Give the man his due. Barack Obama gave a very good speech on race relations.If race was the central issue in America today, it might have worked. Unfortunately, for Mr. Obama, that’s not the case.
If only Mr. Obama were equally honest about other challenges facing America. But, instead, woven within the speech, and throughout his campaign, is the standard, simplistic subtext of economic class warfare that has come to embody the Democratic party in the first quarter of the 21st century.
Obama bemoans how “black anger” and “white resentments” have “distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze…” he then turns quickly to the standard boogeyman of liberalism: corporate America.
We are told that the “real problem” facing America is that “the corporation you work for will ship it (your job) overseas for nothing more than a profit.”
Well, really now…if that corporation you are working for has to move jobs overseas in order to make a profit, can we really blame them? And, how would Mr. Obama suggest that they remain in America without making a profit?
The subtext reveals that Mr. Obama has indeed internalized a few things listening to Mr. Wright’s radical ‘liberation theology.” Unfortunately, what he has internalized is simply wrong.
Liberals hold tightly to a story that falls apart when viewed in the harsh light of objective evidence. Since 1776 and the publication of The Wealth of Nations, we have known that economic freedom and competition are the engines that drive the world forward.
It was not for nothing that Milton Friedman received the Nobel Prize. Yet, today’s Democrat party seems intent on turning the clock back to at least the 1930s.
Maybe an intelligent, honest discussion of how excessive regulation, high taxes, protectionism and a ludicrous litigation system have made it difficult for American companies to compete on the world market is in order.
It would be nice if Mr. Obama were to tackle that as his next policy speech. Don’t hold your breath.
