Did Trump Really Save America from Socialism?

There is a lot of material out there right now encouraging folks to check out Dinesh D’Souza claims in Death of a Nation. I have already seen the film and I probably need to go back and watch it again to make sure I got all the details.

Among the pieces promoting the movie is a terrific article by Steve Baldwin, a former California assemblyman (1994-2000) and minority whip, which appeared in The American Spectator called, "Did Trump Really Save America From Socialism? This article makes a comprehensive and convincing case that ties together a number of stories to leave us with the stone cold truth: Barack Obama was attempting to turn the U.S. into a socialist utopia. Frighteningly, his major goal was to turn the U.S. into a one party state where a Republican would never again win the office of president.

Barack Obama with Hillary Clinton and Susan Rice.

Baldwin asserts that the key element of this strategy was bringing in illegal immigrants to vote for Hillary Clinton. It is scary to reflect the extent to which Obama almost achieve his objective if not for the surprising, seemingly impossible election of Donald Trump. This article appeared came to attention through an old Google alert which scans for on-line articles that mention both my name and Obama's. Below, I have marked the part in bold where Baldwin uses my little data point to help nail down a key point about Obama's long-standing commitment to socialism.

However, Americans were so propagandized by the media concerning Obama’s “mainstream Democrat” background that very few know the real truth about who he really is. But the evidence of Obama’s socialist background is overwhelming.

Researchers have dug up quite a bit about him since he burst onto the national political scene over a decade ago. Four books in particular have ripped off the propaganda cover: Aaron Klein’s The Manchurian President: Barack Obama’s Ties to Communists, Socialists and other Anti-American Extremists; Paul Kengor’s The Communist: Frank Marshall Davis, the Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mentor; Trevor Loudon’s Barack Obama and the Enemies Within, and lastly, Stanley Kurtz’s excellent Radical-In-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism. These authors have exhaustedly documented Obama’s involvement with numerous groups dominated by communists and socialists.

(Note: My take on young Obama is featured in the works by Kengor, Loudon and Kurtz.) 

Indeed, Obama launched his political career at the house of former Weatherman terrorist Bill Ayers, who calls himself a “small c communist.” Obama’s mentor at Harvard was Charles Ogletree, a radical Marxist professor, former Black Panther, and leader of the nutty “reparations” movement.

We now know his father was a socialist economist and that his boyhood mentor was Frank Marshall Davis, a card-carrying Communist Party member who, according to his FBI file, was engaged in espionage. Davis even appears on the FBI’s Cold War era “watch list” of people to be rounded up should the Soviets launch a war against the USA.

We also know that Obama spoke at the funeral of leading Marxist theoretician Saul Mendelson. We know that in the 1996 he actually joined the New Party, a Marxist party in Illinois. And we know the Communist Party itself lavished praise on Obama, boasting of how they “actively supported Obama during the primary election.” Upon Obama’s 2008 victory, Sam Webb, the president of the U.S. Communist Party, announced we “now have a friend, a people’s advocate and the first African American in the White House.”

Former Communist activist John Drew attended Occidental with Obama and says not only that Obama was a well-known “Marxist-Leninist” on campus but that he actually said “There’s going to be a revolution” in the USA. And there has been of sorts.

One cannot dig into Obama’s background without stumbling into Communists and other assorted socialist revolutionaries everywhere one looks. And much of the media knew this when Obama ran for the presidency in 2008 but decided Americans didn’t need to know. But they covered every mistake and every shady relationship that Donald Trump ever had. Nor is there any evidence Obama ever modified his views. His background and his legislative legacy demonstrates contempt for America; its history, culture, constitution, and political system. All of this is consistent with Obama’s Marxist worldview that he took great pains to disguise. As Stanley Kurtz wrote, “Obama has made concerted efforts to hide his socialist convictions from the voters who put him into office.”

Although I think it is over-the-top to say I was a Communist at the time, I have to admit that I was well versed in Marxism and had been rooting for the USSR to win the Cold War. Nevertheless, this is a really helpful article for making sense of the Obama legacy and the story of how we barely escaped losing our country for good. You can read the entire article by clicking on this link to Baldwin's article, Did Trump Really Save America From Socialism? If I was hired to teach a political science class, this article would be on the syllabus. 

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

Hot on Quora: Why do Marxists Get Upset When You Mention the Horrific Failure of 20th Century Communism?

As an ex-Marxist, I think it is fair to say that being a Marxist is more of a religion than a scientific pursuit. Although you can, with great effort, change a scientific consensus, it is almost impossible to change someone’s religious beliefs. This is particularly true when traditional contemporary religions are in decline.

As a Marxist, you can enjoy all the freedom of being an atheist (sex, drugs, libertine attitudes) while at the same time enjoying the fellowship and group activities organized by your peers including the nearly constant planning sessions, anti-war protests, and pre-revolutionary activities of the day. The mix gives you a meaning to what is probably an already depressing, exceedingly shallow and unaccomplished life. For insight into the life of a young Marxist, please check out my article below.

Meeting Young Obama

The best part is that even though history has demonstrated the utter failure of Marxism as a philosophy, witness the hundreds of millions mass murdered by Communist regimes in the 20th Century, Marxists can pretend to themselves that these earlier regimes were “not really socialist.” The same is true of the horrifying modern examples of the failure of Communism in say Cuba, North Korea and Venezuela.

At any rate, when you confront Marxists with the evidence of their fecklessness they react negatively because you are, in effect, challenging their whole identity, their social group, their career choices and so on. You aren’t just knocking the ridiculousness of their untenable beliefs you’re knocking everything about them.

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

Hot on Quora: What Was Barack Obama's GPA in College?

I met Barack Obama and got to know him while he was a student at Occidental College. My memories of young Obama have appeared in a number of historical books including David Garrow’s Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama. This is a 1,460 page pre-presidential biography published by HarperCollins in May 2017.

At the time I met the young Obama, I was a graduate student at Cornell University, doing my first work as a teaching assistant in political science. My sense of him at the time is that he was of average intelligence. I don’t remember him making any particularly insightful comments when we spoke. I think it is safe to say that he was most likely a solid B student.

