Obama was member of a socialist party

Obama denies his economic policies are 'socialism'

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=126318

But evidence indicates president was member of a socialist party

Posted: February 26, 2010
By Aaron Klein

President Barack Obama strongly rejected critics who call his
economic policies "socialism," launching a vigorous defense of his
economic agenda while insisting he aims to boost U.S. competitiveness abroad.

Speaking Wednesday to the Business Roundtable, which convenes some of
the country's top chief executives, Obama stated in prepared remarks,
"Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, I am an ardent
believer in the free market."

Obama said his efforts to enact sweeping legislation to overhaul
financial regulations were not socialist.

"We have arrived at a juncture in our politics where reasonable
efforts to update our regulations, or make basic investments in our
future, are too often greeted with cries of 'government takeover' or
even 'socialism'," Obama said.

"Getting this balance right has less to do with big government or
small government than it does smart government. It's not about being
anti-business or pro-government; it's about being pro-growth and
pro-jobs," he said.

Lost in much of the debate regarding Obama's economic agenda,
however, is the strong evidence that Obama himself previously was a
member of a socialist party.

WND reported newspaper evidence showing Obama was a member of the New
Party, which sought to elect members to public office with the aim of
moving the Democratic Party far leftward to ultimately form a new
political party with a socialist agenda.

In August, a former top member of the New Party recounted in a WND
e-mail interview Obama's participation with his organization.

"A subcommittee met with (Obama) to interview him to see if his stand
on the living wage and similar reforms was the same as ours,"
recalled Marxist activist Carl Davidson.

"We determined that our views on these overlapped, and we could
endorse his campaign in the Democratic Party," Davidson said.

Davidson was a Chicago member and activist within the New Party. He
told WND he handled some of the New Party member databases and
attending most of the party's meetings.

Davidson is also a notorious far-left activist and former radical
national leader in the anti-Vietnam War movement. He served as
national secretary for the infamous Students of a Democratic Society
anti-war group, from which the Weather Underground domestic terrorist
organization later splintered.

Davidson remembers Obama attending a New Party meeting to thank
attendees for voting for him.

Davidson said that to his knowledge Obama was not a member of the New
Party "in any practical way" ­ using qualifying language.

Becoming a New Party member requires some effort on behalf of the
politician. Candidates must be approved by the party's political
committee and, once approved, must sign a contract mandating they
will have a "visible and active relationship" with the party.

Asked whether Obama signed the New Party contract, Davidson replied
there was "no need for him to do so."

"At the end of our session with him, we simply affirmed there was no
need to do so, because on all the key points, the stand of his
campaign and the New Party reform planks were practically the same,"
Davidson told WND.

Davidson denied the New Party was specifically a socialist party,
claiming, "The vast majority of active members were low- and
middle-income blacks in the inner city fighting for their immediate demands."

But the socialist-oriented goals of the New Party were enumerated on
its old website.

Among the New Party's stated objectives were "full employment, a
shorter work week and a guaranteed minimum income for all adults; a
universal 'social wage' to include such basic benefits as health
care, child care, vacation time and lifelong access to education and
training; a systematic phase-in of comparable worth and like programs
to ensure gender equity."

The New Party stated it also sought "the democratization of our
banking and financial system ­ including popular election of those
charged with public stewardship of our banking system, worker-owner
control over their pension assets [and] community-controlled
alternative financial institutions."

Many of the New Party's founding members were Democratic Socialists
of America leaders and members of Committees of Correspondence, a
breakaway of the Communist Party USA.

Obama attended several DSA events and meetings, including a
DSA-sponsored town hall meeting Feb. 25, 1996, entitled "Employment
and Survival in Urban America." He sought and received an endorsement
from the DSA.

Asked by WND whether he thinks Obama has socialist leanings, Davidson
stated, "The truth is that Obama was and is a liberal Democrat and an
Alinskyist community organizer ­ which if you know much about
Alinsky, is just militant liberalism."

"Obama was never a man of the left, either in his views or in being a
member of an actual socialist organization," added Davidson.

While running for the Illinois state Senate in 1996 as a Democrat,
Obama actively sought and received the endorsement of the New Party,
according to confirmed reports during last year's presidential campaign.

The New Party worked alongside the Association of Community
Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. The New Party's aim was to
help elect politicians who espoused its policies.

Among New Party members was linguist and radical activist Noam Chomsky.

Obama listed as socialist party member

Obama's campaign last year denied the then­presidential candidate was
ever an actual member of the New Party.

But the New Zeal blog dug up print copies of the New Party News, the
party's official newspaper, which show Obama posing with New Party
leaders, listing him as a New Party member and printing quotes from
him as a member.

The party's spring 1996 newspaper boasted: "New Party members won
three other primaries this Spring in Chicago: Barack Obama (State
Senate), Michael Chandler (Democratic Party Committee) and Patricia
Martin (Cook County Judiciary).

The paper quoted Obama saying, "These victories prove that small 'd'
democracy can work."

The newspaper lists other politicians it endorsed who were not
members but specifies Obama as a New Party member.

New Ground, the newsletter of Chicago's Democratic Socialists of
America, reported in its July/August 1996 edition that Obama attended
a New Party membership meeting April 11, 1996, in which he expressed
his gratitude for the group's support and "encouraged NPers (New
Party members) to join in his task forces on voter education and
voter registration."

The New Party, established in 1992, took advantage of what was known
as electoral "fusion," which enabled candidates to run on two tickets
simultaneously, attracting voters from both parties. But the New
Party went defunct in 1998, one year after fusion was halted by the
Supreme Court.

According to DSA documents, the New Party worked with ACORN to
promote its candidates. ACORN, convicted in massive, nationwide voter
fraud cases, was a point of controversy for Obama during his campaign
for president.

In 1995, the DSA's New Ground newsletter stated, "In Chicago, the New
Party's biggest asset and biggest liability is ACORN.

"Like most organizations, ACORN is a mixed bag," the newsletter said.
"On one hand, in Chicago, ACORN is a group that attempts to organize
some of the most depressed communities in the city. Chicago
organizers for ACORN and organizers for SEIU Local 880 have been
given modest monthly recruitment quotas for new New Party members. On
the other hand, like most groups that depend on canvassing for
fundraising, it's easy enough to find burned out and disgruntled
former employees. And ACORN has not had the reputation for being
interested in coalition politics ­ until recently and, happily, not
just within the New Party."

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