Left-Wing Establishment Cheers Wright's "Brilliance"

I noted in my earlier entry, "Obama Defends Wright on ABC's "The View"," how Barack Obama's now backing away from his already tepid criticisms of Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

Obama argued yesterday that Wright was a "brilliant" man whose entire "context" was being ignored by a focus on thirty seconds out of Wright's decades of preaching.

Well, fine, but that same thirty seconds has been defended ad nauseum as "brilliant" by the radical-left's identity mavens, according to Victor Davis Hanson in his incisive post this morning (via Memeorandum):

Watching the parade of apologists for Rev. Wright’s hatred—“garlic noses”; “KKK of A;” “God Damn America;” “Condamnesia;” the U.S. deserved 9/11; America is no different from al-Qaeda; we caused the AIDs virus; Israel is a “dirty word” and sought an Arab and black ethnic bomb, etc—is, well, depressing. Instead of offering distance from Wright, far too many African-American professors and pastors interviewed on the cable stations the last few nights instead praised his brilliance and inspiration.

At best, there was a feeble ‘you just don’t get it’ about the venting and wink-and-nod culture of the black church. But the net message from the African-American liberal establishment, at least I fear, seems to be something like the following: ‘Wright is not going to offer an apology and we aren’t embarrassed about his ranting, which is not ranting at all, but rather historical and biblical exegesis which we endorse. And the problem is yours, not ours, since we expect exemption—given the history of race in this country—from your so-called norms of public discourse.’

That's perfect!

If you cruise around the radical blogosphere, you'll find a cheering section for Wright's views. Far from denouncing him, Democrats and leftists argue Wright's hate sermons represent fundamental truths about America's evil.

For example, check out this from Dr. Biobrain:

I didn't want to watch any YouTube clips of him [Wright] saying these controversial things. Why bother? Guilt by Association is a pile of crap and I failed to see why Obama should be held responsible for what his pastor said. It's obvious Obama doesn't believe these things, so the whole thing was little more than just a smear against him and a blessed distraction for his two opponents....

I kept hearing about how his pastor had blamed America for 9/11 and had spent all my time insisting that it wasn't relevant to Obama. Apparently, Carpetbagger did the same thing. And then he actually saw the YouTube clip and felt as stupid as I did. Because I agreed with just about everything the guy said. In fact, not only have I been saying the same stuff, but feel that any liberal who isn't saying this stuff doesn't deserve to call themselves a liberal. This stuff is just a no-brainer [emphasis added].

It's a "no brainer" that Wright's hatred should be standard left-wing Democratic Party talking points?

Note something here: Dr. Biobrain's an alternate delegate for Barack Obama in Austin, Texas. So here we have a hard-left activist and Texas Democratic Party official saying the Jeremiah Wright's sermons are the standard of what a true "liberal" should be.

Dr. Biobrain's specifically cited Wright's sermon from April 2003, which included the following indictment of the U.S. government:

“The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes three-strike laws and wants them to sing God Bless America.

“No! No No!

“God damn America … for killing innocent people.

“God damn America for threatening citizens as less than humans.

“God damn America as long as she tries to act like she is God and supreme.”

But note further the statements from Wright's sermon at Howard University's Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel on Jan. 15, 2006 (via Ronald Kessler):

"We've got more black men in prison than there are in college," he began. "Racism is alive and well. Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run. No black man will ever be considered for president, no matter how hard you run Jesse [Jackson] and no black woman can ever be considered for anything outside what she can give with her body...."

"America is still the No. 1 killer in the world. . . . We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns, and the training of professional killers . . . We bombed Cambodia, Iraq and Nicaragua, killing women and children while trying to get public opinion turned against Castro and Ghadhafi . . . We put [Nelson] Mandela in prison and supported apartheid the whole 27 years he was there. We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God...."

"We supported Zionism shamelessly while ignoring the Palestinians and branding anybody who spoke out against it as being anti-Semitic. . . . We care nothing about human life if the end justifies the means. . . ."

"We started the AIDS virus . . . We are only able to maintain our level of living by making sure that Third World people live in grinding poverty. . . ."

Reverend Wright has made numerous sermons with such denunciations, and for this he's called brilliant by the African-American liberal establishment? Not only that, Wright's hatred is so basic to left-wing ideology and politics that it's a "no brainer" for genuine leftist advocates?

Perhaps this explains why, on one hand, polls find a huge majority of the general population holding Wright's blame-America hatred as "racially divisive," while on the other, the Wright affair has not hurt Obama’s standing among Democratic partisans.

Wright's comments are endorsed by members of the far-left establshment, as well as some Democratic Party activists. This is the electoral base of today's Democratic Party. On issues of race and the war, progressive politics has moved dramatically to the left of the ideological spectrum.

I'll have more on this in upcoming posts on contempary left-wing radicalism and election '08.

See also, "No Enemies on the Left? Progressives for Barack Obama."