To be fair, the Barack Obama I met in 1980–1981 was more interested in parties, cocaine and radical politics than his academic record. I think it is only common sense to assert that the only reason his Occidental College GPA has not been released is that it would have been bad news for him.

I’m writing this to counter-act some of the extreme Barack Obama sycophantic comments suggesting he is some sort of genius. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is no record of him being particularly talented at math, statistics, or any of the hard sciences. He served as the editor of the law review at Harvard, but didn’t bother to produce any articles of his own for it.


John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

Hands Too Big: Bad Art for a Bad President

I think my interest in oil painting is starting to pay-off.

I know enough, for example, to see that Obama’s hands are out of proportion to his body (too large). There is also a severe anatomical problem with this left hand. Notice the weird fold of skin and muscle next to his pinky finger. No normal human hand looks like that.

This is the work of a seriously inadequate artist named Kehinde Wiley. It looks to me like the artist was trying to draw a thumb tucked under there.

Also notice the color of the light. It is different on Obama’s head versus his hands. This is just inexcusable, low-quality work.

I don’t see how you can justify annoying mistakes like this…even if they are supposed to be part of some over arching message like it is cool and significant to have deviant, dopey looking portraits of America’s first (half) black president.

The portrait of Mrs. Obama has also been condemned, rightfully, for failing to provide an accurate portrayal of her…except, perhaps, for her arms. This one was painted by Amy Sherald.

If the Obamas were so unsophisticated to commission and accept this poorly executed art, then their liberal/leftist supporters should ask what else have this couple been completely mistaken about?

Below, I'm offering up my own version of an official presidential oil painting for the Obamas. It is based on a real life car accident that occurred in Santa Ana, CA on January 14, 2018. I call it "Flying to the Dentist." It is 9" x 12" on canvas and available for sale.

For my take on young Obama and the recent David J. Garrow presidential biography, see https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/05/waiting_for_garrow_new_obama_biography_due_this_week.html

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

Big on Quora: Is it true that Barack Obama is cheating on his wife?

According to David Garrow’s new book, Rising Star, Barack Obama was cheating on Michelle Obama for sure…back when he was a student at Harvard Law School.

Prior to meeting Michelle, Obama was living with Sheila Miyoshi Jager back in the in the mid-1980s in Chicago. Garrow reports that Barack allegedly proposed to her in 1986. But no marriage resulted because her parents thought she was too young. Jager is Dutch and Japanese.

Next, Obama started dating Michelle while he was a summer intern at her Chicago law firm. After the summer was over, Obama started hooking up with Sheila Miyoshi Jager when they were both back on the Harvard Law School campus.

As you can see in Garrow’s book, it looks like Obama humiliated Michelle by cheating on her with the woman who he had earlier asked to marry him at least twice. Jager and Barack saw each other on and off after Barack and Michelle got together. Garrow asserts that, at this time, Barack Obama was in “two powerful, overlapping relationships.”

Given the question above, however, it may be more accurate to say that Obama has cheated on Michelle before and that if he is cheating on her today it would not be the first time this has happened in their relationship. For more details, see

Barack Obama Publicly Humiliates Michelle Obama – The Secret’s Out

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

Bad Choices: What is Barack Obama's View of Bernie Sanders?

I knew the young Barack Obama while he was a student at Occidental College. As I have reported elsewhere he was a Marxist revolutionary back in the winter of 1980.

See, Articles: Meeting Young Obama

There is no evidence of Obama having some sort of conversion experience so it seems likely that he is still committed to some form of socialism and a major effort to redistribute the wealth.

My take is that he did not think that Sanders could win and that he thought the best hope for preserving his legacy was to support Hillary Clinton. Ultimately, however, his heart was with Bernie Sanders.

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

Bad Book: What Will We Remember About Barack Obama's Dreams from My Father?

Aside from Obamacare, I think Barack Obama is best known for his book, Dreams from My Father.

This book was extremely important to his early political career in Chicago. Over time, many people took the book literally and it became a way for people to learn about Obama in such a matter that it empowered him. Many charismatic leaders write books about themselves which end up building their own fame and charisma including George Washington, Mahatma Gandhi, and John F. Kennedy.

This is part of the reason why there is so much intellectual controversy surrounding Dreams from My Father right now, particularly arguments about the extent to which it is historically accurate or is only a historical novel.

To a large extent, I think that presidential historians are coming to the conclusion that the book for which Barack Obama is best know was in large measure a carefully crafted fiction. It included a number of stories in which Barack Obama tried to exaggerate his ties to the African-American community, including claiming he dated black women, which subsequent research has found to be untrue.

According to David J. Garrow’s new book, Rising Star, it appears that Dreams from My Father overstated the closeness of Obama’s parents, understated the time he spend with Frank Marshall Davis, and minimized young Obama’s post-Columbia marijuana and cocaine usage. There are also indications that the young Obama was quite concerned about his weight since he was fat as a child.

All in all, I think that Dreams from My Father will remain as one of the most important of Obama’s legacies, especially since subsequent research has found that much of this first book was highly inaccurate even as it help to form a myth that helped Barack Obama become president.

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

Living History: Reading David Garrow's Rising Star - The Making of Barack Obama

I’m still reading through David J. Garrow’s new presidential biography, Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama. Already, however, I can report that he cited a number – but not all – of my American Thinker articles. Garrow recommends reading them in chronological order.

Meeting Young Obama
Even Republicans Rejected Info About Obama’s Past
My White Girlfriend Inspired Obama’s Big, Dark Regina in Dreams from My Father
White Like Me: Thoughts on Young Obama’s Prom Photos

The worst that he can say about me is to suggest that by reports are perhaps similar to those of other potentially reliable ex-Communists. He indicates, correctly, that I was a Tea Party activist. All things considered, it looks like I got off light -- at least compared to Garrow's rather harsh treatment of Barack Obama. Garrow goes out of his way to indicate that Obama married Michelle, in large measure, because he needed a black wife in order to have a smooth political career in Chicago. It turns out that Obama was sleeping with both Michelle and an ex-girlfriend during his second year at Harvard Law School.

