Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin made history last night, as she addressed the RNC. In her speech, she (of the lifetime NRA membership) aimed barbed verbal ammunition at Barack Obama, though many reports indicated that she would not do so; so much for reciprocating his class-drenched gesture of reminding the press corps that he, too, was the child of a teen mother, and that they should back the muck off of Bristol Palin. I know, I get it– it’s the convention. It’s a pep rally, time to rile up the fans.
Palin displayed exquisite contempt while commenting on Obama’s past work as a “Community Organizer”; and yes, that’s exactly how she pronounced it, as if the words were too strangely shaped for her mouth, as if they should be chaperoned by quotes.
But, community Organizers do extraordinary things. If you don’t believe me, look here, at one of the most revered “Community Organizers”, ever:
From last night’s performance:
Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown.
And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves.
I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a “community organizer,” except that you have actual responsibilities. I might add that in small towns, we don’t quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren’t listening.
We tend to prefer candidates who don’t talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco…
Politics isn’t just a game of clashing parties and competing interests.
The right reason is to challenge the status quo, to serve the common good, and to leave this nation better than we found it.[npr]
Well that sounds…positively…Gandhian.
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Thank you, Nikki, for inspiring this post.
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Update/nb: Please do keep in mind that I’m not a fangirl of anyone I mentioned– I don’t think Gandhi or Obama are divine, but I do respect both of them, for different reasons. Additionally, I am not comparing Obama to the most famous brown person, ever; I am trying to open a space for discussion about the phrase “Community Organizer”, since I was struck with how much disrespect it marinated in, last night.
Finally, it may be worth noting that I harbor a wee bit of ill-will towards a party I once partied with– my very name, when mispronounced in Malayalam, in an American way, means Elephant)– but unfortunately, no longer recognize.
I want a t-shirt that says “Community Organizer” with a huge picture of Gandhi right below.
Anna: Thanks for the post. Besides the Mahatma, I can name few who were “community organizers” who made a big difference in “ordinary” people during and after India gained independence. Ravishanker Maharaj, Vinoba Bhave, Indulal Gandhi, and many many others who devoted their lives for uplifting the so-called underpriveledged. Some of these folks were much worst than folks from South side of Chicago. Obama (at the risk of sounding like I am taking sides) did a good deed, IMHO.
yeah, i found that portion of red meat rather rancid. i personally have qualms about the efficacy of the sort of activism which obama engaged in the 1980s, but in the generality civic spirit of this sort is a good thing and not really politically charged.
…to be politically even-handed, i found the jabs at community organizing to be of the same genre as left/democratic attacks on corporations and the free market. there are plenty of bad specific cases, but in the end it’s all empty rhetoric. we want MORE altruism civic engagement and activism AND more industry and economic growth. they’re two faces of the same post-malthusian mass society.
Rethuglickins are contemptuous of the word “community” even on its own–too close to “communism” for them. No sense of a commons (i.e. community property, such as aquifers and public parks and public schools), no common interests, no common ground, no common future. It’s all about the individual and private property rights and individual responsibility (i.e. daddy’s trust fund bootstraps).
She took a lot of cheap shots at people who have been in public service for a lot longer than she has. If she does get elected, I don’t see her achieving much through compromise and negotiation. But then again, McCain is courting the very same people who pulled a character assassination on him in 2000, so maybe it’s just par for the course in DC.
Thanks for putting this up, Anna. I really hope this BS gets more coverage.
i think the jabs at community organizing come from the same place of contempt as snobby literal critiques of white-trash-u-of-idaho graduate. it’s human nature, but it ain’t pretty.
I have to agree with Nate’s comments on “Palin displayed exquisite contempt” and it long term negative effect. Again short term Palin’s speech works well with the base, shoring up any women and men who might due to lack of appetite for McCain, switch over to Obama, or the real possibility, simply stay at home and not vote.
However, McCain needs to pick up independents and this speech, long term, will have the effect of driving them away.
Thanks for this, Anna. In a couple of years, I will most likely be something close to a community organizer. I’m guessing Palin offended more than just our lot. She ran a strong risk of offending people that work closely with community organizers (i.e. city and urban planners, transportation planners, project managers in various fields, etc.) These are the people to whom she’s supposed to be appealing; people who are still trying to decide between Obama and McCain. I don’t remember any mention of a significant issue (do I remember hearing something about ANWAR?).
Anyway, my point is that Palin needs to stop being a smart ass and start getting serious about this election (which, by the way, is 2 months from now).
Comparing Obama to Gandhi is a bit of a stretch. Gandhi’s accomplishments makes him a a mahatma. No one knows what Obama actually accomplished except work for an organization associated with voter fraud. Obama is all about ego with own presidential seal. Gandhi, Vinobha bhave did not do public service for the sole purpose of furthering their own political career. Obama is more like a better spoken Al Sharpton. The whole argument is that criticism of Palin experience as backup qb (Football season starting) only highlights Obama’s lack of it as a starting qb.
