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Together We Thrive? The Marxist Message Behind the Memorial

The Origins of the Collectivist Message Behind Obama's Tucson Pep Rally

By: LaborUnionReport (Diary)  |  January 14th, 2011 at 01:30 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Even after nearly a week of the Left’s vitriolic and unwarranted public lynching of the Right over last Saturday’s massacre by a left-wing lunatic in Tuscon, I was willing to give the President the benefit of the doubt after (by most accounts) doing well in delivering Cody Keenan’s well-drafted speech on Wednesday. Heck, even his teleprompter performed without flaw, the pauses built in right at the appropriate applause lines. Although it appears as though the Obama White House was lying in wait for an Oklahoma City Moment so the Campaigner-in-Chief could try to get his mojo back, as long as there were no Roman Candles going off, I was willing to forgive the tackiness of the T-Shirts thinking, “Okay, the perpetual campaigner has to have a campaign slogan.”

I really was willing to overlook all of that. I really was. I wanted to. I tried to. But I can’t.

Not when, this morning, I found myself reminded just how phony this President really is. It wasn’t just that the President didn’t write his own speech (most don’t anyway), and it wasn’t only that he seized the moment in a politically opportunistic way after the accusations from his surrogates were flung at everyone on the Right, from Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck, to ordinary Americans. No, that was irritating. But the last straw was learning the origins of the slogan “Together We Thrive” that pushed tolerating the narcissism over the edge.

The Tucson event was billed as a memorial to those wounded and those slain on Saturday by a deranged Marx-reading madman. While the President appeared to do his best to set a tone of reconciliation to the divisiveness and rancor his supporters and the media had caused (and are still causing) throughout the week since the shooting, the origin of the “Together We Thrive!” slogan was revealed to be nothing more (and nothing less) than a theme stolen from the Obama for America 2008 campaign—and, more importantly, the message behind the posting was one of those Marxist, Collectivist dribblings that is the cause of so much criticism from the Right over the past two years.

Posted by John Berry IV on February 11, 2008:

For too long Americans have been set one against the other, it is a side affect of a free market society. How can profits be maximized, how can I get the work done for the lowest possible costs.  This continually sets one group against the other, especially in the blue collar sectors of America.  It has become a part of the American Business model, whether it was indentured servants, slaves picking cotton, sharecroppers, the industrious people that built the railroads or todays migrant workers.  As long as we remain divided, fighting for the scraps that America has to offer it will be one group against the other.

What I see in Obama is a chance for a revolution. A chance for every group to participate and be heard;  A chance to live the American dream that has been denied to so many.  Together we can and will change the world and return America to the shining beacon of Hope and Prosperity that we were and that we can be again.  Only when we work together do we accomplish feats that rival any ever accomplished in the history of mankind.  Diversity is our strength, that is what this campaign brings us a promise of.  For many this is a scary prospect and thought, getting to know someone different from myself.  We all want the same basic things for example a safe place to live, health and a quality education for our kids.

In a previous career, I was the global leader of Diversity for a global fortune 500 corporation, I have studied the affects of diverse groups working together and the results can not be denied.  Together we Thrive!!!!!!!!!!!

Given that the theme was so easily identified as being part of the OFA blog back in 2008, there is little doubt that whoever the White House’s crisis campaign manager was who picked the “Together We Thrive” theme could not have read the posting below the title. This means that the White House is okey-dokey with the anti-free market message, as well as the references back to indentured servitude and slavery. There is nothing “healing” in that message.

After days of watching the Left slam the Right for the actions of a lunatic, it has become clearer than ever that Obama’s pep rally in Tucson was nothing more than an attempt to get the microphone back.

_________________

“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.”  Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

X-posted.

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COMMENTS

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  • redneck_hippie

    I tried to watch a clip of the event coverage. Couldn’t get past the glad-handing right at the beginning where Obama is swarmed and hugged by the attendees. Told me everything I needed to know. If I wanted to see sycophants I only need wait until he enters the room for his state of the union speech. The two scenes are identical.

  • pamela1631

    is perfect for cleaning up old gear oil or cat yack.

    I watched some of the “memorial service”. Please tell me there was something more appropriate, private and dignified after he left?

    I had the overriding sense that he was selling snake oil or if you had followed my plan, this never would have happened.

    • http://www.laborunionreport.com LaborUnionReport
    • RSSS
    • proudmarinemom

      After the pep rally, Obama could still be seen working the crowd with handshakes, backslaps, hugs, kisses and autographs. Yes, autographs. At a memorial service.

      Just as offensive as the foot-stompin’, cat-callin’, wolf-whistlin’ hoe down itself was the behavior of those in the crowd who brought cameras. They had no embarrassment or shame at all about leaning out of the seats, standing on their seats, climbing on top of railings, etc. to get that precious photo. To prove to their grandchildren that they were there the day America lost all sense of decorum and dignity.

