{"id":867,"date":"2008-10-28T13:06:24","date_gmt":"2008-10-28T17:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/?p=867"},"modified":"2008-10-28T13:07:03","modified_gmt":"2008-10-28T17:07:03","slug":"be-afraid-be-very-afraid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/28\/be-afraid-be-very-afraid\/","title":{"rendered":"Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Be afraid, be very afraid… In all the furor over Barack Obama’s 2001 remarks on redistribution<\/a> we missed a larger more frightening point. Take a look the transcript of Sen. Obama’s remarks (emphasis mine):<\/p>\n

If you look at the victories and failures of the civil rights movement and its litigation strategy in the court, I think where it succeeded was to invest formal rights in previously dispossessed people, so that now I would have the right to vote. I would now be able to sit at the lunch counter and order and as long as I could pay for it I\u2019d be OK<\/p>\n

But, the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth, and of more basic issues such as political and economic justice in society. To that extent, as radical as I think people try to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn’t that radical. It didn’t break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution, at least as it’s been interpreted, and the Warren Court interpreted in the same way, that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties. Says what the states can’t do to you. Says what the federal government can’t do to you, but doesn’t say what the federal government or state government must do on your behalf.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And that hasn’t shifted and one of the, I think, tragedies of the civil rights movement was because the civil rights movement became so court-focused I think there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalition of powers through which you bring about redistributive change. In some ways we still suffer from that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Barack Obama’s view of the Constitution and the role of the courts should scare the living daylights out of every American who understands that the Constitution is the sole and most important safeguard of our rights and our liberties.<\/p>\n

The framers intended the Constitution to be a limiting document, it is not a charter, it is the law of the land. Without it we are subjects, not citizens.<\/p>\n

Steven Calabresi has much more detailed look at Obama’s views on redistribution and the Constitution<\/a> in today’s Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Be afraid, be very afraid… In all the furor over Barack Obama’s 2001 remarks on redistribution we missed a larger more frightening point. Take a look the transcript of Sen. Obama’s remarks (emphasis mine): If you look at the victories and failures of the civil rights movement and its litigation strategy in the court, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[267,7],"tags":[47,57,268,269],"class_list":["post-867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-law","category-politics","tag-2008-elections","tag-barack-obama","tag-constitution","tag-redistribution","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfpI7-dZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":918,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/02\/audio-barack-obamas-cap-trade-policy-is-so-aggressive-it-will-bankrupt-coal-fired-plants\/","url_meta":{"origin":867,"position":0},"title":"Audio: Barack Obama’s Cap & Trade Policy is So Aggressive It Will Bankrupt Coal Fired Plants","author":"Jeff","date":"November 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"If Barack Obama's remarks wealth redistribution didn't scare you his remarks on energy policy should... In a January 2008 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle Sen. Obama said that he would impose a Cap & Trade system aggressive that it would bankrupt anyone trying to build a new coal powered\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":851,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/27\/barack-obama-socialist\/","url_meta":{"origin":867,"position":1},"title":"Barack Obama: Socialist","author":"Jeff","date":"October 27, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't know any other way to say it... Barack Obama is not your father's democrat he is a card carrying socialist. I don't care how much lipstick you put on it... There isn't a bit of difference between what Barack Obama said to Joe Wurzelbacher or what he says\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1929,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/16\/environmentalists-cap-and-trade-is-designed-to-drive-up-energy-costs-and-redistribute-wealth\/","url_meta":{"origin":867,"position":2},"title":"Environmentalists: ‘Cap-and-Trade’ Is Designed to Drive up Energy Costs and Redistribute Wealth","author":"Jeff","date":"April 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"From CNSNews.com: President Obama\u2019s \u201ccap and trade\u201d plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is specifically designed to drive up energy prices and redistribute wealth, according to a coalition of environmental, union, and liberal activist groups that is pushing for Congress to enact the proposal this year. The plan would also\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1580,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/02\/26\/barney-frank-this-weeks-biggest-idiot-on-capitol-hill\/","url_meta":{"origin":867,"position":3},"title":"Barney Frank: This Week’s Biggest Idiot on Capitol Hill","author":"Jeff","date":"February 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"From CNSNews.com: Mindless Republicans are heeding the iron discipline of conservative talk radio hosts Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, House Financial Services\u00a0Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) told reporters after President Barack Obama\u2019s address to the nation on Tuesday. \u201cI don\u2019t think we found any Republican minds today,\u201d Frank told a reporter\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3168,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2010\/01\/11\/harry-reid-racist-idiot\/","url_meta":{"origin":867,"position":4},"title":"Harry Reid: Racist Idiot","author":"Jeff","date":"January 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is under fire for remarks he made to reporters about then-presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008: Republicans called on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to resign his leadership post over remarks he made in 2008 about then-presidential candidate Barack Obama, adding to the Nevada Democrat's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3614,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/20\/in-search-of-their-creator\/","url_meta":{"origin":867,"position":5},"title":"In Search Of… Their Creator","author":"Jeff","date":"October 20, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"CNSNews is reporting this morning that \"For the second time in little over a month, President Barack Obama stripped the word \"Creator\" from the Declaration of Independence when giving a speech.\" There's just one minor problem here, this isn't second time the President omitted the word \"Creator\" from the Declaration\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}