The conservative demonization of Barack Obama for even daring to spend one second in the same zip code as Bill Ayers has been making me angry for some time now, but the fact that it's still being brought up now, after the election, is just another story entirely. Because, here's the thing: separate from any endorsement of violence as a political tactic, there's a fundamental misunderstanding of the ideology of the Weather Underground that is making all this finger-pointing especially egregious. Apart from the fact that Ayers and his former cohort have not bombed anything in decades, they branched off from SDS and decided to utilize violence because they didn't feel that their voices were being heard otherwise. If they had had the political power that comes from, say, being the president (or being "friends" with the president), then they wouldn't have bombed anything because they would have had non-violent avenues open to them to enable the end of the Vietnam War.
Just wanted to put that out there. There is a thoroughly excellent documentary that delves into the issues at hand even further, if you're curious. If we're going to drag up stuff from the Nixon Administration, then let's use some critical thinking, please.
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