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.

Dr. Drew Debunks ConWebBlog: Five Authors with Ph.D.s See Me as Credible

I have been reflecting on the irony that five authors with Ph.D.s all find my take on young Obama credible including Michael Savage, Jack Cashill, Stanley Kurtz, Paul Kengor and Jerome Corsi, and yet I get attacked by less credentialed critics who assert I have no credibility. What is up with that?  At any rate, I thing it is important to quickly debunk the folks who attack my credibility, so I thought I would jot out some ideas here and now.

As you may know Jerome Corsi just published an article featuring my first impressions of young Obama: I thought he was part of a wealthy gay couple. In a world where Obama uses his marriage and family for political gain, I guess it is fair to ask folks like me what we first thought of the sexual orientation of the young Obama. What ticks me off, however, is when the guy running ConWebBlog suggests that I am a "discredited source." Terry K. writes:

But as we've also detailed, Drew -- who has cited his encounters with Obama to claim that he was, as Corsi wrote, a "Marxist revolutionar[y]" -- met Obama only twice in social occasions, making it highly unlikely that he could have made such sweeping conclusions of Obama's purported nature based on brief, casual encounters. Further, some of Drew's details about Obama have been discredited by actual college friends of Obama.

Corsi makes no apparent effort to fact-check anything Drew says.

It seems Drew is nothing more than an Obama-hater who's embellishing his brief, long-ago encounters to curry favor with fellow Obama-haters. Why? Presumably to sell some books -- he's supposedly working on one. And Corsi is swallowing every word he says.

Let me unpack this for you and illustrate why I have such a low opinion of ConWebBlog.

First, my assessment of Obama's commitment to Marxist revolutionary thought was not based simply on brief, casual encounters. The girlfriend who introduced me to Obama, Caroline Boss, was so close to him that she became part of the composite character "Regina" in Obama's book, Dreams From My Father. The very name "Regina" was taken from the real life name of Boss's grandmother.

Second, I did not have a casual encounter with young Obama. Instead, he and I engaged in an intense, sometimes angry debate about whether or not Communism was a realistic objective and whether or not a violent Communist revolution was or was not a realistic possibility. It was an important debate that - potentially - impacted young Obama's early career decisions. I remember that debate no so much because of young Obama, but because of how my changing views on Marxist ideology impacted my relationship with Boss. (No one else has provided anything close to the detailed description of young Obama's thinking as I have provided in various articles.)

Third, many of the details of my story have been confirmed, not discredited including my report on Obama's GQ style of dress which was confirmed by Margot Mifflin in Remnick's The Bridge, my report that both young Obama and young Chandoo were in the San Francisco area over Christmas break 1980 which was confirmed by David Maraniss in his book, Barack Obama: The Story, and my take on the lack of African-Americans in young Obama's social circles is verified by reports which indicate that none of Obama's supposed African-American friends from Oxy attended his wedding to Michelle even though his Indian and Pakastani friends from Oxy did attend his wedding to Michelle.

My report on Boss's radicalism was confirmed, in part, when Remnick pointed out that the Democrat Socialist Alliance, where she was the co-chair, displayed a large banner of Karl Marx in the Occidental Quad and later when Remnick confirms Obama's roommate, Chandoo, admitted to his youthful Marxism.

I was on the phone with Jerome Corsi while he was writing that article and I can verify he was doing his fact-checking by running various photos, scenarios and stories by me prior to publication. I am consenting to interviews because I am still quite frustrated that the mainstream media failed to pick up on young Obama's radicalism in 2008. I have no doubt that if my story had gotten proper media attention in 2008, Obama would never have been elected president in the first place.

Although I have not been interviewed by liberal authors like Remnick or Maraniss, my story has been considered credible enough to be featured in a number of other publications by four authors with Ph.D.s including, as Corsi has written, the following references:

Author Paul Kengor discusses Drew’s testimony that Obama was a Marxist-Leninist at Occidental in his 2010 book “Dupes: How America’s Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century,” beginning on page 445, and in his 2012 book “The Communist: Frank Marshall Davis – The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mentor,” beginning on page 10 and resuming more extensively on page 249.

