The Institutional Media characterizes the Obama-Ayers relationship as having lived in the same Chicago neighborhood and that they served on a "charity board" together.
That "Charity" was the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. And up until recently, no one in the Institutional Media were even bringing up the subject. Certainly the candidate for the longest time only referred to him as "a guy who lives in my neighborhood."
In the political campaign, this is playing out with the McCain campaign linking Obama and the domestic terrorist, and Obama and the Institutional Media proposing the story line that the two have just crossed paths.
But Socialist Steve Diamond, who has been on this story from the beginning, says that both narratives obscure the real story.
That real story is the ball the Times must hide because it leads inevitably to the conclusion that the fundamental political world view of Ayers, not his tactical foray into bombings for a few years, is influencing the Obama candidacy. That is a conclusion the New York Times is likely well aware of - because I have patiently explained it to three of their reporters, including Michael Powell and Scott Shane - and because if you know where to look and whom to ask, and I think we can conclude they have the resources to look wherever and ask whomever they wish, the influence is clear.
Now as Diamond points out, Ayers is a neo-Stalinist
Neo-stalinism is an authoritarian form of politics which attempts to control and build social institutions to impose state control of the economy, politics and culture on the general population.
And the "charity" on whose board Obama sat was an "education program" whose goals were the promotion of "authoritarian politics through our public school system".
Four key tactics that Ayers supports in order to help implement his world view are
- the creation of "local school councils" (LSCs) like those that Ayers has promoted in Chicago for the last 20 years;
- "small schools" which Ayers has also promoted since the early 1990s in Chicago and elsewhere;
- the advocacy of what Ayers and others call "social justice" teaching; and
- the payment of reparations through education spending to correct what he has seen for 40 years as the fundamentally racist nature of American society.
The Chicago Annenberg Challenge, the "charity" upon whose board Obama sat supported
the very same four policies so critical to Ayers political strategy:
- promotion of local school councils,
- financial support for small schools,
- promotion of a "social justice" teaching agenda, and
- a race based approach to education policy.
Given this, and given Senator Obama's relationship with the Trinity United Church of Christ, and the Black Liberation Theology of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, it is reasonable to assume that these relationships are not isolated or casual.
And it just so happens that Louis Farrakhan, racist preacher of the Nation of Islam, is a friend of Rev Wright and also lives in Senator Obama's neighborhood.
Huh.
Calling the Chicago Annenberg Challenge a "charity" is, at best, being charitable.
At worst, it is downright misleading.
Update: Ed Morrissey has more
