[Vision2020] Obama’s Communist-Pedophile Mentor

[No Weatherman]

Dreams from Frank Marshall Davis
By Paul Kengor

As more and more audio and video emerge on Barack Obama's desire to
redistribute wealth, not to mention his views on the housing crisis
that has torpedoed the U.S. economy, I keep returning to two columns
I've read by Frank Marshall Davis, the communist journalist-agitator
who mentored Obama in Hawaii. While much attention has been paid to
Obama's relationship with communist-terrorist Bill Ayers — and rightly
so — much less attention has been devoted to Davis. That's a mistake,
since Obama was influenced more by Davis than Ayers.

Davis, who is now deceased, was an African American from the Midwest
who had worked as a columnist for the Chicago Star, the communist
newspaper of Chicago, a city that had one of the largest CPUSA
affiliates, and, in fact, hosted the September 1919 convention that
launched the American Communist Party. Though Davis always tried to
conceal any communist associations — ironically, Obama supporters have
picked up that torch — there's no question that Davis was a communist,
as is immediately evident upon reading his columns, examining his
background, or consulting with people in the party (to this day) who
confirm he was a communist. The fact that he was at least a lower case
"c" "communist" is obvious. It takes a little more digging to find
evidence of his membership in CPUSA — but not much. Among the sources
that reveal his membership are Davis himself, notably in a letter he
wrote to a friend, published posthumously by his biographer, Professor
John Edgar Tidwell. "I have recently joined the Communist party,"
wrote Davis.

In 1948, Davis just happened to arrive in Hawaii the same time that
leaders of the Communist Party in Hawaii — realizing the limits of
national party organs like the Daily Worker and People's Daily World —
established their own weekly newspaper, the Honolulu Record. In 1949,
Davis began writing a regular column for the Record, titled, "Frankly
Speaking." This was a key form of agitation work that Davis would do
for the party in Hawaii for decades.

A young Barack Obama knew Davis in the latter 1970s, introduced by his
maternal grandfather, Stanley Dunham, who, in many ways, saw
eye-to-eye with Davis, and saw in Davis a potential role model and
father-figure to his grandson. Dunham and Davis were close friends.

Though proud of Davis, and very affectionate toward him, Obama sought
to obfuscate the identity of Davis in his book, Dreams from My Father,
where he strangely referred to him only as "Frank," conspicuously
avoiding his full name. Politically, Obama needed to make Davis
anonymous, whereas, personally, he could not avoid acknowledging in
his memoirs a man who meant so much to him.

I've connected these dots through my Cold War research, which is
grounded in primary sources like the Soviet Comintern Archives on
CPUSA, FBI files, recently released CPUSA documents at Tamiment
Library, and much more. This has brought me into contact with various
communist characters and fellow travelers who have molded or worked
with Barack Obama, from Davis to Bill Ayers to Saul Alinsky.

So, that's all background on Davis's identity and how Obama knew him.

Now, what about those columns I mentioned earlier? Obama's recent
remarks on wealth redistribution made me think of two Davis columns in
particular, both for the Honolulu Record:

The first was Davis's January 26, 1950 piece, "Free Enterprise or
Socialism?" Davis hoped that America and its economy were at a turning
point, as if a kind of perfect storm was brewing that could at last
allow him and his comrades to realize their dreams of a socialist
America. They would need to trash the current free-enterprise system
and argue for a change to something else. Of course, they could not
fully disclose themselves, their beliefs, and their intentions,
although any thinking observer could easily read between the lines.
The key was to gain the support of the people who didn't know any
difference.

Davis began his article by asserting, "Before too long, our nation
will have to decide whether we shall have free enterprise or
socialism." He pointed to actions in Congress, where he quoted the
then-chairman of the Congressional committee on small business, who,
according to Davis, warned that "at the present rate, either the giant
corporations will control all our markets, the greatest share of our
wealth, and eventually, our government, or the government will be
forced to intervene with some form of direct regulation of business."

