Obama praises communist Seeger for 'showing us where we need to go'

[rangerrebew]

Obama Praises Communist Seeger for 'Showing us Where We Need to Go'


1.28.2014
 
| Truth Revolt |


The official Barack Obama Twitter account released a quote personally attributed to the President Tuesday eulogizing communist folk singer Pete Seger.

In the tweet, the President says "we will always be grateful" to Seeger for "showing us where we need to go."

 


 

For Seeger, who died Monday at the age of 94, 'where we need to go' was to the worker's paradise of the communist utopia.

While Seeger is often praised in the mainstream media as a civil-rights activist, social justice activist or, as the LA times called him Monday, 'America's conscience,' Seeger was, by his own declaration, a communist. According to a 1995 interview with the folk singer in the New York Times, it was Seeger's father who introduced him to Communism, and while he "drifted out" of the Communist Party USA in the 1950's and later apologized for not seeing the cruelty of Stalin, he remained a self-declared communist throughout his life.

“
I still call myself a communist, because communism is no more what Russia made of it than Christianity is what the churches make of it.

Said Seeger in the same interview:

“
 I want to turn the clock back to when people lived in small villages and took care of each other.

Seeger was brought before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1955 and found in contempt of congress. While Seeger claimed to have left the CPUSA by this time, he continued to be a voice for leftism, traveling to the Soviet Union in 1965 and North Vietnam in 1972. In a book about his life, "The Protest Singer" by Alec Wilkinson, Seeger admits that in the 1930s and 40s his music was a direct reflection of the CPUSA's party-line. From the 1950s on, his songs were devoted to a less-structured form of progressive leftism, which earned him the praise of the American left. In 1994, a year before he reported to the New York Times that he still considered himself a communist, just not of the Stalinist variety, he was recognized by then President Bill Clinton at a Kennedy Center Honors Ceremony.

Clinton called him an an "inconvenient artist who dared to sing things as he saw them." Indeed he did.

http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/obama-praises-communist-seeger-showing-us-where-we-need-go

[PzLdr]

The only good thing to say about Seeger is that he's dead. And if that's what Il Douche means by "showing [him] where [he] need to go', by all means, follow him, Barry. 

[jmyrlefuller]

How conveniently Breitbart, which regularly distorts "truth" more than any conservative site out there, leaves out the first part of Seeger's quote about small villages taking care of each other: that with that position, he considered himself to the right of Goldwater.

Seeger did not trust Communism as we know it-- the top-down, totalitarian approach to governance that defines modern liberalism and progressivism. He was definitely from the New Left school of social justice, but he was no big-government socialist.

He also believed that people had the right to associate with Communism if they wanted, hence his refusal to cooperate with HUAC and why he didn't get a lot of TV time.

Seeger had as much to do with modern libertarianism as he did with progressivism.

[PzLdr]

How conveniently Breitbart, which regularly distorts "truth" more than any conservative site out there, leaves out the first part of Seeger's quote about small villages taking care of each other: that with that position, he considered himself to the right of Goldwater.

Seeger did not trust Communism as we know it-- the top-down, totalitarian approach to governance that defines modern liberalism and progressivism. He was definitely from the New Left school of social justice, but he was no big-government socialist.

He also believed that people had the right to associate with Communism if they wanted, hence his refusal to cooperate with HUAC and why he didn't get a lot of TV time.

Seeger had as much to do with modern libertarianism as he did with progressivism.

Seeger could do a flip faster than a hooker on a trampoline when it came to supporting Uncle Joe and the Bolshies. Compare Seeger pre-1941 and the Seeger of "The Good Ship Reuben James". The only difference was Barbarossa. He was an out and out Red [sang at David Horowitz's Commie Kids Camp]. Seeger had as much in common with Libertarians as I have with Maoists. Good Riddance.

[rb224315]

Seeger did not trust Communism as we know it-- the top-down, totalitarian approach to governance that defines modern liberalism and progressivism. He was definitely from the New Left school of social justice, but he was no big-government socialist.

I wouldn't know Seeger from the man in the moon so I can comment on his positions, but I ask you:  What other kind of Communism is there besides the Communism we know?  If there was any other kind it wasn't successful or we'd surely know about it--the Communists wouldn't let us hear the end of it.  The only one we know is the one that murdered millions . . .

[Atomic Cow]

I commented on the local news site that he was a die hard communist who never passed up a chance to advocate for an anti-American cause.

It got deleted because it wasn't nice.

[mountaineer]

Bruce Springsteen Honors Pete Seeger at South Africa Concert
 1:42 PM PST 1/28/2014 by Michele Amabile Angermiller 
Hollywood Reporter
 
"I lost a great friend," he said at a show in Cape Town.

