Politics

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet: Obama’s gun control policy is Marxist

Patrick Howley Political Reporter
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In a recent column, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet suggested President Barack Obama is a Marxist who seeks to determine the “needs” of the citizenry.

“All of us have had dealings with the State, and have found, to our chagrin, or, indeed, terror, that we were not dealing with well-meaning public servants or even with ideologues but with overworked, harried bureaucrats. These, as all bureaucrats, obtain and hold their jobs by complying with directions and suppressing the desire to employ initiative, compassion, or indeed, common sense. They are paid to follow orders,” Mamet wrote.

“Rule by bureaucrats and functionaries is an example of the first part of the Marxist equation: that the Government shall determine the individual’s abilities. … President Obama, in his reelection campaign, referred frequently to the ‘needs’ of himself and his opponent, alleging that each has more money than he ‘needs.’ But where in the Constitution is it written that the Government is in charge of determining ‘needs’?”

Mamet went on to criticize Obama’s recent executive actions on gun control.

“[Obama] has just passed a bill that extends to him and his family protection, around the clock and for life, by the Secret Service. He, evidently, feels that he is best qualified to determine his needs, and, of course, he is. As I am best qualified to determine mine. For it is, again, only the Marxists who assert that the government, which is to say the busy, corrupted, and hypocritical fools most elected officials are (have you ever had lunch with one?) should regulate gun ownership based on its assessment of needs.”

“President Obama seems to understand the Constitution as a ‘set of suggestions.’ I cannot endorse his performance in office, but he wins my respect for taking those steps he deems necessary to ensure the safety of his family. Why would he want to prohibit me from doing the same?”

The author of Glengarry Glen Ross, American Buffalo, Sexual Perversity in Chicago and many other plays, Mamet has positioned himself in recent years as a rare Hollywood conservative.

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Patrick Howley