Cloward-Piven

As the Obama administration's agenda continues to unfold, Americans are now forced to confront the issue of whether Barack Obama's presidency represents a departure from our traditions of free-market capitalism, individual freedom (and accountability) and social modesty. As we bear witness to the socialization of formerly private enterprises and the looming collectivization of education and health care, we might be forgiven for asking whether Obama is serving as a Trojan Horse for radical elements whose agenda could not otherwise be implemented save for the current economic crisis. Now more than ever, it is appropriate to at least examine the basis for such an opinion.

Presented as food for thought, I submit several items for your review. By way of recapitulation for some, the video below provides a good overview of the Cloward-Piven Strategy (named for the late Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven), which intended to force social change by way of mobilizing the poor, as discussed more extensively here. For additional background on Cloward-Piven, please review an op-ed by Robert Chandler from the Washington Times.



I also encourage a review a widely-circulated American Thinker article by James Simpson, which makes the case that the current economic downturn was in fact caused by Democrats in order to provide for the election of a Democratic president, as well as to allow for the successful implementation of their collectivist agenda.

Taken separately, each piece suggests that there is great potential for the implementation of Cloward-Piven. Reviewed in toto, a dark picture of America's future emerges. Consider that fact that even five months ago, it would have been impossible to conceive of an American president summarily firing the CEO of a private corporation. Doubtless, no one would ever have thought that executives from another private entity could be forced to give back bonuses that were promised as a condition of employment (and were codified in Federal law), or else have them subject to a 90 percent tax rate.

It is my sense that our Community Organizer-In Chief is well on his way to establishing Cloward-Piven as the law of the land. If this does not frighten you, consider the plight of the African American underclass, the primary tool for executing this strategy. As a whole, the black underclass lives in conditions that are in many ways worse than when the Civil Rights Movement began. Today, upwards of 75 percent of all black children are born out of wedlock, high school graduation rates in many inner-city schools are as low as 30 percent and violence is endemic throughout black communities across the country. There is absolutely no reason to believe that these conditions will not become more widespread with the wholesale adoption of Cloward-Piven.