  • Deskpilot

    rally billed as a memorial service.
    Complete with Obama’s cadence of speech that cause people to break out in unbridled glee and cheers; the ever-present back and forth and up and down of the head searhing for the {right} words found only in the TOTUS, not within the speaker himself.

  • hawk11b

    is only true when citizen of the United States of America, no matter what group they belong, considers their self an American first. If there are large numbers of U. S. citizens who first define their self as a member of a group / race than as an American, then then diversity becomes our society / culture’s
    Achilles heal.

    • lineholder

      I ran into a situation last night with a fellow employee of mine. She made a purchase, stating “I really shouldn’t be spending this money, but this will be the year that everything changes. I can just feel it”.

      When I asked what she meant, she said “This will be the year that government succeeds in passing money from the rich to the poor…I just know it”.

      I didn’t get an opportunity to follow through with the conversation as much I would have liked to at the time. Hopefully the door of opportunity will open for me to do so.

      But the group differentiation in this area is real. And there are people who believe that the rich owe them.

      “Valuing diversity” doesn’t exist in this context at all.

  • nvrepub

    I don’t recall seeing that a couple years ago.

    • Obis_Sister

      He is noticeably grayer, as well.

  • bobmontgomery

    I am glad this expression is on the front page. I do understand the compulsion our leaders (political and polemical) feel to be fair and respectful to the office of the Presidency, especially at times such as these. But personally, I wish our main men had withheld comment altogether except to respect the victims. Everyone knew within minutes of the beginning of the event what it was for and it wouldn’t have mattered if O had read the Gettysburg address. But when you parse the wording of some of what he actually read, it becomes clear that this was mere humming of the Battle Hymn of the anti-Republic.

  • speciallist

    even ‘the Stoneless One’ Jake Tapper…he wants shirthers to “Zip it”

    if ‘Together we Thrive’ is not Obama’s slogan for 2012…I will eat this diary

    • http://www.laborunionreport.com LaborUnionReport

      Just curious.

  • edwyrd

    starting with the full court press smears by the ENTIRE spectrum of the liberal levers of power, and the slobbering hero worshippnig audience, what we have here is the proverbial shot across the bow for the 2012 election cycle. my hope is that we learned something from the harry reid ground game, he beat the polls by 10%, and we get the stinking vote out and kick these mommy issue freaks the heck out of washington for good! i know, never gonna happen, but maybe since they got us”sitting in the back seat”, we can toss them in the trunk and drive into the patomac.

  • lineholder

    Just like you, I was trying to be open-minded and to consider that maybe, just maybe, he was sincere this time in trying to bring people together.

    But I saw those shirts and knew that the situation had been exploited for political reasons. It plainly said that the agenda comes first ahead of respecting those who have died and their families.

    Is there a word in the English language representing something lower than “despicable”? If there is, that word applies.

  • Jewels

    The OFA “slogan” wasn’t really a slogan. It was just the title of a blog post written by some guy who only posted three times, and then disappeared into the Zombama ether. There never were “Together We Thrive” T-shirts made during the Obama campaign.

    Not that it makes the fact that they made a shnazzy new slogan and tee shirt just for this “memorial” housed inside a stadium any less tactless and, dare I say, decidedly UNpresidential…

  • davidleigh

    Thanks for what you wrote. Several years ago while working in Charleston, SC where minority crime is staggering, like other cities in the country where there is heavy minority population, I read two very brief letters to the Editor of the local paper. (Speaking of O’s civility conscienceness, can he tell us the racial mix of the 57 people who were killed/murdered in Chicago just last weekend??)

    A writer to the Post and Courier wrote the following: How can people who were never enslaved be so unforgiving of people who never owned slaves?

    And another writer in that paper spoke of diversity and asked how do we achieve that when we have people who are Africans first, Americans second hence African-American.

    I wish the country could stop using all the hyphos and be proud to live in a great country. How about Unity of Purpose is our strength! Or, America First! Or, gee, how about Proud to be an American! That’s the whole Ideal, isn’t it? Proud to be an American! One people, one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all!! Do you hear that, DofJ?? ( I know…I went off on a tangent, sorry about that!)

  • guttermouth

    Still clinging to that teleprompter grudge, eh?

    If you missed it, Sarah Palin read from a prompter too.

    Oh, the president didn’t write his own speech?

    If you missed it, neither did Sarah Palin.

    But you didn’t mention the number of times Palin used “I” in her speech (10x), in contrast to the number of times she referred to the victims by name (zero).

    Mutha-flippin-narcissism, and Obama wasn’t even involved for a change.

    • gekster

      DailyKos is that way <———-

      • thaddeusskaczorjr

        You must be from da U P, eh? Shootin’ at dem trolls! Might even bag a few ‘Fudgies’, too

        • gekster

          Livun in da miiten now.

