Obama's Global Ideology

Here's another op-ed that was forwarded by my former professor, Dr. Bom:

Obama’s Theo-Ideology 

Philip C. Bom

Much discussion has swirled around Senator Obama as the first African-American president. He is not, however, in the tradition of African-American politicians like New York Governor Paterson. If elected, Obama will make history with his Third World-ism perspective. His agenda will include sharing human, natural and financial resources as well as intellectual property rights with developing countries. His Africa-centered framework for development and his social gospel faith, which shape his agenda, warrant examination.

Historically, American presidential foreign policy has been so-called “euro-centered” based on a Judeo-Christian perspective of politics, law, and economics. President Obama will continue to enhance relations with Europe but will strategically seek to bring about an inter-connectivity between America and Africa and an integral partnership of the continents.

Obama’s whole-world view is different. He sees America and its place from his Leftist ideology and black liberation theology. If the late European socialist Olof Palme was radicalized merely by his travels in Asia and Africa, you can image how Obama’s outlook has been shaped by his roots in Africa and early education in Asia. 

Obama is not un-American; he is simply non-American in his global outlook. His views are not racist, but class based. From his left-of-liberal ideology, he envisions the transformation of the world and of America. He will move beyond the Clinton-Bush agenda for African development and will seek a transcontinental American–African partnership.

From a trans-Africa global perspective, Obama does not merely want to help develop democratic states but to invest in constructing new economic democracy in Africa and “building just, secure, democratic societies” on all continents. (Foreign Affairs July/August 2007)

His approach to human rights reflects a leftist perspective in the tradition of the 1981 African Charter a declaration of “Human and Peoples’ Rights.” While African civilization cherishes tribal community rights, the promotion of peoples’ rights is an import by African Marxists educated abroad. The Charter proclaims that “the satisfaction of economic, social and cultural rights is a guarantee for the enjoyment of civil and political rights….”

Obama agrees with the above Leftist ideology. From his perspective, “freedom from want and freedom from fear – are prerequisites for all others.” (The Audacity of Hope, 317 AH) He turns President FDR’s priorities upside down, as President Roosevelt believed that the fundamental freedom of religion is the cornerstone of social–economic opportunities and cultural expressions.

An ideological bridge between continents is already provided by the Leftist TransAfrica Forum, a liberation movement which seeks to promote political and economic democracy in Africa and the Americas. More accurately, the movement is active in the Americas, including Columbia and Venezuela. According to the Forum’s website, “We believe the success of Afro-Americans is bound up with the emancipation of all African peoples and also other dependent peoples and laboring classes everywhere.” (www.transafricaforum.org/about-u)

In order to achieve this “emancipation,” the movement promotes “progressive viewpoints in the United States foreign policy arena, … advocates justice for the people of Africa and the African Diaspora … [and] promotes solidarity with the oppressed … where people of African descent reside.”

With Obama’s encouragement, doors could open for the African Diaspora to find solidarity with indigenous peoples in the Americas. In South America, African-Venezuelans could seek solidarity with indigenous peoples in Bolivia and Columbia. Together, they could liberate themselves from the oppression by European Americans. In North America, those of African descent could stand in solidarity with First Nations and take steps to suppress the old Anglo-Saxon power structures.

It is revealing that the progressive Obama downplays national sovereignty, but his Party’s platform promises almost full political sovereignty to our “First” Nations peoples. It affirms “tribal sovereignty” and pledges to host “an annual summit with Indian leaders,” as if these leaders were a third federal level of “government-to-government relationship….” This plan to expand their sovereignty opens the door to potential civil war, as in the case of Bolivia.

With such threats in mind, President Obama will pursue a rights and duty strategy by seeking to unite peoples into “a world that stands as one,” a world that transcend races, religions, and regions. He has religious roots in three continents, but his political ideology is grounded in a “global faith” in world humanism and human development.

Reflecting on his religious experiences, Obama recalls that in “our household the Bible, the Koran, and the Bhagavad Gita sat on the shelf alongside books of Greek and Norse and African mythology.”  He grew up in “a country that easily blended its Islamic faith with remnants of Hinduism, Buddhism, and ancient animist traditions.” (AH,203,204)

Unlike most liberal democrats, Obama takes religion seriously. In Indonesia he was educated in an Islamic public school and can still recite parts of the Koran and say Islamic prayers. There is nothing wrong with being a Muslim in America, provided one believes in the constitutional separation of state and mosque. He was attracted to his church in Chicago by its involvement in community organizing and its teaching of “collective salvation.” (AH,207) Under the preaching of his pastor, Obama was steeped in black liberation theology which is not a typical American social gospel.

Obama is defined by his left-of-liberal ideology which provides him with an authentic identity. This ideology has given him a bona fide identity as a “global citizen.” He may not envision a religious syncretism, but all religions must be synchronized before the world can “stand as one.” He envisions one broad social gospel as the spiritual foundation for global community-building and global civilization.

Obama is a man of many religious traditions but one ideology. His presidency may be faith-based, but his fundamentalist faith is in global humanism. He is a global shaman whose mission is to unite everyone, every people group, every country and continent. He proudly proclaimed at the mass rally in Berlin: “The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand.  These now are the walls we must tear down.” (Berlin speech July 24, 2008) To tear those walls down, citizens of the world must become one in global outlook.

In his global presidency, there will be no Western or Eastern civilization – no sovereign America – just one great human family on planet earth.

Philip C. Bom is a professor of International Politics at Regent University in Virginia Beach, VA.

Anyone interested in reading more of Dr. Bom's keen insights into international relations should purchase his 1992 book entitled, "The Coming Century of Commonism:  The Beauty and the Beast of Global Governance."