Originally posted at American Thinker. blog
The “King of Calypso,” Hugo Chávez enthusiast, and “Banana Boat” crooner, octogenarian Harry Belafonte is so thrilled with the reelection of Barack Obama that he’s taken to cable “news” network MSNBC to share his views on how President Obama should deal with political nemeses.
In addition to singing, acting and songwriting, throughout his career Harry “Viva la revolucion” Belafonte has also promoted himself as a civil rights advocate and humanitarian. In addition to issuing indictments like: “Our foreign policy has made a wreck of this planet,” Mr. Belafonte also heartily endorses the ailing Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s socialist revolution.
Once, when addressing the Venezuelan people, Harry Belafonte told his audience that George W. Bush was the “greatest terrorist” in the world. Another time, sounding more like he was describing the current president, Mr. Belafonte made the following statement about the former president: “I think [G.W.] Bush has a very selfish, arrogant point of view. I think he is interested in power, I think he believes his truth is the only truth, and that he will do what he wants to do despite the people.”
Leaving aside Belafonte’s hatred for Bush and his fondness for dictator-style governing, it’s still kind of alarming to hear that ole’ Harry suggested President Obama incarcerate American citizens who speak out against him.
The topic came up when Belafonte appeared as a guest on Al Sharpton’s Politics Nation. Belafonte was on a panel with global human rights/social justice activist Kerry Kennedy, daughter of the late Senator Robert Kennedy and former wife of NY Governor Andrew Cuomo. During the interview, Harry, who passionately and stridently exercised his first amendment rights throughout the eight years former President G.W. Bush was in office, shared some stunning Hugo Chávez-style advice for Barack Obama.
Sharpton began the conversation by asking Belafonte:
Ah… ah…you’ve fought for decades for some of the ‘quote’ entitlements that the…ah… right wing wants to try and balance this budget… ah… balance the deficit off of. As you look at this Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security…You’ve been an activist leader from Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, to Dr. King through Mandela to Obama. How do you view this and what is the challenge for those that are on the field today?
Belafonte replied, “What I think has most attracted me to this whole process is watching the political maturity of the American people.” Clearly, Harry Belafonte defines reelecting a president who is in the process of establishing a socialist-style government as “political maturity.”
Nevertheless, Harry continued to elaborate:
Because there was a great question during the first election as to whether or not Barack would even be elected. And after the turn out so emphatically put him in the presidency it was interesting to watch the second turn[out] when everybody really didn’t quite know what the game would be.
Without referring directly to the looming fiscal cliff and oblivious to the fact that Obama voters had no clue what Obama was really talking about, Harry came to the conclusion that the American people “[i]n their maturity declared themselves fully: ‘We want what Barack Obama is talking about. We want the country to go in that direction’.”
Then, the celebrated humanitarian shared the inhumane sentiment that Obama’s political rivals are a “[l]ingering infestation of really corrupt people who sit trying to dismantle the wishes of the people, the mandate that has been given to Barack Obama.”
In the past, Belafonte has accused the Obama-loving American media of falsely portraying Chávez as a “dictator.” At the time, the singer/activist also shared the opinion that in Venezuela there is “democracy and [the] citizens are ‘optimistic about their future.'” What Belafonte failed to mention was that Hugo Chávez regularly imprisons political dissidents, calling them “common criminals.”
Hence, to deal with the threat of political dissension here in America, it’s not surprising that Harry Belafonte would suggest that the “only thing left for Barab…Barack Obama to do is to work like a third world dictator and just throw all these guys in jail [Sharpton/Kennedy nervously giggle] for violating the American desire.”
Harry Belafonte, who has always enjoyed the freedom to voice his oppressed/oppressor point of view, obviously never considered two-term president G. W. Bush a man whose reelection reflected a mandate, let alone an expression of “American desire.” Yet, suddenly, with the reappointment of Barack Obama, the singer feels emboldened to openly call for nonconformists with differing opinions to be imprisoned?
Even still, rather than expressing astonishment, Americans should thank Mr. Harry Belafonte for not only giving us that snappy Caribbean “Day-O” banana song, but more importantly for lending his voice to express the true heart and soul of the progressive left.
