There appeared in my e-mail box last week an article attributed to a Wayne Allyn Root who claims to have been a classmate of Barack Obama at Columbia University. It includes the following statement: "He (Barack Obama) is a devout Muslim... following the plan of Cloward and Piven, two professors at Columbia University.... they outlined a plan to socialize America by overwhelming the system with government spending and entitlement demands."
On my bulletin board I keep a cartoon titled "Karl Rove and Plato" by Don Piraro, which first appeared in the Oct. 29, 2004 edition of the Denver Post. It depicts Karl Rove addressing the Greek philosopher, declaring: "But surely you agree that truth can be created by the repetition of a lie." The message this cartoon conveys is that if people hear a lie repeated enough times, they can be led to perceive it as the truth. To honor one of the most distinguished practitioners of this approach, I refer to it as the Rovinian Doctrine.
Hitler used it to seize power in Germany before World War II. While I was a student at Charles University in Prague, I saw the Communists put it into play in February, 1948. Karl Rove implemented it to help re-elect George W. Bush in 2004, which is what inspired the cartoon. It appears that elements on both sides in the current presidential campaign have embraced it.
To Mr. Root and others like him, it does not seem to matter that Barack Obama joined a Christian church and that whenever he quotes Scripture, he does it from the Christian Bible. By the constant repetition of a lie we are being led to believe that he is a Marxist Muslim. If those circulating this lie would take time to read his writings and observe his approach to the presidency, they might discover that one of the sources of his inspiration is Abraham Lincoln.
George J. Kyncl