Garrow documents my previous role as an academic. For example, he reports that I completed my Ph.D. and taught at Williams College. I have to think the late presidential history James MacGregor Burns who was a colleague of mine at Williams College would be proud of me today. At least prouder of me today than Michelle Obama is of Barack Obama.

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

Waiting for Garrow: New Obama Biography Due This Week

Those of us who want to reduce President Obama’s future influence in American politics are looking forward to the release of David J. Garrow’s new 1,400 page opus, Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama. Although Professor Garrow is a Bernie Sanders donor, he has a reputation as an honest, straightforward historian. This reputation is the result of his balanced and even somewhat damaging Pulitzer Prize winning book on Martin Luther King, Bearing the Cross (1986).

John Drew with David Garrow in Laguna Niguel, CA.

While some journalists have already received preliminary copies of Rising Star, most of us will have to wait a little longer since the book will be released on May 9, 2017. As for me, however, I have been waiting to read Garrow’s book since December 2011.

I was one of the 1,000 people who Garrow interviewed, a number he repeatedly refers to when he wants to present his book as the new, gold standard for Obama biographies. Garrow’s book is competing for this honor against David Remnick’s The Bridge (2010) and David Maraniss’s Barack Obama: The Story (2012). Neither Remnick or Maraniss interviewed me even though they interviewed almost all of the students I knew at Occidental College between 1979-1981.

I have always found this odd since my face-to-face observations of young Obama’s radical ideology were reported -- prior to the publication of either book -- by Ronald Kessler in a NEWSMAX article that appeared in early February 2010. See, http://www.newsmax.com/RonaldKessler/obama-college-marxism-occidental/2010/02/08/id/349329/

Later, my complete report of Obama’s commitment to a leadership role in a coming, inevitable Communist revolution appeared in an article I wrote called “Meeting Young Obama” that was published in American Thinker in February 2011. See, http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2011/02/meeting_young_obama.html

Maraniss’s failure to interview me seems particularly misguided since my first impression of young Obama has been accessed and cited by so many other authors. So far, it has appeared in Glenn Beck’s “Liars” (2016), Jack Cashill’s “Deconstructing Obama” (2011), Stanley Kurtz’s “Radical-In-Chief” (2010), Paul Kengor’s “Dupes” (2010) and “The Communist” (2012), and Michael Savages’ “Trickle Up Poverty” (2010).

Accordingly, I was suspicious when I first heard from Garrow by e-mail because my story had been so neglected by previous mainstream historians. In an abundance of caution, I checked out his YouTube videos and then asked him to give me a call so I could be sure I was talking to the real Pulitzer Prize historian and not some deranged Occupy Wall Street protester. Over the phone, we agreed to meet at my home in Laguna Niguel.

As a political scientist, I have spoken with presidential historians before, including the late James MacGregor Burns who was a colleague at Williams College. However, I had never been interviewed by one. 

I was surprisingly nervous.  As Garrow sat in my living room, I almost dumped a full glass of ice tea on him.  It was also surprisingly unpleasant to remember my youthful days as a recent Occidental College graduate who was dating a girl, Caroline Boss, who was still a senior at Occidental and who was so close to young Obama that Maraniss claims she was one of the most significant composite characters included in Obama’s Dreams from My Father (1995).  I prepared for the interview by sorting through old photographs and rereading about 30 cards and letters from that era of my life. 

As it turned out, Garrow was something of a gossip. He entertained me with news regarding the fate of my old friends and acquaintances:  who got married to who, who succeeded in life and who failed. I also found out Garrow plays an awkward role in informing people of the deaths of those who used to be in their social circles.  In my case, Garrow revealed one of the Occidental College radical leaders I knew best, Gary Chapman, 58, had died of a heart attack the previous December.

During the recorded interview, my aim was to stress my credibility and to get as much of my story as I could into the historical record. I shared with him evidence of my relationship with Boss including some photos and a romantic card she sent me.

Over time, it became clear that while Garrow was familiar with my American Thinker piece on young Obama, he was much more interested in tracking down the community which surrounded Obama at Occidental and by all accounts continued to support and stay in touch with him right up to his election as president.

Sensing his true interests, I surprised him by bringing out an old, tattered, green address book which included Boss’s phone numbers and addresses in both the U.S. and Europe. He seemed positively giddy about it.  He wrote down nothing and instead he read out loud from my address book into his recorder.

I did speak to him off-the-record too, but only about sexual matters, the sort of unseemly things which would be embarrassing to air but still would help him understand the intimate social connections of Obama’s Occidental College friends. He indicated to me that his next stop would be Washington state where he would interview Caroline and her husband, Tom, who had also been a student at Occidental College.

After we were done, I remember Garrow was gracious enough to pose with me for a photo. It turns out his wife, Darleen, had been waiting for us in a car while the interview took place. As she took the picture, I praised her husband for his status as a Pulitzer Prize winning biographer. She seemed a little jaded by my compliment and less effusive than me in praising his worthwhile accomplishments.

At this point, I am not at all confident I had much impact on Garrow’s book.

I listened to a radio interview he gave to Jamie Weinstein and he flatly dismissed any suggestion that young Obama was gay, Marxist, Muslim or a beneficiary of the writing and editing skills of Bill Ayers, an unrepentant domestic terrorist. Using the broadest possible definitions, in contrast, I see the young Obama as all four. I am waiting to see if the mainstream media will use Garrow’s book to short-circuit future attempts to create an honest account of Obama life, an account which should rightfully end his political influence.

Note: This article was originally published in American Thinker on May 8, 2017.

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

Great News! Donald Trump Has a Copy of Trevor Loudon's New Movie, The Enemies Within

I am pleased to report that Trevor Loudon's new movie, The Enemies Within, has become an important contribution to uncovering the real Hillary Clinton and her ties to Communist sympathizers, Jihadist extremists, and anti-American front groups. I got a note from Loudon earlier today indicating he is selling copies of this movie every couple of minutes.

