Speaking to an alternative weekly on the eve of his 1995 run for state senate, Obama derided the "old individualistic bootstrap myth" of American achievement that conservatives were touting. Self-help strategies "have become thinly veiled excuses for cutting back on social programs," he wrote in a chapter that he contributed to a book, After Alinsky: Community Organizing in Illinois.
By: Steven Malanga at Washington Examiner
EXCERPTS:
As a young college graduate immersed in the world of tax-bankrolled activism, President Obama came to reflect the big-government ethos that prevailed among neighborhood organizers, who frequently argued that more government was the solution to social problems.
Later, when he announced his run for president, Obama visited some of these groups and reminded them of their long struggles together. Meeting with leaders of the activist group ACORN, he reminded them, "I've been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career," including representing them in a court case in Illinois.
He left little doubt early in his first term when he funneled hundreds of billions of dollars of federal stimulus money to states and cities to preserve government jobs.
The sharp public reaction against the cynical nature of such deals, evident in the rapid drop in Obama's popularity, reveals the growing pains that the big government coalition of public-sector unions and social advocacy groups is now experiencing as it goes national.
FULL STORY
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