Confessions of a former communist

Exclusive: Joseph Farah reveals how much his youth matched that of Obama

by Joseph Farah

 

Joseph Farah is founder, editor and CEO of WND and a nationally syndicated columnist with Creators Syndicate. He is the author or co-author of 13 books, including his latest, "The Tea Party Manifesto," and his classic, "Taking America Back," now in its third edition and 14th printing. Farah is the former editor of the legendary Sacramento Union and other major-market dailies.More ↓Less ↑

Farah circa 1972

I have a confession to make.
It might help explain why I fear a second term of Barack Obama so much.
I understand what Obama is and what he is doing because I was once like him: I am a former communist.
As a youth growing up during the Vietnam War, I was influenced by some of the more extreme, anti-American opposition to that conflict and began to identify with the enemy. I became convinced the U.S. epitomized all that was evil in the world.
During high school, I was arrested in what we called “anti-war demonstrations” that should be more accurately termed “anti-American riots.” Just like Obama, my youthful radicalism attracted the attention of powerful and influential people in the country. I was recruited for full-ride scholarships at colleges like Antioch, known for grooming the next generation of leftists. When I got into trouble for refusing to salute the flag, the American Civil Liberties Union was there, johnny-on-the-spot, to defend me and bring the school principal to his knees.
During the euphemistically named “Indo-China Peace Campaign” organized by Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda, I was give the “honor” of serving as a body guard for Fonda, recently returned from North Vietnam where she posed for photographs sitting in an anti-aircraft emplacement meant to shoot down American planes.
I was recruited for terrorist attacks like blowing up chemical plants by older radicals who didn’t have the courage to do it themselves. (I thank God today, I never followed through on these plots.) I wrote for some of the most left-wing periodicals in America – the Guardian, the Liberated Guardian and more.
And my reputation preceded me.
Even after college, when my views had moderated considerably, I was invited to meet Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, who were still underground for their own acts of domestic terrorism.
I tell you all of this – and there’s much more to the story – to illustrate the extent of my delusional misguidedness bred into me by a cadre of older and even less wise facilitators.
I’ve spent decades repudiating all those lies – deceptions and disinformation I understand better than most having been a victim of them.
But maybe I should have run for president instead.
Because the little we know about Barack Obama’s life is ever-so familiar to me.
I was groomed to be a community organizer, but rejected that path. He accepted it and it led him to the White House where he has been a force for evil for the last four years.
Is it easy to conceal that kind of indiscretion? You bet. I’m openly discussing them here for the first time some 40 years later, having written 13 books and tens of millions of words in 35-year career in journalism.
The only difference between Obama and me is that he never changed. He is as radical today as he was when he launched his political career in the living room of Ayers and Dohrn. He loathes all America stands for today as much as he did when he worked as a lawyer for the political racketeering ACORN.
I understand him. I can decode his rhetoric. I still know how the extreme left thinks. I know what their goals are. And I know how badly Obama and his entourage want to “fundamentally change” America.
That’s why this election year represents America’s last chance to save itself from ruin, from catastrophe, from irreversible calamity, from revolution.
It’s true that we don’t have the kind of choice I would like to see. I don’t relish going to the polls this November to vote for Mitt Romney, because, frankly, he’s not the answer to the crisis Obama and 40 years of cultural Marxism have bestowed upon America.
But for those who have ears, listen. For those who have eyes, see.
This election represents our last chance to stop the bleeding, to buy the good ship America time to right its course, to at least slow our descent into economic and social chaos.
America needs to awaken, like I did. America needs to repent, like I did. America needs to make a political and spiritual U-turn, like I did.
We’re running out of time.