I'm expecting, eventually, to see it at one of my local theaters too. I am particularly excited to learn today that the director of the movie, Judd Saul, presented Donald Trump, Jr. with a DVD of the film. Trump, Jr. promised Judd that The Enemies Within would be watched and shared with his father Donald Trump before the election. Who knows? Maybe The Enemies Within will be the final bombshell revelation that puts Trump over the top and into the White House?

One of the most shocking things about the film is the revelation of the ties of Huma Abedin - Hillary's closest and now most disgraced aide - to the Muslim Brotherhood through her father. You can see this portion of the movie in the clip below:

As you may know, The Enemies Within, contains a brief interview Loudon did with me containing my description of the young Obama's commitment to a Communist-style revolution in the U.S. Below, I have included links to articles I have written in regards to The Enemies Within and some of the publicity generated by those articles. Enjoy!

American Thinker

"An Alexis de Tocqueville for Our Time," by John Drew
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/10/an_alexis_de_tocqueville_for_our_time.html

Anonymous Political Scientist

"Film Crew at Our House: Trevor Loudon and The Enemies Within," by John Drew
http://anonymouspoliticalscientist.blogspot.com/2016/02/trevor-loudon-and-enemies-within-film.html

"Living History: My First Thoughts on Trevor Loudon's New Movie, The Enemies Within," by John Drew
http://anonymouspoliticalscientist.blogspot.com/2016/10/living-history-my-review-of-trevor.html

WND
'The Enemies Within': New Film Tells of My Old Friend BHO - Marxist Revolutionary," by John Drew
http://www.wnd.com/2016/10/new-film-tells-of-my-old-friend-bho-marxist-revolutionary/#rG37hWxh11rf243L.99

"Election 2016: Hillary's Marxist 'Mentor" Featured in 2 Election-Eve Films"
http://www.wnd.com/2016/10/hillarys-marxist-mentor-featured-in-2-election-eve-films/

YouTube

"Trevor Loudon: John Drew Willing to Die to Get Out Truth About Young Obama," by John Drew
https://youtu.be/p_6X8cPdveg

"Obama's College Years: Former Student Speaks (1/2)"
https://youtu.be/IgOy71oa3hw

I have no idea of whether or not this movie will make a difference in the coming election. I don't see how anyone could watch it and still vote for Hillary Clinton. At the very least, I feel good that I've left everything on the floor this electoral cycle. If you haven't ordered a copy of The Enemies Within, then please do so now by clicking on this link: http://www.enemieswithinmovie.com/?aff=24.

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

Living History: My First Thoughts on Trevor Loudon's New Movie, The Enemies Within

Trish and I were honored to attend the southern California premier of Trevor Loudon's new movie, The Enemies Within at a special event hosted by the American Freedom Alliance on October 16, 2016 in Van Nuys, CA.  This movie is the result of Loudon's long-career of carefully collecting available information regarding the ties that public officials in the U.S. have to the Communist party, Communist front groups, jihadist hate groups, and nefarious institutions who oppose the Constitution and our way of life.

I think it always comes as a shock to people with little interest in politics and government (which, I suppose, is most of us) to realize that there are those among us who really do not care for the United States of America, wish it ill, and are eager to see it replaced by some larger, international world order run by efficient, hopefully benevolent bureaucrats.  Even worse, many of the people who see the United States as an evil, exploitative, and dangerous country are happily serving at the highest levels of the federal government including my old friend and acquaintance, President Barack Obama.

I was quite honored to be among those who were selected by Loudon to share their testimony.  As he informed me, I am the only one in the nation willing to verify that the young Barack Obama was looking forward to a Communist-style, potentially violent revolution. Although my recollections represent only a very tiny part of the puzzle, they have been featured in a number of prominent books including Glenn Beck's Liars (2016), Jack Cashill's Deconstructing Obama (2011), Stanley Kurtz' Radical-In-Chief (2010), Paul Kengor's Dupes (2010) and The Communist (2012), and Michael Savages' Trickle Up Poverty (2010).

For my part, I shared my story regarding but it was like to be a young man, committed to Marxist philosophy, who was not so secretly rooting for the victory of the U.S.S.R. and China at the height of the Cold War. My story, I suppose, would not be in the slightest bit spectacular or interesting except for the fact that the young Barack Obama was among my circle of friends between 1980 and 1981. While he was attending Occidental College in Los Angeles, I got to know him closely enough to identify him as a fervent supporter of a Communist-style revolution in the United States. I share this story in the movie. You can read it yourself in the first article I published on this topic in American Thinker, by clicking here.

What is most chilling to me, however, is that Loudon caught me in an off-hand moment talking about my attitude toward mass murder back when I was both an atheist and practicing Marxist intellectual. At a time when down-to-earth people are quick to criticize religious fanatics, I think too many of us underestimate the danger posed by Marxist atheists who can become a physical threat to others because of their potentially lethal mix of secular humanism, Utopian ideology and loose moral strictures. As I admitted during the filming of my interview, I can barely stand the thought of harming a fly - I would rather do a catch and release than kill it - and yet nothing in my consciousness would have prevented me from participating in mass murder as long as it was for the sake of the children or the common good.

The first time I saw myself on a movie screen sharing my earlier Marxist atheist views, I scared myself. I recognized my potential for great evil, cloaked in a matter-of-fact utilitarianism.

As an ex-Communist, I recognize I was enveloped in an exceedingly dangerous and dysfunctional ideology, a tempting perspective which has - in real life - lead to nothing but misery for those who implement it. The all encompassing, consuming nature of my Marxist idealism was so great that I remember the exact time and place when I realized I was no longer a Marxist or a Communist; I was walking down the hallway beneath McGraw Hall at Cornell University in September of 1983, after a bizarre argument with my out-of-touch, Marxist-friendly thesis adviser.

My conversion story was the result of my own exposure to Christian mysticism (largely the Quakers) and my own research into the causes of poverty and the origins of the American welfare state.

