Cornel West's Problem is Obama's Problem

Cornel West thinks Obama isn't doing "enough" to "focus on poor and working people."

The problem with the Professor West and with Obama is that they define "focus on the poor" as using the government to take money from one group of people, e.g. "the rich," in order to give it to the poor after it has been laundered through a series of interest groups who guarantee re-election for Democrats.. They do not mean "give people and equal opportunity to succeed. They do not mean giving D.C. school children school vouchers so that kids who want to learn don't have to sit in union-dominated failing schools. They emphatically do NOT mean real substantive reform that puts power in the hands of the middle class to determine their own future. No. "Focus on the poor" is community-organizer-speak for the politics of class envy and victimhood.

They mean to use government to give people money they haven't done anything to earn. And that will eventually become problematic, because it is inherently unfair.

The American people are by and large a fair-minded bunch and will tolerate a certain amount of this kind of race-and-class based spoils system. But they also know it's something of a luxury to be dispensed with when times are tough.