Obama on Redistribution of Wealth in 2001 (Audio)

October 27, 2008 · Filed Under Economy, Fiscal 

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New audio emerged this morning of an interview with Barack Obama in 2001 on Chicago Public Radio (WBEZ) where he calls for a redistribution of wealth.

Below is a transcript of the interview.

Download the audio.

Barack Obama: You know, if you look, um, at the victories and failures of the civil rights movement, um, and its litigation strategy in the court, I think where it succeeded was to invest formal rights in previously dispossessed peoples; so that I would now have the right to vote, I would now be able to sit at a lunch counter and order, and as long as I was able to pay for it I’d be OK.

Uh, but the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth, uh, and sort of, more basic issues of political and, and, and economic justice in this society.

And, uh, to that extent, as radical as I think people try to characterize the Warren Court, uh, it wasn’t that radical. It didn’t break free from the essential constraints that were placed, uh, uh, by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution, at least as it’s been interpreted, and Warren Court interpreted it in the same way that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties.

It says what the states can’t do to you, says what the federal government can’t do to you, but it doesn’t say what the federal government or the state government must do on your behalf.

Uh, and that hasn’t shifted. And one of the, uh, I think, uh, the tragedies of the civil rights movement was, um, because the civil rights movement became so court-focused, uh, I think there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and, and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalitions of power through which you bring about redistributive, uh, change, uh.

And in some ways we still suffer from that.

Karen (Caller): The gentleman made the point that the Warren Court wasn’t terribly radical with economic changes. My question is it too late for that kind of reparative work economically, and is that the appropriate place for reparative economic work to take place?

Host: You mean the courts?

Karen: The courts, or would it be legislation at this point?

Obama: Uh, uh, you know, maybe I’m, I’m showing my bias here as a legislator as well as a law professor, but, uh, I’m not optimistic about bringing about, uh, major, uh, redistributive, uh, uh, change, uh, through the courts. Y’know, the institution just isn’t structured that way, uh.

You look at very rare examples where during the desegregation era where the court, for example, was willing to, for example, order, uh, uh, changes that cost money to local school districts, and the court was very uncomfortable with it. It was hard to manage, it was hard to figure out.

Uh, you start getting into all sorts of, uh, separation of powers issues, uh, y’know, in terms of, uh, the court monitoring or, or engaging in a process, uh, that essentially is administrative and, and takes a lot of time, uh.

The court’s just not very good at it, and politically it’s very hard to legitimize opinions, uh, from the court in that regard.

So, I mean, I think, uh, that although you can craft theoretical justifications for it legally, um, y’know I think any three of us sitting here could, could come up with, uh, a rationale for bringing about economic change through the courts.

Seven years later, things haven’t changed with Obama’s idea about redistribution of wealth, based on his comment regarding spreading the wealth to Joe the Plumber.

But if a reporter dares to question Team Obama on the subject, they can expect to be blacklisted.

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