For my part, I can vouch for Trevor Loudon's extraordinarily detailed scholarship and commitment to the truth. He got my story right. I can also report that the movie has dramatically improved since I first saw the rough cuts. It is a high-quality, professional, hour and a half production which has benefited from tight editing, striking graphics, stirring music and convincing sound effects.

I think The Enemies Within is a movie that is well-worth seeing on your own or with friends and family. I urge you to purchase it now, prior to election day, at Trevor Loudon's movie website by clicking on this link.

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist. He appears in Loudon's new movie, The Enemies Within.

Film Crew at Our House: Trevor Loudon and the Enemies Within

Trish and I were honored to receive a visit from Trevor Loudon and his film crew this morning.

As you may know, Trevor Loudon is a New Zealand author, speaker and political activist who maintains a blog at TrevorLoudon.com. He initially got famous here in the U.S. when he was the first to show that there was a connection between Barack Obama and his mentor, U.S. Communist Party member Frank Marshall Davis.

Loudon is also the founder and editor of keywiki.org, a website which compiles dossiers on activists and political figures. Like me, he thinks it is important to get out the word that Communists are still among us – often in high positions of authority -- even though they have been discredited by the way in which the USSR lost the Cold War and Communist China has adopted market reforms.

Loudon was mainly interested in how I became a young Communist, how I came to meet and debate young Barack Obama, and how my own views changed later on as I matured. It was a somewhat draining interview that brought back a lot of memories. It was also a remarkable moment to celebrate the way that conservatives have been able to use social media like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and alternative websites to bypass the mainstream media and get out stories that are considered too hot or too controversial for the mainstream media...including the folks at Fox News.

No matter what, I feel proud to be part of a small band of brothers who have been willing to risk everything they have to get out the word about the radical roots of President Obama.

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

It's a Mighty Long Way from Cincinnati: Rogue IRS Agents Active in Laguna Niguel, CA Too

In all the mad rush of the last few weeks, I was not aware that IRS employees right here in Laguna Niguel - where I live and work -  were involved in efforts to harm Tea Party or conservative groups. I thought all of these rogue agents were gathered together far away in Cincinnati, OH. Now, I am expecting some of my neighbors out here to be doing the perp walk.

According to CNN, IRS staff in Laguna Niguel, CA
 participated in the effort to discriminate against
Tea Party and conservative groups.

They were doing so by making it harder for these groups to secure their status as 501 ( c ) ( 4 ) organizations.

According to CNN, Lois Lerner, who was the director of tax-exempt organizations for the IRS, indicated last month that the IRS had targeted these groups because they had those words in their names. She said the activity took place at the IRS office in Cincinnati, which handles applications for 501(c)(4) status.

CNN, however, opened up documents that suggest at least three other IRS offices did the same dirty deed including the one within walking distance from my home in Laguna Niguel. CNN reports that IRS officials in Washington and California contacted conservative groups to demand more information before approving the groups' requests for tax-exempt status.

The American Center for Law and Justice, a legal group representing numerous conservative organizations, provided CNN with four such letters: one each from IRS offices in Washington; Cincinnati; El Monte, California, and Laguna Niguel, California.

The Chet Holifield Federal Building
is something of an eyesore
in Laguna Niguel, CA.

I drive past that building in Laguna Niguel nearly every other day and view it from a distance when I take a walk in the park. It is chilling to know that Obama's re-election in 2012 benefitted, in part, from the intolerable and discriminatory things taking place in this odd looking building.

As you might know, Chet Holifield Federal Building was constructed in Laguna Niguel, California, between 1968 and 1971. William L. Pereira & Associates designed it with an unusual stepped pyramid silhouette. The unusual form references ziggurats, ancient Mesopotamian temples. Here in Laguna Niguel, we usually call in the ziggurat building for short. The parking lot of this building is a total mess. It really is an eyesore in terms of its exterior appearance.

I guess Obama and his crew were never afraid that one of the people working at this IRS office might contact me and share what was actually taking place in terms of harming Tea Party and conservative applicants. Given what I know about young Obama and his ideology - and what I know about his time in Chicago - it is not difficult for me to believe that Obama authorized discrimination against Tea Party and conservative groups. I do not think most people appreciate how much young Obama sincerely hated our American capitalist system.

I do not think most people trully appreciate what it means to be a friend of Bill Ayers, Rev. Wright or Alice Palmer. If they did they would terrified of the Obama administration and demanding that someone go to jail for this abuse of power.

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

White Like Me: Thoughts on Young Obama's Prom Photos

TIME published pictures from Barack Obama's prom night in 1979. For me, these photos are more evidence of something I have thought for a long time - young Obama seemed like a white guy.

Greg Orme, Kelli Allman, Barack Obama and
Megan Hughes at Allman’s parents’ house in Honolulu.

Despite the Obama mythology, these new photos show that the young Obama was dating a white girl named Megan Hughes and hanging out with other white people including his basketball teammate Greg Orme and fellow student Kellie Allman. It was Kelli Allman (née McCormack) who provided these new photos to Time. She is pictured second from the left.

One of the most puzzling things to me about contemporary politics is the way so many people seem to think that Barack Obama is a black man. As one of the folks who got to know him while he was at Occidental College, I can report that I thought of Obama as an average white guy in terms of his IQ and his cultural inheritance. This, of course, should not be so surprising since Obama was raised by his white mother and his white grandparents nearly his entire life.

The young Obama that I knew was mainly interested in hanging out with white guys and white girls (like me and my radical girlfriend) or with his radical Muslim friends. I interacted with young Obama on various occasions between 1980-1981 and I can report that I never saw him hanging out with black students. Never.

Obama, of course, has done a lot of work to create a politically and socially advantageous black image for himself. In his autobiography, for example, I have called attention to how Obama converted my white college era girlfriend into a big black woman.

