PrintApril 8, 2013
The Chicago Roots of Obama's (and America's) Political Ideology
President Obama lives at a time when there are two very different and very well-defined political ideologies. On the one hand, the GOP is fighting for spending contraints, limited regulation, and more personal economic choice. President Obama and his party are more determined than any administration in U.S. history to promote and execute the idea that federal government is best suited to both meet the needs of the people and run the economy.
The most fascinating aspect of this yin and yang pull of ideologies is not just that they are taking place at this time in history, but that Barack Obama, with his Chicago past, is perhaps the only politician who has inherited both the ideology of social justice and the expectation of one-party domination to propel this dynamic to such heights.
His ideology -- that one's social group is the most effective determinant of one's destiny -- has its roots in Chicago. While some may say that Saul Alinsky and Frances Fox Piven, not Chicago; were the...(Read Full Article)