Davis did not like "big business" and the rapacious, "tentacled" rich
men who ran it. "For instance," wrote Davis, "Alfred Sloan of General
Motors announced that his gigantic company made a profit last year of
$600,000,000, more than any other corporation in history. Over the
years, General Motors has swallowed up or knocked out car manufacturer
after car manufacturer so that today less than a handful of
competitors remain. Free enterprise, eh?"

"Monopolies" like GM had to be controlled by the government, said
Davis. If not, the likes of GM would control the government.
"Obviously, a business that can show a profit . . . of $600,000,000 is
in a position to control government," wrote Davis. "When we remember
that the directors and major stockholders of one industry also shape
the policies of banks and other huge corporations, it is easy to see
that the tentacles of Big Business control just about everything they
think they need to insure continued profits." Davis claimed that, "The
control of our wealth and government by the giant corporations . . .
[was] accomplished fact."

Davis believed that it was such free enterprise run amok, allegedly
un-regulated and un-checked by the federal government, that had caused
the Great Depression: "For many years now we have been living under
the virtual dictatorship of Big Business which all but drove us to
ruin in 1929."

Davis was grateful for the grand intervention of Franklin Delano
Roosevelt, who he believed had saved the day: "By curbing the excesses
of the giant corporations that had led to the economic crisis,
Roosevelt was able to save the system from complete collapse."

Even then, FDR, in Davis's eyes, had not done enough: "And yet the
moneyed men who were bailed out by the New Deal program were our late
president's [FDR's] biggest enemies. They have refused to see that in
order to preserve their hides, they had to hand out a few drops of
gravy to the common man."

Toeing the Stalinist line, as he always did without deviation, Davis
then blamed American capitalism for starting World War II. That had
been the party line issued by Stalin in his February 1946 Bolshoi
Theatre speech. It was a ridiculous, outrageous lie, one that
infuriated Democrats and Republicans alike. Nonetheless, the lie
became marching orders for Davis and other comrades at party organs
around the world. It was their duty to follow that party line, and
they happily saluted the red flag. In his column, Davis zeroed in on
the true bad guys of World War II: "This bolstering of a sick economy
ended at the outset of World War II. Multi-billion-dollar expenditures
for the means of killing fellow humans brought added profits and Big
Business emerged stronger than ever before in history after V-J Day."

And now, in January 1950, things were especially grim under President
Harry Truman, who Davis particularly despised, given that the
Democratic president was, at the time, publicly condemning,
countering, and seeking to contain Stalin. Moscow had told the good
comrades to take special aim at the "fascist," "Hitlerian" Harry
Truman, and Davis did precisely that, unceasingly demonizing this icon
of the Democratic Party. For the hard left, the current American
president had to be bludgeoned beyond recognition; the left did so
with great success, as Truman would eventually leave office the most
unpopular president in the history of American polling — until a man
named George W. Bush.

There was a conspiracy, suggested Davis, between Truman and even
larger monopolies "fattened" by recent mergers. Wrote Davis: "With
this added weight to throw around, and a president [Truman] willing to
do their bidding after the death of Roosevelt, our giant corporations
have had things pretty much their own way. Government policy is fixed
in Wall Street and transmitted through the corporation executives who
have been appointed by Truman to high federal office. OPA was killed,
the Marshall Plan launched and the nation placed on the brink of war
economy —  so that such firms as General Motors could make
$600,000,000 profit while unemployment skyrocketed."

Davis, for the record, hated the Marshall Plan as much as he hated
Truman and Wall Street. That was because Moscow hated the Marshall
Plan, which was intended first and foremost to keep Western Europe
from falling to communism.