Author and WND columnist Jack Cashill mentioned Drew’s testimony of Obama’s Marxist views on page 224 of his 2011 book “Deconstructing Obama: The Life, Loves, and Letters of America’s First Postmodern President.”

Author Stanley Kurtz discusses Drew’s contention that Obama was a “pure Marxist-socialist” at Occidental in his 2010 book “Radical-in-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism,” on pages 9-10 and again on pages 88-91.

Finally, I have debunked many of the on-line critics of my face-to-face report on young Obama's ideological extremism in the posts I created usually on the same day that attack appeared including the following work:

In response to the "Oh For Goodness Sake blogger," Anne Stoddard, who first wrote about me on February 17, 2010, I immediately debunked her silliness in an article I wrote on the same day her article was posted which appeared at the Patriot Action Network website.

I also debunked the "Oh For Goodness Sake" blogger once again when she wrote another inaccurate smear piece attacking me on March 11, 2011. I immediately debunked this article too.

For recent articles that provide more details of my take on young Obama's ideological extremism, please see the following articles in American Thinker, Breitbart.com or PJMedia. As far as I am concerned, I think it is extremely unfair to describe me as a discredited source when so many of the things I said about young Obama and his friends in February 2010 have rung true as subsequent literature - from liberals and conservatives - has verified my take on young Obama's radicalism.

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

Washington Post’s David Maraniss Verifies Obama in SF Area In Time for Famous Pro-Marxist Debate with Me Back in 1980.




John Drew and Caroline Boss in June
1981 - two Marxist friends of young
Barack Obama. 

 In Barack Obama: The Story, David Maraniss writes young Barack Obama was in the San Francisco area during his Christmas break from Occidental College in 1980. As the only person in the world willing to verify young Obama was an ardent Marxist socialist extremist, I am pleased Maraniss - a Washington Post associate editor, a Pulitzer Prize winning author and the co-author of Tell Newt to Shut Up! - provides a clear, compelling and independent verification of a key element of my story – that I first confronted young Obama’s radicalism at the home of Caroline Boss in Portola Valley - a small city outside of Palo Alto and just beneath San Francisco.

This verification is especially since it comes from a liberal author who has otherwise minimized young Obama’s ties to radical ideologues like Obama’s Communist mentor Frank Marshall Davis, Chicago socialist politician Alice Palmer or our nation’s number one unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers.

Ronald Kessler began the work of verifying my face-to-face confrontation of young Obama’s naïve faith in an inevitable Communist revolution in a NewsMax article titled “Obama Espoused Radical Views in College” on February 8, 2010.

Back then, Kessler sought to make contact with President Obama and two of his fellow Occidental students who witnessed that debate including Obama’s sophomore year roommate, Hasan Chandoo, and my college era girlfriend, Caroline Boss. Both Boss and the White House wisely declined to comment on Kessler’s article. Chandoo, however, verified the debate took place and added his own spin to soften the damage my story did to President Obama’s reputation as a pragmatic centrist.

In retrospect, I think what is most startling to me is that Maraniss did not bother to interview me but nevertheless verified key portions of my testimony in Barack Obama: The Story. Maraniss confirmed Obama’s whereabouts at Christmas break 1980, confirmed Chandoo’s Marxist credentials, and confirmed both that Boss was a socialist and that she was Obama’s inspiration for the composite character Regina in Dreams from My Father. (Boss’s working class Swiss grandmother was named Regina.)

Given the way my report on young Obama’s ideological extremism has endured the test of time, I would think Maraniss would be eager to interview a fellow like me – a published author and a political scientist - to get more details about the exact specifications of young Obama’s political views. After all, other authors have reported my story in their books including Michael Savage’s Trickle Up Poverty, Stanley Kurtz’s Radical-In-Chief, Jack Cashill’s Deconstructing Obama and most recently Paul Kengor’s The Communist – Frank Marshall Davis: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mentor.

