Obama-redistribution of wealth comments

Katie_F

Has this been posted? ?It's the main Drudge headline. ?Someone put a radio interview of Obama from 2001 on youtube in which he basically says that he wants the SCOTUS to take up redistribution of wealth.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iivL4c_3pck

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_Fenton

"The supreme court never ventured into redistribution of wealth and more basic issues of economic justice in this society, and to that extent as radical as people try to characterize the Warren court, it wasn't that radical.

...One of the tragedies of the civil rights movement was because the civil rights movement became so court focused, there was a tendency to lose track of the political community organizing activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalitions of power that bring about redistributive change.

"I'm not optimistic about bringing about major redistributive changes through the courts."

Later he goes on to talk about the court being hesitant to get into improvments in schools, that are administrative and take a lot of time, that could bring about "redistributive change."

This is about education and helping people get work that will enable redistribution of wealth by helping people help themselves.  He answers the question about the civil rights movement and says the courts are not the right way to fight economic disparity.

Katie_F

_Fenton:

"I'm not optimistic about bringing about major redistributive changes through the courts."

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See, now this quote I took to mean they should be doing it but he's not?optimistic?that they ever will.?

_Fenton

I think he was prompted to comment on whether it should be done because of the question asked by the caller.  In the previous statement, he characterizes the idea of a court doing so as radical, and says that the flaw in the civil rights movement is that it was too court-centric.  And that if the grassroots, ground efforts had been an emphasis, we could have achieved "redistributive change."  It's no secret that after the CR movement that education, equal pay, and getting good jobs were challenges for the black community. 

When I hear redistributive change, I interpret the concept of closing the economic gap by helping people help themselves.  I don't think this means giving handouts to all poor people.  I think it means giving a hand to people who want to work, which in the end is good for everyone (like he told Joe the Plumber).  I completely agree that giving people opportunities to better themselves is what will improve our economy and our society.

 

EastSideFluffy

I read a couple little bits about this in my blogs this morning.  They seem to suggest that the piece is heavily edited and there might be more to the context.

That aside, I wonder if he was referring to the effort by civil rights groups to change the way schools are funded.  Right now, in most states, they are funded by local property taxes.  Which means kids in wealthy areas get better schools than kids in poor areas, or in areas where more people rent.  I know many people support pooling funds statewide and distributing the money equally across school districts.  It's definitely a form of redistributing wealth and something civil rights activists in the 60s tried to push through the courts but failed. 

I suspect it's approaches like that that he was referring to.  I hardly think that idea is a radical one - it's definitely something I support.  I don't really think it's possible for the Supreme Court to redistribute wealth in many ways - there's a constitution and they can't just take people's property without compensation.  And I'm sure Obama knows that.  I'm willing to bet he was just talking about the court addressing government policies that have a discriminatory impact and perhaps the court should have taken those up.

I suppose the alternative was that he was expressing some support for a Kelo-style policy where the gov's eminent domain powers encompass the right to take private property for private purposes, in that it will create jobs and revenue.  That I don't support.  But, Palin used eminent domain to force a private citizen to sell his land so she could build a hockey arena, so both sides are guilty on this point, so it's hardly worth criticizing Obama for his views on this (if that is even what they are, I don't know, I'm speculating).

_Fenton

In the second portion where he was talking about redistributive change, he did mention education funding, so I think you are probably right on.

EastSideFluffy

Good to know Fenton.  I didn't bother listening since what I had read was that it was heavily edited, so I didn't see the point.  But, it sounds like I was probably right.

 

Katie_F:

_Fenton:

"I'm not optimistic about bringing about major redistributive changes through the courts."

 

See, now this quote I took to mean they should be doing it but he's not optimistic that they ever will. 

I disagree.  I think his line here:

 "one of the, I think, the tragedies of the civil rights movement, was because the civil rights movement became so court focused, I think that there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalitions of power through which you bring about redistributive change, and in some ways we still stuffer from that."

supports Fenton's view that he doesn't think the Court should be doing it at all.  It seems he thinks the NAACP and friends focused too heavily on the courts and not enough on the type of work he did, which would be a more effective, powerful way of economically empowering minorities.  It sounds like he laments the court-centric approach because it took the focus away from other approaches, not because it wasn't far-reaching or radical enough.