Ballad Of Bernardine

, Amanda Winkler, Leave a comment


Northwestern University Professor and veteran 60s protestor Bernardine Dohrn supported Obama’s presidency, however, her vocal support may not be something that he wants right now especially after last Tuesday’s “shellacking.” But unfortunately for the President, she just won’t go away. A video was released last week of Dohrn giving an interview with NewsClick India. In the short two and a half minute segment, she is seen degrading US society, especially the political and social right-wing. She begins by saying US politics is becoming more polarized with a new hard right emerging. Wait – she corrects that statement and adds, “an armed hard right emerging.” Photos of Tea Party Ralliers armed with second amendment signs appear on the screen while the interviewer nods with sympathy and says, “it must have been hard for you.” She believes the political move to the Right in the last election stems from the Right’s “massive control of the media.”

She also believes that there is no formidable political Left in US politics, only a Right. The Right is “racist, harmed, hostile, and unspeakable.” Obama needs a political Left, she asserts. Dohrn goes on to say that she cannot believe that the Right held an armed demonstration in front of the White House. Presumably, she is speaking of the Tea Party rally in which participants brought their guns to DC for a peaceful protest in favor of the 2nd Amendment rights. Perhaps no one informed Dohrn that this protest was indeed peaceful and no one was hurt. “This [rally] is very crazy-producing, very ominous,” she said. She goes on to state that if a black crowd had an armed protest in front of the White House during the Bush years there would have been a blood bath. Again, perhaps she is not informed that the Tea Party is made up of different nationalities and skin tones, including black.

As a candidate, Obama sought to distance himself from Dohrn and her husband Bill Ayers by saying that their crimes in the Weather Underground took place when he was a boy and that the couple was not radical anymore. Dohrn assures NewsClick that, “we are radicals today and think that the real terrorist is the American government, state terrorism unleashed against the world.”

*Friends of Barack

Amanda Winkler is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.

If you would like to comment on this article, e-mail mal.kline@academia.org