10 · Vic said
Giuliani’s and Palin’s contempt and mockery had little to do with Obama; if they had attacked his service as a community organizer that would have been one thing, but they both went after community organizing as a whole, and Gandhi was certainly a community organizer. As, by the way, was Jesus.
If anybody really believes that, one candidate is morally superior to the other? Then, please explain, What do you think convinced John McCain, my candidate, to change his mind on the Bush Tax cuts or Barack Obama to change his stance on the “draconian” surveillance bill, which affords federal authorities the right to warrant less wiretaps?
The attack was obviously on Obama’s credentials in response to attacks on Palin credential as a Governor of Alaska. The point is, that nobody knows what a ‘community organizer’ is. Everyone has a different definition. Heck…even drug dealers can be labeled as community organizer. I would argue that Farrakhan was a community organizer, so was Hitler.
The criticism was about all community organizers, not just Obama:
Thank you Palin for helping raise $10 million dollars for Obama’s campaign over night. That’s right, OVERNIGHT. [Ben Smith’s Blog]
Maybe the Republican Messaging Machine really has no clue what is going on.
As a community organizer, I was furious with her statement. The responsibilities I carry with my work are those of the community. Which are huge. But think about it,she only had to mobilize 616 votes to win as mayor, and Alaska is a small voting population. She really has no idea how much she’s really going to have to lean on the door knockers, the community activists, the phone bankers (ahem, community organizers) to get out the vote. And I think she might have just alienated them with her statement.
Thank you McCain. Picking Palin as VP was just what Obama needed to sway undecideds over to him. And raise him another $10 million.
One thing we all know now is that Republicans are down with war on nouns like Radical Islam and Terrorism. We all know that Muslim terrorists are especially good at community organization, evidenced by their Terror Cells and their hatred for Freedom. Also, there is that whole ethnic connotation to community organization in Black Liberation Theology in America. Uppity Muslims and Blacks use adverbs, something that is unpatriotic.
I feel safe that nouns will not attack me under a McCain/Palin watch.
Country first, people.
How hilarious was it while community organization was being so caustically excoriated, many were holding up “Service” signs? Haa-haa.
Sigh. shakes head in disbelief
Sarah Palin reminds me of a student assistant I briefly had during my final year of my doctoral studies. She had this vacuous smile permanently plastered on, even while she spouted off occasionally some of the most horrifically offensive things about Muslims, and Asians, in general. And this was before the War on Terror and before Muslim became a smear. I never said anything to her because I just wanted to go back to cramming. It was the most surreal month during an already surreal year as I prepared for the mother of all exams. Then she emailed me once while I was in another country on a Fulbright, telling me how much she learned from me–about Asia (based on books she was pulling for me, I guess???). I never wrote back, but was like, Girl, you is some serious kinds of psycho.
I felt that WTF disconnect last night during Palin’s speech. That smile + that vicious rhetoric. Damn. Creepy. As. Hell.
Here’s a non-Hitler idea of what a community organizer does. “Being an organizer means putting the needs of the community above yourself and your ego.”
Except nobody really knew what a community organizer is before Obama decided to use that phrase. . Prior to this election cycle, if someone had come to me with a job description, ‘community organizer’ on their resume, I would instantly think…troublemaker.., or a drugdealer. There is already a job classification for a ‘social worker.’that people are trying to link a community organizer with. Apparently a community organizer is not a social worker, or Obama would have used that term. Is it a social worker with an ego or political ambition? Where do you apply for a job of community organizer?
To apply to be a community organizer you can visit http://www.idealist.org.
Or you can do what I did, and start a project for your community yourself.
18 · Vic said
Who’s nobody? Do you mean you?
TAZ
Essentially You are proving my point..It is what you want it to be. I must say, you sound more qualified than Barack Obama. …Except that he was President of Harvard Law review….but so was Ann Coulter so we can dismiss that legacy.
…Except that he was President of Harvard Law review….but so was Ann Coulter so we can dismiss that legacy.
many people would make a distinction between harvard law review and michigan law review.
Yes and apparently the Job Classified section of Major Newspapers in the USA. I also went to Hotjobs.com and Monster.com and looked for jobs with the title community organizer. Couldn’t find a right match.
23 · Vic said
Did you find President of the USA? I guess that means you don’t know what that is either.
21 · Vic said
you do realize the difference between president of harvard law review, which obama was, and editor of michigan law review, which ann coulter was, right? if you don’t, maybe you can look up monster.com to learn?
18 · Vic said
you sound like a republican alright. why don’t you also say… if a black man had come to you with a job description…?
10 · Vic said
you say that because they’re both black, right?
I was wrong about Ann Coulter..confused her with some other conservative personality who was also president of the law review. But we don’t want to be elitist here anyway.
Please try and do a better job of disagreeing with each other, for the sakes of those of us who MUST read every single one of your comments. Use the “preview” option, perhaps.