    • lineholder
    • qurys

      These murders of real people have become a twisted reality show. The left and the right, progressives and liberals and conservatives, presidents and students and governors and pundits, are taking one another words and syllables apart. Conservatives have made Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck et al the victims. Liberals have made Barack Obama the victor and the Tea Party the cause. Please tell me guttermouth, where are the winners here? When you look at what has happened, does your heart ache for the teleprompter or the number of times somebody said “I” in their speech? Do you find comfort in the stats? Because I most assuredly do not. This was supposed to be a memorial service for dead people. It didn’t come off that way, it didn’t sound that way, most of the speakers did not address it that way, and the audience did not behave that way. Sarah Palin’s speech, while interesting, is not comparable because it was not designed to be a eulogy. But there are families who have been thrust into a tunnel of grief and funeral planning. They neither wanted this nor deserved it. But somehow the hand of God is in it and that is what we are to find. And it is up to each one of us to do that. It is not up to Barack Obama or Sarah Palin or anyone else to tell us the meaning of this event.

      • sharonmcp

        /nt

  • guttermouth

    Is there a counter-arguement coming from anyone?

    • gekster

      There is your counter. Prove me wrong. ;)

      And reply to this is your friend.

      • guttermouth

        I spent 1 day on Newsbusters before being called much worse than an idiot.

        • lineholder
        • runner12

          Are you simply trying to heckle people? This is a site for intelligent debate and conservative thought, not for immature antics. If you have nothing to say, most people will just ignore you.

          • guttermouth

            Did you even read the article? Complaining about the president’s use of a teleprompter? Jumpin’ Jesus, Man! Hidden Marxism? Now that’s just fear mongering.

            Palin’s video to preempt the President was a weak attempt to make herself and her party the victims, but she’s so darn good at playing the victim, much like the GOP, that it was only to be expected.

            Will it haunt her? Let’s talk election cycle.

          • Bill S

            that your mom dropped you on your head when you were young and you’re now unable to discern when you’re not wanted.

            Vaya con dios.

          • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

            …out of this one first.

            Spoilsport.

          • gekster

            Had to go pick up the Grandkid.
            Oh well.

          • Bill S

            When I went to pull the trigger, he was already gone.

          • gekster

            The only victums were with all DUE respect for the actual one, were all on the right being accused of causing this when at the VERY LEAST it was the left and those of the leftist mindset who MIGHT have caused this.
            Let me ask you a question.
            Do you still have relatio…. uh, beat your dog.
            Now prove to me you don’t.
            You really can’t.
            This a part of the left, the same left you are a part of.
            And since we can’t call your kind trolls anymore,
            I’ll just call you a llort.
            Yes, that seams to fit. You are a LLORT. (yort)
            A you still havn’t convinced anyone you are not an Idiot.
            I win the debate.
            Kinda like the same one you were having about Palin and the right.

          • http://www.laborunionreport.com LaborUnionReport

            You failed to click the link didn’t you, sport?

    • Finrod

      .

    • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

      Hey, it’s your fetish, not mine.

  • qurys

    I was one of the few folks I talked to who remembered the University guy giving the memorial a name. The last time I went to a memorial service with a name was…..well…..never. Let alone t-shirts. It was a progressive rally that was beholding to the deaths of six people for its existence. It could have been held two weeks after the event, after family and loved ones have had time to bury the victims.It was a political event poorly masquerading as a memorial.

  • maindependent

    Who is “we”?
    I, for one, am NOT part of “we”!

  • edwyrd

    yesterday rush played a buch of excerpts from the wellstone memorial. it could have been the same event

  • http://westforwestwing2012.com heartlander

    Remember, Obama was not only trained in the Alinsky model, but got so good at it that he was hired to train others in it, and was considered one of their best trainers.

    What is the Alinsky model? SET PEOPLE AGAINST EACH OTHER — get them at each other’s throats! Sow as much dissension, generate as much chaos, as possible. Destroy the existing social and economic order; take a sledgehammer to it.

    Expecting Obama, the ultimate agitator, to EVER be a reconciler or uniter is like expecting a shark to quit killing its prey.

  • Locke

    anything that rules out the slogan’s having another, non-Marxist origin. And that Berry and OFA picked it up from there and gave it their Marxist spin.

    • http://www.laborunionreport.com LaborUnionReport

      the other Barry picked up on.

      The slogan was the title of his OFA post.

  • thaddeusskaczorjr

    I was unsettled from the beginning of the rally, when the Native American Man (how politically Correct) gave a long and rambling ‘Opening Prayer’, which was more of a political and social statement, and failed to even mention ‘God’- except in vague and oddly Paganistic ‘Creator’ references. Turns out, he’s not even a religious figure, but a Doctor and Professor at the University where the Rally/Memorial was held! Apparently it was more important to show ‘diversity’ and avoid the religious beliefs of the victims than to actually memorialize those who had fallen.

