They Said It! Obama Regrets Court's Failure to Force Redistribution of Wealth

In 2001, Obama Said The Supreme Court Failed To Pursue A "Redistribution Of Wealth" And Talked Positively Of "Redistributive Change":

Obama Regrets That The Warren Court "Never Ventured Into The Issues Of Redistribution Of Wealth." Obama: "If you look at the victories and failures of the civil rights movement and its litigation strategy in the court, I think where it succeeded was to invest formal rights in previously dispossessed peoples ... But the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth and sort of more basic issues of political and economic justice in this society. And to that extent as radical as I think people tried to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn't that radical. It didn't break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution, as least as it's been interpreted. And the Warren Court interpreted in the same way that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties, 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." (2001 Obama Interview On Chicago Public Radio WBEZ, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iivL4c_3pck, Accessed 10/27/08)

Obama Said One Of The "Tragedies Of The Civil Rights Movement" Was That It Lost Track Of Political And Community Organizing That Could Bring About "Redistributive Change." Obama: "[O]ne of the, I think, the tragedies of the civil rights movement, was because the civil rights movement became so court focused, I think that there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalitions of power through which you bring about redistributive change, and in some ways we still stuffer from that." (2001 Obama Interview On Chicago Public Radio WBEZ, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iivL4c_3pck, Accessed 10/27/08)

Obama: "[I]'m not optimistic about bringing about major redistributive change through the courts." (2001 Obama Interview On Chicago Public Radio WBEZ, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iivL4c_3pck, Accessed 10/27/08)