Bruce Springsteen paid tribute to the late Pete Seeger and Nelson Mandela with a reverent dedication of “We Shall Overcome” during the second night of his three-night stand in Cape Town, South Africa.

“I lost a great friend and a hero last night,” said Springsteen of the folk legend, who passed away at the age of 94.

He reverentially told the crowd that Mandela “made it possible for us to be here,” and Seeger was “a very courageous freedom fighter” as well.

He also spoke of the power of Seeger’s “We Shall Overcome,” saying, “Once you heard this song you were prepared to march into hell's fire.”

He followed it up with a blistering version of his own protest song, “Born in the USA” before bringing up the house lights for a jubilant “Born to Run,” according to a report by fan Diane Vadino on Twitter.

Springsteen had a long association with Seeger, having covered Woody Guthrie's “This Land Is Your Land” with the singer and recording “We Shall Overcome” for Where Have All the Flowers Gone: The Songs of Pete Seeger tribute album, released in 1997.

Springsteen later released We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, in 2006. The album won the Grammy for best traditional folk album [6] in February 2007.

Springsteen and Seeger shared a microphone at President Barack Obama’s first presidential inauguration. Obama released a statement earlier in the day, writing in part, "Once called 'America's tuning fork,' Pete Seeger believed deeply in the power of song. But more importantly, he believed in the power of community -- to stand up for what's right, speak out against what's wrong, and move this country closer to the America he knew we could be."

Springsteen also honored Seeger on his website earlier today, posting his touching tribute to Seeger at the folk icon's 90th birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden in 2009.

“He's gonna look a lot like your granddad that wears flannel shirts and funny hats. He's gonna look like your granddad, if your granddad can kick your ass,” he said. “At 90, he remains a stealth dagger through the heart of our country's illusions about itself."

Springsteen kicked off the show with a cover of “Free Nelson Mandela” for Sunday and Tuesday’s shows.

 

[mountaineer]

I just came across this essay by the inimitable Mark Steyn:

Changing His Tune
Pete Seeger, 1919-2014
 January 28, 2014

Just a few weeks ago, Pete Seeger featured over at our Song of the Week department for his quite discreditable role in the intellectual-property heist of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". Seeger lived long enough to go down and join the Occupy Wall Street protesters a year or two back. I believe he sang "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?" to them, although "Where Have All The Showers Gone?" might have been more appropriate with that crowd. He died on Monday at the age of 94. Here's what I wrote about him upon the occasion of his 90th birthday:

This week marks not only the first hundred days of King Barack's reign and the 30th anniversary of Mrs Thatcher's arrival in Downing Street, but also the 90th birthday of Pete Seeger. The celebrations of Mr Seeger's tenth decade are extensive. If he seems a remote figure from the pop culture back catalogue, not so fast: He played at the Obama inauguration. Which, when you think about it, is quite something.

One must congratulate the old banjo-picker on making it to four score and ten, which is a lot older than many "dissenting artists" made it to under the regimes he's admired over the years. Two years ago in The New York Sun, you'll recall, Ron Radosh had a notable scoop: Hold the front page! Stop the presses! Grizzled Leftie Icon Repudiates…

Who? Castro? Chávez? Al-Qaeda?

Whoa, let's not rush to judgment. No, the big story was: Grizzled Leftie Icon Repudiates . . . Stalin.

A couple of months earlier, there'd been some documentary or other "celebrating" the "spirit" of Pete Seeger, the folkie colossus, with contributions from the usual suspects – Joan Baez, Bruce Springsteen, one or more Dixie Chicks, two-thirds of Peter, Paul and Mary, etc. Mr Radosh had also been interviewed but his remarks about Seeger's lifelong support of Stalinism had not made the final cut. No surprise there. In such circumstances, the rule is to hail someone for his "activism" and "commitment" and "passion" without getting hung up on the specifics of what exactly he's actively and passionately committing to.

Giving him a Kennedy Center Honor a decade or so back, President Clinton hailed ol' Pete as "an inconvenient artist who dared to sing things as he saw them," which is one way of putting it. You can't help noticing, though, that it's all the documentaries and honors ceremonies and lifetime-achievement tributes to Mr. Seeger that seem to find certain things "inconvenient." The Washington Post's Style section, with its usual sly élan, hailed him as America's "best-loved Commie" — which I think translates as "Okay, so the genial old coot spent a lifetime shilling for totalitarian murderers, but only uptight Republican squares would be boorish enough to dwell on it."  ...

Read the rest at Steyn Online

[Rapunzel]

I love Steyn......