What's worse, said Davis, was that America was busy simultaneously
giving a bad name to socialism. Many Americans, especially
conservatives, recklessly tossed around the "S word." "At the same
time we have manufactured a national horror of socialism," wrote
Davis. "Meanwhile, the dictatorship of the monopolies is driving us
down the road to ruin." Alas, we could expect "still rising
unemployment and a mounting depression."

"[T]he time draws nearer," advised Davis, "when we will have to decide
to oust the monopolies and restore a competing system of free
enterprise, or let the government own and operate our major
industries."

I will let you guess which solution Davis preferred.

Comrade Davis put it more bluntly a few weeks later in his March 2,
1950 column, approvingly quoting Woodrow Wilson: "The masters of the
government of the United States are the combined capitalists and
manufacturers of the United States." In that column, Davis was most
concerned with the inability of poor Americans to purchase "a decent
home."

For Davis, the only hope was a huge, emboldened federal government
that could save Americans from the capitalists, that could rein in
fat-cat corporations, that could slap down Wall Street and its
excesses, that could spread the wealth, and that could ensure that the
poor could buy a home.

To bolster his case, Davis went back to the height of the Great
Depression, borrowing a 1935 quote (allegedly) from the governor of
Pennsylvania: "I warn you that our civilization is in danger if we
heed the deceptive cries of special privilege, if we permit our men of
great wealth to send us on a wild goose chase after so-called radicals
while they continue to plunder the people. . . . We are constantly
told of the evils of Socialism and Communism. The label is applied to
every man, woman and child who dares to say a word which does not have
the approval of Wall Street."

Do not look to the conservatives for help, said Davis. The
conservatives were racists: "If I were conservative, that would mean
automatically that I think we have gone too far in trying to break the
yoke of color bondage and that I am in favor of greater discrimination
. . . not less."

Davis warned that some fear-mongers would try to silence the likes of
him by branding him a socialist, or a "Red engaged in subversive
operations," or "an agent of Moscow." "But I, personally, have no
intention of being silenced by a label," wrote a stoic Davis. "I do
not intend to be frightened into submission to the status quo."

What I've shared from these two columns is only a sample of what Frank
Marshall Davis, Barack Obama's self-acknowledged mentor, wrote for
decades. This was his thinking. Coincidentally, Davis's form of
agitation would have been at home right now with the current housing
and economic crisis in America. He would have been in his element,
thriving — on autopilot.

It is amazing, though not surprising, that today's Democrats will help
cover for Frank Marshall Davis, given that Davis despised their party
and constantly worked to undermine its heroes throughout the Cold War.
Modern Democrats are oblivious to the nuances of the early Cold War
and still don't appreciate the communist threat of their day,
including the fact that the communists viewed them as idiots to be
duped; the communists were not their friends. Still, liberals will
dutifully protect the likes of Frank Marshall Davis so as to elect
Barack Obama, the current Democratic nominee — as Harry Truman and
John F. Kennedy roll over in their graves.

To what degree are Obama's comments on the economy and taxes
influenced by the communist-socialist ideas of Davis? No doubt, the
question is fair, given that we only know of the Obama-Davis
relationship because of Barack Obama himself, who opened the door in
his memoirs. I could never have written this piece if Obama hadn't
acknowledged Davis. Obama was mentored by Davis in his late teens,
before heading off to college, where, as Obama wrote in Dreams From My
Father, he hung out with the "Marxist professors" and attended
"socialist conferences."

And yet, not a single one of our nation's leading journalists has
asked any such questions. They are far more interested in Sarah
Palin's wardrobe and Joe the Plumber's license. The New York Times is
busy with bigger issues, like Cindy McCain's history of murder and
mayhem.

It is truly, truly amazing to behold. For modern journalists, truth is
second to their politics.

Paul Kengor is author of The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of
Communism (HarperPerennial, 2007) and professor of political science
at Grove City College. His latest book is The Judge: William P. Clark,
Ronald Reagan's Top Hand (Ignatius Press, 2007).
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/dreams_from_frank_marshall_dav.html