-colonial sentiment is obviously a good thing.

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  9. Wow, now I know why CS/CF hasn't been dumping his cyber feces on field-negro's blog lately.

    Anson, you're one articulate guy but please don't cast your pearls before swine(CF/CS).

    He doesn't want an honest exchange of ideas just to fustrate you and have you waste your mental energy trying to make his warped posts coherent.

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