NAACP's Barber Displays Contradictions | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: This post, was originally published in the Civitas's online edition.

    NC NAACP President William Barber has popped into the news again, as he tries to do whenever TV cameras are turned on. We thought this was a good time to bring up a few relevant facts about the Rev. Barber.

    He loves to excoriate the establishment - but it seems to slip his mind that he and his cronies profit big time from the establishment.

    For instance, a Goldsboro-based organization headed by Barber received nearly $350,000 of your tax dollars in the 2015 fiscal year, according to this Civitas article.

    And that's just a small part of what his left-wing allies raked in. Barber headed up the "Moral Monday" protests, but as a Civitas investigation learned, that movement would be more accurately called "Money Monday." Groups linked to Moral Mondays pulled in more than $100 million in state funding over the course of several years, until Civitas pointed it out and lawmakers at least slowed down the gravy train, if not halted it altogether.

    He and the NAACP also receive generous funding from George Soros, the billionaire financier who backs so many left-wing groups, according to a news report.

    Does a billionaire like Soros really have the well-being of North Carolinians at heart? Or does he have other motives?

    And what does it say when Barber and the NAACP take money from him?

Liberalism's fatal contradiction

    Note too a paradox: though Barber condemns violence by police, he at the same time calls for political solutions - without recognizing that political solutions are, ultimately, enforced by armed police or soldiers.

    "Our deepest moral traditions declare that the true challenge of society is not private charity but public policy that impacts how people exist every day of our lives," declared Barber.

    Indeed, "morality" and "justice," according to Barber, can only be achieved through political means, and millions of dollars in his pocket and the pockets of his cronies.

    But, as Civitas' Brian Balfour has noted: "The use of force backed by the threat of violence is the bedrock upon which all government programs are built. Their very existence relies on compelling citizens to pay their taxes lest they be punished for their resistance. And to be clear, such threats are not leveled against the perpetrators of any crime, but rather against innocent victims who have aggressed against no one."

    That's the fatal contradiction at the heart of Barber's screeds, and in fact in almost all liberalism today: Liberals call for bigger and stronger government to intrude ever more deeply into the lives of citizens. But then those same liberals are shocked and outraged when agents of that government inflict harm, willfully or not, on citizens.

    You may hear more from Barber if unrest continues to roil our state. Just keep in mind that he and his cronies have profited from the political structure they decry, and that it is they who are calling for strong, active government to push more deeply into the lives of people everywhere.