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Sunday, October 26, 2008
(Audio) Obama wants to break free of the "constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution"
Here's a January 18, 2001 interview between Chicago's WBEZ.FM and Senator Barack Obama. Linked is the full interview, but what's been making the rounds is the following edited video:
An excerpt:
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 peoples, so that I would now have the right to vote. I would now be able to sit at the lunch counter and order as long as I could pay for it, I’d be okay.
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 its been interpreted and 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, and that hasn’t shifted and one of the, I think, tragedies of the civil rights movement was, um, 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.
Posted by P.M. Jaworski on October 26, 2008 in U.S. politics | Permalink
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Comments
What Constitution? Between the "war on drugs" and newer "war on terrorism" most of the protections I care about don't really exist. What it should do "for us" wasn't put in there because we were suppose to be "free." OUR government was just suppose to protect our borders, and, OUR Constitution. They've sort of gone hog wild don't you think?
Google "tony creed task force raid." Most people this kind of stuff happens to can't find or afford a lawyer and you'll never hear about it unless it's a Mayor and his dogs get shot or something like that. Between the military commissions and the (anti)Patriot act OUR Constituion is basically just a piece of paper. That I know of not one person sworn to protect it against domestic enemies does.
Posted by: T-BoneJones | 2008-10-27 12:08:13 AM
Hiding the truth about Obama has become a huge problem for the elite media, they're resorting to stories about Sarah Palin's skirts.
Europe has decided to sit around on welfare til it ends, and many Americans seem to think that is a fine idea as well.
Posted by: Philanthropist | 2008-10-27 1:58:03 AM
This guy is going to sink whatever is left of the constitutional foundations of the USA. He is a marxist in lamb's clothing. If he wins (and chances are good) get ready for the new era of the USSA.
Posted by: jc | 2008-10-27 5:58:05 AM
Read the transcript:
http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dgmpz5bc_2gfggbmv4
Posted by: Jeff S. | 2008-11-01 9:01:08 AM
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