This ruse needs to end. The young Obama I knew was nothing like the young black people I knew at Occidental College. He did not come from an underprivileged background. He did not have any of the hostility to white people that I sometimes saw among blacks at Occidental College. All the reports we have so far indicate that young Obama was dating white women, hanging out with his white roommate - Phil Boerner - at Columbia, and generally living a white lifestyle imbued with radical, socialist ideology.

I remain amazed that a guy as white as me managed to game the affirmative action system all the way into the White House. I expect future generations, however, will see through this ruse and render judgments that reflect the actual evidence of Obama's life including these new photos.

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

Looking Forward to My Audit: Dr. Drew Jokes About Strapping Young Muslim Socialist Obama

Thank you, Conan. That was a great intro. Let’s give him a hand. (Applause.) You have come a long way for a guy with no eyebrows.

As an Armenian-American, I know a great deal about roasting things. Oddly enough, I am also half Scottish. This means that I like to cook shish kabobs on a golf stick. By the way, I do not want to hear anything from the press about my being overweight. If you ever need to hold a hot air balloon to the ground, then you will be grateful for my assistance.

Now that the campaign is over, I want to correct some of my earlier comments regarding the young Obama. First, I should never have said your roommate, Hassan Chandoo, was a Muslim. I should have said he was differently Christian.

David Maraniss verified that you and the wealthy Chandoo were in the San Francisco area exactly when I said I first debated you over Christmas break 1980. I should have reported that what I really did that evening was discuss the topic that was closest to my heart – hoops. My radical girlfriend and I were obsessed with basketball. We could not stop talking about it. I do not remember anything you said about hoops, but I am sure we were obsessed about it.

NOT.

In truth, I beat you up intellectually so bad that night that by the time I was done you were like my puppy. You were agreeing with me that there would be no communist revolution in the U.S. You reversed your thinking faster than Bill Ayers fleeing a bomb scene. You fled faster than the original Benghazi talking points.

People always ask me for my first impression of you. I cannot help it that they do not like my answer. Rachel Maddow has attacked me for saying I thought you were in a gay relationship with Chandoo. What I really meant to say is that you were so much better looking than Chandoo that I thought you were in a “pay” relationship.

You two looked so gay together that my radical girlfriend said, “THEY ARE NOT GAY.”

I thought you were gay because you and Chandoo were very close to each other physically. I thought your behavior was unusual because when I am out walking with one of my male friends - I keep a good neighborly distance.

As a young man you were a committed Marxist-Leninist. I have three things to say about that 1) you would have fit in well with an all out Communist like Frank Marshall Davis, 2) you would have been right at home with a socialist politician like Alice Palmer, and 3) a real moderate would share his conversion story with the rest of us.

Now I have made some jokes about Obama, I will repeat what Conan said: “I'm looking forward to my audit.”

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

How I Confronted Obama Biographer David Maraniss

I pushed the envelope of citizen journalism a little further this week by introducing myself to Pulitzer-prize winning journalist David Maraniss. According to Maraniss, his research for Barack Obama: The Story took him to Hawaii, Indonesia and Kenya. Unfortunately, he did not have the time to Google search me or review any of the five books, multiple blog posts, YouTube videos or hundreds of websites that feature my take on young Obama’s ideological extremism.

Ironically, Maraniss got awfully close to confirming the details of my 1980 Christmas break debate with young Obama, a debate that reveals just how radical Obama was as a college student. Maraniss reports young Obama was in the San Francisco area at precisely the time when I indicated I first met and debated him. Maraniss, in fact, talked at length with my college-era Marxist girlfriend – Caroline Boss - at whose home the debate took place. Maraniss goes so far as to report that Caroline was part of the composite character “Regina” in Dreams from My Father.

I managed to converse with Maraniss during his recent visit to my alma mater, Occidental College, on October 29, 2012. My wife and I arrived at Occidental’s Thorne Hall early and picked out seats near the front. I learned Maraniss sees young Obama as a largely apolitical figure generally more interested in personal growth than raw political power. In Maraniss’s view, young Obama was largely untouched by the radicalism of either my ex-girlfriend or of his Pakistani roommate, Hassan Chandoo– the older student who admitted to his youthful Marxism in David Remnick’s The Bridge. Maraniss sees no evidence that young Obama was interested in pursuing elected office. For Maraniss, Obama’s lust for power only kicks in just prior to Obama’s application to Harvard Law School. Maraniss’s portrait of young Obama, of course, is absolutely inconsistent with my face-to-face observation that young Obama was 100% committed to preparing for a Communist revolution in the United States and was actively grooming himself to play a leadership role in that highly anticipated, potentially violent conflict.

Maraniss called for questions and I stood up. Speaking into a microphone, I dropped my well-rehearsed bombshell before an audience of about 200 listeners: “Mr. Maraniss, my name is John Drew. I’m a former professor and a former Marxist.” This opening line got a laugh.

“For several years now,” I continued, “I have been very public about my time with Barack Obama at Occidental, where he and I and my girlfriend were all fellow Marxists. A number of conservative authors have asked me about this and published my account in bestselling books. You’ve interviewed my girlfriend and others in our radical circles, but not me. I’d love to talk with you. Would you be open to that? I’m not looking to sell my story or for increased name recognition. I just want to share the truth.”

Maraniss’s response was curt. “Of course,” he said, “ I’m open to talk with anyone.” He shut up and immediately moved on to the next question. Nevertheless, I could see I was on his mind since Maraniss mentioned me by name two more times during his question and answer session. The good news is that he was nice enough to assert that he was not sure of my motivations. The bad news is that he seemed quite certain that everyone else who repeats, or depends, on my testimony -- including Jack Cashill, Paul Kengor, Stanley Kurtz and the editors of American Thinker -- is largely motivated by intractable racism.

While we failed to record video of the question and answer session, Tricia did capture my face-to-face encounter with Maraniss later on. See, http://youtu.be/r4sYJFguGpo

Crouched by the book table, I asked: “How did you find out Caroline was Regina?”

“Didn’t hear it from the president,” he said.

Maraniss seemed to be a bit of a perfectionist when it came to signing our dog-eared copy of Barack Obama: The Story. He graciously wrote: “To John and Tricia, All the Best, David Maraniss.”