Someone should remind Governor Palin that her Lord and savior Jesus Christ was a “community organizer” and his executioner was…a…governor.
It seems that republicans have finally come around to the knowledge that it is not individuals that matter, it is only government that is the relevant solution.
Obama responds on Community Organizers
Palin scares me. She’s one of those women who take advantage of changes that feminists and liberals have worked for over the decades all the while denying and deriding the philosophy that made it possible for her to succeed.
And then to take things a notch further, she takes away funding for special education, for halfway houses for pregnant teens. Because the only disabled kids and pregnant kids who deserve full support are her own–not those whose parents cannot afford it. She is a false-smile faced fascist. I wish she weren’t.
Ooooh! And i second ChicagoDesiDiva and OttieSpottieDelicious (if i spelled that right ;). Those would make some cool tees!
No, because both are unqualified to be the president…
You sound like a leftwing kook who believes all republicans are racist. For your information, I am not a Republican but a Libertarian. I am fiscally conservative and socially liberal (in that I am pro-choice, don’t care for organized religion). However, I do support McCain over Obama, because I have more in common with his views than Obama. My fiscally conservative agenda is probably more important than social conservitism. In this election, I agree with Republicans more than Democrats. I did vote for Clinton over Dole because I had more in common with his views than Dole.
35 · Vic said
no, just you. but keep coming up with the al sharpton comparisons to make your point.
And then to take things a notch further, she takes away funding for special education, for halfway houses for pregnant teens. Because the only disabled kids and pregnant kids who deserve full support are her own–not those whose parents cannot afford it. She is a false-smile faced fascist. I wish she weren’t.
well, to be fair she reduced the increases in spending, not the base amount, right?
i also think it’s rather lame to say that because liberals were right at time X they are going to be right at time X + n. during the 1920s the main elite opposition to eugenics was the roman catholic church. does that mean we need to toe the church line on everything because most people would agree that it was on the right side of history?
there are fair critiques of hypocrisy, but one shouldn’t resort to black and white “you’re with us” or “you’re against us” dichotomies. should we?
And, Vic, as I am sure you know this is not the first time that people on this blog have called you out on your bigoted worldview.
She’s one of those women who take advantage of changes that feminists and liberals have worked for over the decades all the while denying and deriding the philosophy that made it possible for her to succeed.
i also think it’s rather facile to make a time-invariant argument. it seems that progressivism/liberalism react to current conditions. many of the anti-work laws aimed at women which were repealed thanks to feminism in the 1960s were championed by progressives and suffragists in the early 20th century because of the brutality of labor in textile factories during this period and the exploitation of women who were not in a position to bargain.
I dunno. I feel uncomfortable with the (admittedly implicit) elevation of “community” over the individual. I prefer as many decisions as possible to be made through mutual consent, rather than via the imposition of some community norms (whether those be outlawing abortion, criminalizing the distribution of alcohol, or requiring recycling). Read your John Locke. So I guess this “red meat” worked with me.
40 · rob said
Community organizers rule by fiat? And government by sewing circle discussions on abortion and gay marriage?
I don’t follow–can you explain what you mean?
I dunno. I feel uncomfortable with the (admittedly implicit) elevation of “community” over the individual.
you’re weird. and so am i. libertarians are triangulating between a right and left communitarian majority. palin’s not a libertarian, she wants books removed from libraries and would ban abortion even in the case of rape and incest. not that the dems are libertarians either obviously. but let’s not romanticize the poisons we have to taste.
32 – great clip. Obama is such a class act.
33 – agree totally. She is all the more scary because of her amiable exterior. If her speech represents all she has to offer then hopefully people will see the lack of substance behind those phony smiles.
I’m actually in favor of book-burning, Razib–the problem is, they always burn the wrong books! 😉
But, kidding aside, Razib, yes, the great majority of both left and right aren’t libertarian enough at all, by my lights. I guess I ultimately care more about economics than social stuff, so that’s why I tend to hold my nose and vote GOP.
42 · rob said
i don’t understand how dissing community organizing and talking about how they will fix everything from washington gels with the notion that you prefer mutual consent over elevating community norms. especially with a far right social conservative doing the speechifying.
10 · Vic said
Do you actually know anything about Gandhi?
47 · Dr AmNonymous said
i read about him on hotjobs. great people skills and goal-oriented, he said he was. turned out to be quite a troublemaker and was even dealing in controlled substances.
11 · ptr_vivek said
Yup and both these organizers are going to turn back the waters and heal the world
Oh, ok–well, I’m scared of “community norms” being imposed on me. So, I hope Washington enforces a more hands-off approach–kind of like, you know, the US Constitution does (albeit imperfectly!). I agree the GOP is pretty bad on this front too, just saying that I “get” the fear/ridiculing of “community organizer.” When people say “community” I think “oppression of my views,” not “warm and fuzzy.”