The gist of my story is that I had been romantically involved with the Marxist Caroline Boss starting in the Spring of 1979 when I graduated from Occidental until the Spring of 1981 when she graduated from Occidental.

At the time I met young Obama, Boss was serving as the co-president of the Democrat Socialist Alliance (DSA) at Occidental. As I had done the previous Christmas break, I had flown back to see Boss during the holidays in 1980. As evidence of this significant relationship, I still have a number of cards and letters from her and the attached picture of me and Boss (see above). It shows what we looked like as a young couple in 1981.

My side of the story is that after a year and a half of study in political science at Cornell University, I no longer believed it was plausible to anticipate a Communist revolution in the United States. Moreover, I no longer thought it feasible to eliminate the profit motive from a modern economy. Given my new evidence-based insight, I thought I was doing Boss, Obama and Chandoo all a great favor when I confronted their belief in an inevitable Communist revolution.

My goal of enlightening my friends backfired with both Boss and Obama strenuously objecting to my argument.

I am sure Maraniss realizes my face-to-face testimony makes it perfectly clear that young Obama was not to the ideological right of Boss and Chandoo - as Maraniss writes - but instead completely shared his undergraduate friend’s radical, revolutionary ideology.

Accordingly, I think Maraniss inadvertently did grave damage to Obama’s carefully protected reputation as a pragmatic centrist. He did that by simply verifying that the young Obama was in northern California at the exact the time when I reported that I had confronted Obama’s absurd faith in an inevitable Communist revolution.

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

Today Is a Good Day to Ask: When Will White House Press Ask About Young Obama's Extremist Ideology?

 

Dr. Drew reports on young
Obama's ideological extremism
in Stanley Kurtz's Radical-In-Chief.

I've been thinking through my primary objectives in going public with my take on young Obama's Marxist socialist views. Here they are:

1. Fixing the Historical Record and Debunking Liberal Scholars: What totally ticks me off is the way people like historian James Kloppenberg seek to obscure the real Obama from the public’s consciousness. Accordingly, I'm proud to play a small role in debunking the myth that Obama was always a pragmatist/centerist – as Kloppenberg argues in Reading Obama. Since I witnessed young Obama’s extremist ideology face-to-face, I think it is important to report that scholars like Kloppenberg do not know what they are talking about when it comes to understanding young Obama’s ideology.

2. Stopping Obama from Voiding U.S. Constitution With Liberal Judicial Appointments: Given the upcoming 2012 election, I think a lot of people are interested in determining the extent to which Obama has lied about his Marxist socialist ideology in the past and the extent to which his long-standing ties to extremist ideology will impact us if he has another term as president. I’m particularly concerned about what Obama might do to harm our country by appointing Supreme Court justices who will not see the Constitution as a barrier to redistributing wealth or institutionalizing socialized medicine. Obama’s appointment of Van Jones to his White House staff shows Obama cannot be trusted to keep ideological extremists out of his administration. As a political scientist, I know that Obama’s ideology will be even more dangerous if he is given another four years in office.

3. Unrepentant Righteous Vindication: I’ve been saying that Obama was a Marxist socialist as a sophomore at Occidental College since 2008. Virtually all of the subsequent literature – from the left and the right – is consistent with my take on young Obama’s extremist ideology, including Remnick’s book, The Bridge. I'm still amazed that the mainstream media buried my report on young Obama's ideological extremism despite my experience as a former Williams College professor and as an award-winning political scientist.  Since I taught with Roger Boesche while he was at Williams College, I’m still shocked I was never interviewed to report on the ideology of the person widely believed to be young Obama’s favorite college professor.

4. The Big Issue: The fundamental issue is what does Obama believe now? Obama has never explained how, if at all, he got out of his Marxist socialist perspective. I've explained my own conversion story. I would think that most voters would be eager to see more accountability from the president of the United States regarding his own background and intellectual history. I'm looking forward to the day that someone in the White House press room has the courage to ask: "Mr. President, have you ever argued in favor of Marx's revolutionary ideology?"

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