I asked: “Do you want to stay in touch?”

“Yeah,” he said, “I’ll give you my e-mail address.”

I asked: “Did you know I existed?”

“After the book came out,” he said.

While I do not know yet if I have a new friend in the field of elite journalism, I think the fact that Maraniss says he never knew about my debate with young Obama until after his book came out indicates that there is something broken in America culture. Apparently, I live in a country where ordinary citizens need to write, research, record -- and perhaps even stage --the news, a country where informants need to go out of their way to share the truth to the preeminent gatekeepers of the mainstream media.

TRANSCRIPT

John Drew: It’s Drew…John and…John and Tricia Drew. How did you find out Caroline was Regina?

David Maraniss: Didn’t hear it from the president. John and Tricia?

John Drew: John and Tricia.

Tricia Drew: T-R-I-C-I-A.

John Drew: I was shocked when I read that…because I…I knew it was…

Tricia Drew: Thank you, sir.

John Drew: Do you want to stay in touch?

David Maraniss: Yeah, I’ll give you my e-mail address.

John Drew: I’m…I’ve written about six articles in American Thinker…Breitbart. Did you know I existed?

David Maraniss: After the book came out… American Thinker…Jack Cashill are not my favorite people. But, I…

Tricia Drew: Thank you, we’ll appreciate that time.

David Maraniss: What you’re talking about and what he’s talking about are two very different things. You’re talking about your relationship which is, for you know, is fact based--as far as you’re concerned. They’re talking about conspiracy theories which there’s just…you know…there’s no factual way to prove these things.

John Drew: If you read my article, you’ll see I actually was…I think was the first person to confront his faith in a Communist revolution in the U.S. …I swear as God is my witness…I think I changed his opinion…I’d place his political interest closer to Occidental.

David Maraniss: Thank you.

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

Mr Trump - I Can Verify Obama is an Affirmative Action President

I could not help but notice that Donald Trump is offering to donate $5 million to one of Obama’s favorite charities if only Obama releases a range of sensitive documents including his undergraduate transcript from Occidental College. I wish Trump would just give the money to me. After all, I believe I have the personal experience and training needed to verify the gist of Trump’s concerns: I can confirm that Obama is an affirmative action president.


I observed that the young Obama had the IQ of an average white college student when I first met him over Christmas break in 1980. Obama was then a sophomore at Oxy and I was a graduate of Oxy who was paying my dues as a political science graduate student at Cornell. I met young Obama when I was in Portolla Valley, CA, reconnecting with my college-era Marxist sweetheart, Caroline Boss. By then, Boss had shared two classes with young Obama, an international relations course taught by Larry Caldwell and Carlos Egan and a political theory class taught by Roger Boesche. Ironically, I taught alongside both Egan and Boesche while I was an assistant professor in the political science department at Williams College.

Boss knew young Obama well enough to let me know that he was “one of us” meaning that he shared our radical point of view and all the class warfare angst associated with it. For the life of me, however, I do not remember her saying anything to the effect that young Obama was one of the brightest students at Oxy--much less a genius.

The bad news, for Trump and others, is that I do not believe Obama’s transcripts would tell us anything about either his nationality or scholarship status. Mine do not. My nationality is not indicated and I do not see any field on the transcript where it would be noted by school officials. I should add that I got to Oxy on a track scholarship. (I ran a 4:23 mile in high school.) However, I see no mention of my athletic prowess or that scholarship on my undergraduate transcript. Reviewing my own transcript, I can report that I earned straight A’s my freshman year. These transcripts also show my SAT scores. I am sure Obama’s transcripts would show his SAT scores too. This would be useful information, in part, because we can estimate a person’s IQ from their SAT scores.

If Trump is reading this piece, I can report that I have gotten good at guessing someone’s IQ. I suspect that anyone who – like me – has made a living as a college professor, a college admissions counselor, or a management consultant gets good at this task. In my case, I also have the experience of growing up with a younger brother who has a genius level IQ and the rocket science resume to back it up.

I can report to Trump that the young Obama came across as an average white guy. This, of course, is exactly what he was. Obama had a white mother and grew up nurtured by his white grandparents. Based on my exposure to young Obama, I estimate that his grades were in the middle B’s and that his IQ was slightly above average for a college student. Personally, I am not surprised by his recent comments on the Jay Leno show to the effect that he was not particularly good at math--“Malia is now a freshman in high school. I’m pretty lost.” I suspect that Obama has been pretty lost for a long time since he does not report taking any college or graduate school classes that might have demanded skill in math, science or economics.

In conclusion, I should add that I have had the opportunity witness a number of former presidents speaking to live audiences. I feel confident making some comparisons. For example, I do not think Obama is blessed with a higher IQ than Carter or Clinton. Obama is not smarter than either George H.W. Bush or his son George W. Bush. Of all of these former presidents, including Reagan, the only one who startled me with his intelligence was Clinton who I saw during a recent business trip to Little Rock, Arkansas. All in all, I think it is reasonable to assert that the only reason Obama is now president is that so many people mistook him to be a genuine African-American, the sort of person who deserved an affirmative action boost to get ahead.

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

Trust Me, I’m from the Past

I watched Mitt Romney dominate the presidential debate immediately after viewing the time travel movie, Looper. If I had access to time travel, I would use it now to leverage my role as the only person on Earth willing to testify that young Obama was a genuine Marxist socialist in 1980. Energized by Romney’s performance, I am asking myself what can I do - right now - to forestall a real life enactment of the future imagined by Rian Johnson, writer and director of Looper. After all, Johnson’s vision looked so bleak that my wife’s reaction was to say: “Looks like Obama won.”

If I had the advantage of time travel, I would go full on Bruce Willis right now. I would go to 2008 and introduce myself to the television studios of Fox News, CNN and MSNBC.

