The last entry in this series — wondering if Barack Obama is driven by a quiet anger, spurred by feelings of betrayal by his father — generated some discussion around the blogs. A couple of folks agree that the candidate harbors a hidden anger, but suggests the focus is his mother.
Or both; Campaign Spot reader Rebecca pointed me to this account of Obama’s younger years:
In his best-selling autobiography, “Dreams from My Father,” Obama describes having heated conversations about racism with another black student, “Ray.” The real Ray, Keith Kakugawa, is half black and half Japanese. In an interview with the Tribune on Saturday, Kakugawa said he always considered himself mixed race, like so many of his friends in Hawaii, and was not an angry young black man.
He said he does recall long, soulful talks with the young Obama and that his friend confided his longing and loneliness. But those talks, Kakugawa said, were not about race. “Not even close,” he said, adding that Obama was dealing with “some inner turmoil” in those days.
“But it wasn’t a race thing,” he said. “Barry’s biggest struggles then were missing his parents. His biggest struggles were his feelings of abandonment. The idea that his biggest struggle was race is [bull].”
Hearing this, one can’t help but feel a pang of sympathy at the thought of young Barack Obama, coping with two parents who inexplicably chose to live on the other side of the world from him.
Keep in mind, this may or may not be all that relevant to evaluating Barack Obama in terms of his policies. But every president comes to office shaped by their experiences, and Obama and his backers have touted his unusual, globe-spanning life story as one of the characteristics that make him most qualified to be president. In other words, if he can tout his Spring Break tour of Pakistan in 1981 as giving him unique insight in that country today, it’s tough to argue his relationship with his parents is completely irrelevant.
Greg Ransom of PrestoPundit found a paper Barack Obama’s father wrote for the East Africa Journal., dusted off from the stacks at UCLA. He also finds several passages from Dreams of My Father that indicate Obama felt his father’s ideals were a driving force in his life, without really getting into specifics of what his father’s ideals were.
My father’s voice had nevertheless remained untainted, inspiring, rebuking, granting or withholding approval. You do not work hard enough, Barry. You must help in your people’s struggle. Wake up, black man!
Ransom takes a look at the paper:
1. Obama advocated the communal ownership of land and the forced confiscation of privately controlled land, as part of a forced “development plan”, an important element of his attack on the government’s advocacy of private ownership, land titles, and property registration. (p. 29)
2. Obama advocated the nationalization of “European” and “Asian” owned enterprises, including hotels, with the control of these operations handed over to the “indigenous” black population. (pp. 32 -33)
3. Obama advocated dramatically increasing taxation on “the rich” even up to the 100% level, arguing that, “there is no limit to taxation if the benefits derived from public services by society measure up to the cost in taxation which they have to pay” (p. 30) and that, “Theoretically, there is nothing that can stop the government from taxing 100% of income so long as the people get benefits from the government commensurate with their income which is taxed.” (p. 31)
Ransom promises further exploration of this topic. I would contend that Obama Sr. influenced his son more in his absence than in his economic theories, but I’m open to persuasion otherwise.
I have also finally gotten to the offhand comment from Obama’s half-sister that suggests that their father was a polygamist:
“Why didn’t you stay with your own mother?”
Auma shook her head. “I don’t know exactly. In Kenya, men get to keep children in a divorce – if they want them, that is. I asked my mum about this, but it’s difficult for her to talk about. She only says that the Old Man [her father]‘s new wife refused to live with another wife, and that she – my mum – thought us children would be better off living with the Old Man because he was rich.”
Other accounts from those who knew him appear to confirm it:
In fact Ann divorced her husband after she discovered his bigamous double life. She remarried and moved to Indonesia with young Barack and her new husband, an oil company manager.
Obama Snr was forced to return to Kenya, where he fathered two more children by Kezia. He was eventually hired as a top civil servant in the fledgling government of Jomo Kenyatta – and married yet again.
Now prosperous with a flashy car and good salary, his third wife was an American-born teacher called Ruth, whom he had met at Harvard while still legally married to both Kezia and Ann, and who followed him to Africa.
A relative of Mr Obama says: “We told him[Barack] how his father would still go to Kezia and it was during these visits that she became pregnant with two more children. He also had two children with Ruth.”
It is alleged that Ruth finally left him after he repeatedly flew into whisky-fuelled rages, beating her brutally.
I don’t blame Obama for his father’s wrongdoings, and I don’t blame him if he chose to gloss over his father’s polygamy in his autobiography (written about a decade before he ran for the Senate).
I would also note that some sections, where Obama describes his efforts at “community organizing”, are heartbreaking in their portrait of inner city despair. And this paragraph stuck with me:
Then, as if the sight of this big man weeping had watered the dry surface of their hearts, the others in the room began speaking about their own memories in solemn, urgent tones. They talked about life in small Southern towns: the corner stores where men had gathered to learn the news of the day or lend a hand to women with their groceries, the way adults looked after each other’s children (“Couldn’t get away with nothing, ‘cause your momma had eyes and ears up and down the whole block”) the sense of public decorum that such familiarity had helped sustain.
I suspect many conservatives also long for that sense of community. But as a great book noted, government can’t create a sense of community.