    As to the rest of the ‘memorial’, it played out with a weird ‘campaign rally’ atmosphere, with cheering and applause, rather than as a more appropriate solemn memorial of remembrance and healing. Even more uncomfortable was watching victims’ family members literally squirming in their seats as this spectacle continued. Having been to memorial wakes several times, I am comfortable with this type of remembrance in personal, private setting- not in a Mass Rally-type situation. I considered the Tuscon rally overall to be rather disrespectful of the memory of those who had fallen.

    President Obama delivered a well-crafted speech, with all the right statements, but in an oddly detached and emotionless way. He seemed most emotional when playing to the crowd’s cheering and fawning. In the end, the rally seemed to be more about the President than the victims he purportedly was memorializing.

    Finally, some questions need to be asked. Why were there no members of the victim’s faith included at the memorial? Why were there elements in the crowd whose behvior was more fitting of a college pep rally or political gathering? Why were there tee-shirts printed up just two days after the massacre, and distributed to the crowd like ‘goodies’ given to campaign rally attendees. Why did those shirts even resemble the Obama Campaign symbolism, with a tag line taken straight from campaign literature from the President’s ’08 Campaign? Why was a ‘slogan’ and ‘promotional material’ even needed- let alone deemed appropriate for this type of event?

    As Rahm Emanuel once paraphrased Saul Alinsky, ‘Never let a crisis go to waste.’ It seems like the Obama/DNC machine was ready to go and quick out of the blocks on this crisis. Maybe a little too quick, as most rational-thinking Americans can recognize a crass politicization of what should have been a somber and non-partisan memorial.

    • bobmontgomery

      ….is becoming something of a , what’s the French word? Anyway, I see
      people on TV dutifully putting on t-shirts that say “Live United” and I see people on TV dutifully putting on t-shirts that say “Organizing” and I see people on TV dutifully putting on t-shirts that say “We Thrive *Together*, and “Yes WE Can” (Sammy Davis said ‘Yes *I* Can), and we see doctors and other professionals on TV dutifully putting on lab coats for the cameras at the White House.
      Sometimes I think it doesn’t matter what the lettering on the T-shirt says, so long as you dutifully put it on.

  • Scope
  • malvernpa

    I love being a conservative/Tea Party thinker. Reading the thoughts and comments of this division over the memorial is to me invigorating. As I read this I feel hope and strength in the views and comments from the right. We have brains and the ability to articulate and a sense of humor. We have energy, courage, motive and dare I say God, guns, liberty,commerce and freedom. That is a very strong skeleton filling our skin. The left is a whining,brain dead, tin cup group of hand out minded sots that spend their energy planning how to take from producers so they can piss it away in the alley of despair. I for one love our team and the prospects for America because we are here at this moment in time. The left, Democrats, Marxists, socialists, communists they are all the same in the current political environment are nothing but an empty bag of skin. No real skills, no real ideas but willing to start at the top like our POTUS

  • http://aposematic.wordpress.com aposematic

    Didn’t watch the circus that was promoted as a memorial for the Arizona tragedy. Why, because I have a particular aversion for propaganda, lies, and deception and the people responsible for all of the twisted and spun “so called” problems needing fixing. The only real problem America faces is getting the Marxists to stop their constant propaganda, lies, and deceit puked out on a daily basis.

  • johnnyd

    The GOP are really going to mix their seating with the Dems during the SOTUS.

    http://www.theblaze.com/stories/gop-leader-endorses-mixed-seating-for-state-of-the-union/

    Is Boehner really that stupid to fall for this ploy?

    Does anyone else think we need to play hardball till we straighten out the damage of the past 4 years?

    Why do the Dems all of a sudden want to play nice since they lost the majority in the House?

    Do they think Reid is going to play nice in the Senate?

  • jmfernelius

    Wasn’t sure if you all knew this but the t shirts were made and printed by the university. I read this article and can’t believe the way that it is worded. I guess people come to this site to reinforce there beliefs.

  • jmfernelius

    Ayn. Rand I thought was a conservitive writer. So why would a leftist read a conservitive author.

    • Bill S

      Numerous news outlets quoted friends of the shooter as describing him as leftist in his politics, and the Communist Manifesto as one of his favorite works.

      Try again. But remember that a moderator is watching.

  • betsp

    Only Obama would take the death of a nine year old child and plaster it to his political resume in order to boost his poll numbers. T-shirts, chants, cheers….is this a memorial service for the innocent, or a campaign rally for the guilty? The young, the dumb and the lazy support this man and ignore all the warnings from the grown ups. This 50 year plan to destroy us is in its final stages, and only loud and consistent opposition will save us from Soros funded Marxist takeover.