I believe public knowledge of my face-to-face confrontation with young Obama’s ideological extremism in 1980 would have helped prevent Obama’s election in 2008. My account of Obama’s anticipation of a Communist revolution would have alerted voters to the reality that Obama was not a bipartisan politician, but rather a long-standing advocate of class warfare and other hateful ideas promoted earlier by the likes of Frank Marshall Davis. My story would have highlighted the real Obama, the Obama who asserted, as he did at a at a Martin Luther King Day speech at the University of Chicago in 2002, “that rich people are all for non-violence” simply because “they want to make sure people don’t take their stuff.”

I would share with the people of 2008 that Obama is stuck in the ideological past. He is a partisan extremist who cannot imagine doing what Clinton did to save the American economy or uplift the black urban underclass. Obama is the sort of ideological purist who would never pivot to the middle. I would tell the people of 2008 that Obama’s lack of bipartisan skill would blow a perfectly good deal with House Speaker John Boehner for reducing the federal deficit. Instead of cutting the deficit in half, I would tell them Obama will increase the deficit more than all the presidents before him. I would alert the people of 2008 to the fact that Obama would be eager to weaken the previously rock solid work requirements of welfare reform. I would repeat a key line from the movie: “Trust me, I’m from the future.”

Lacking the option of time travel, I still think my story helps explain why it was fairly easy for Mitt Romney to defeat Barack Obama in a formal debate. I can report that young Obama was no genius. I saw signs of that young Obama last week when Romney pointed out that in 25 years in business he had never seen a special tax break for corporations who send jobs overseas. Obama - without his teleprompter and entourage of liberal sycophants – is apparently incapable of reacting forcefully to a verbal punch from a true business and political heavyweight.

Temperamentally, I remember young Obama treated my more accurate understanding of world history with an abrupt, even demagogic hostility. I distinctly remember young Obama’s dismissive, arrogant attitude even as I was presenting him with compelling evidence that Marxist theory was dead wrong at predicting the path of European social and economic events. I remember schooling young Obama so thoroughly in just one evening myself that he left my girlfriend’s house agreeing with my more moderate neo-Marxist perspective.

Culturally, I can report that when I debated young Obama in 1980 he talked like a white guy. I did not see a trace of the phony accent that highlighted Obama’s shocking comments regarding the redistribution of the wealth to a conference of black ministers at Hampton University in Virginia in 2007. In fact, the young Obama I met in 1980 talked like a wealthy, privileged white guy. It never occurred to me to think of young Obama as African-American. After all, the African-American students at Occidental College were largely uninvolved in radical campus politics. They were more likely to be active in the Gospel choir than the Democrat Socialist Alliance. Instead, young Obama seemed more like a foreign prince visiting in the United States.

While I cannot enjoy the benefits of time travel, I do live within six hours of Las Vegas, NV. I suspect my Bruce Willis moment will come when I share my story of debating young Marxist Obama with swing voters in the nearby Silver State. My wife and I have signed up to spend a weekend in Las Vegas walking precincts for the Romney/Ryan campaign. We will enjoy some meals, hotel accommodations, a night on the town and an opportunity to impact this historic election. I have my tagline ready: “Trust me, I’m from the past.”

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist. He applies his skills as a grant writing consultant in the Southern Calfornia area. His website is at the following link: http://drdrewguaranteedgrants.com/about-us/

New Photos From Occidental Years Show Real Obama

The New Yorker blog features new photos that verify my take on what our 44th president acted and looked like as a sophomore at Occidental College. Readers will note the real Obama, the young revolutionary extremist with a soft spot for Islam, that I got to know as a participant in Occidental’s radical student politics.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/10/barack-obama-at-occidental-college-photographs.html#

Curiously, the photos show Obama wearing a band on his left ring finger that WND alleges to read “there is no God but Allah.” 

http://www.wnd.com/2012/10/obamas-ring-there-is-no-god-but-allah/

The photo I find to be most historically significant is the one that shows details from of the anti-apartheid rally of February 18, 1981, the rally that debuted Obama’s famous first skit in Obama’s Dreams from My Father. In contrast to Obama’s story, the banner above the event proclaims the somewhat more complex cause of “Affirmative Action & Divestiture NOW.” The photo features many of the real life figures who would become composite characters in Obama’s autobiography. These include my white ex-girlfriend, Caroline Boss, the radical student leader who improbably lent her grandmother’s name - and much of her scintillating personality - to the big-boned, black “Regina” character.

For the record, I view these photos from the perspective of an accident victim looking at a long ago car wreck. Caroline and I had parted ways just weeks before this rally. As I recall, the split was painful enough to cause us to temporarily adopt the roles of imaginary divorce lawyers, lawyers who combed through our conflicting feelings and amicably laid out the details of what became our eventual, imperfect separation.

For many years, young Obama was simply a footnote in my own intellectual autobiography. He was an early witness to the process in which I abandoned my expectation of a Communist revolution, dropped my old Occidental College friends, and eventually became a Republican business owner. In contrast, Obama held tight to his Occidental College friends and their causes.

“Decades later,” Margot Mifflin writes in response to these photos, “Obama would spur a new generation of students into political action, forging a connection between sixties radicals and media-savvy millennials.” Mifflin, of course, is only telling part of the story. She leaves out the part where at least one of Obama’s friends was not so pleased by the impact of affirmative action and never quite forgot what it was like to sacrifice everything he had for scholarly achievement only to learn, at the end of the process: “Sorry, you’re white.”

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

Gaydar Gap: MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Attacks Dr. Drew's First Impression of Young Obama

As I said, whenever I am asked what I first thought about Barack Obama I tell the truth: I thought he was gay. Apparently, my take on young Obama's metrosexual appearance was worthy of being attacked last week on the Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC.



Maddow is apparently seeking to make me look like some kind of a nut simply because I have been honest about my first impression of young Obama. She and I both have Ph.D.'s in political science. I would think that she would give me some credit for being an honest and truthful person. I would also like to point out that David Maraniss, in his new book Barack Obama: The Story, verified that both young Obama and young Chandoo were in the San Francisco area at exactly then I indicated they were up there visiting with me and my ex-girlfriend.

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.