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.
148 · Dr AmNonymous said
Which is exactly what Obama said.
It’s not hubris given that there’s a third path to social betterment–read your Hernando De Soto or Hayek.
#125: One of the under-reported reasons for Clinton’s leaving behind a surplus was that during his Presidency, Congress was mostly under Republican rule. Divided government -> Less Government Interference -> Profit!!
OK – but knocking Bill Clinton’s accomplishments does nothing to prove the GOP is the party of fiscal responsibility. Maybe you weren’t trying to do that, of course. But I have no idea how anyone who was awake for the last eight years can claim with a straight face that the Republicans are fiscally responsible. Half a trillion in debt, people. If I overspent that kind of money at work, I would be fired.
I usually comment as HitlerWasACommunityOrganizer
Interesting article over at HNN http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/54169.html
Can’t say I agree more.
Dude, that’s what community organizing is. It’s not a “shakedown” of the taxpayers – you think organizers go to taxpayers’ houses to demand money? 🙂 It’s attempting to collectively address the lack of services, wages, and power that most communities face in the face of government or other social forces, and built on the idea that individually people are screwed but collectively and organized they have power. Keeping out nuclear power plants, getting translators in the local hospital, etc. It’s hardly an extortion operation 🙂
156 · Dr AmNonymous said
No they don’t. But they go to government and demand money which the government has coercively taken from the taxpayer (I don’t deny that taxes have certain legitimate functions like law and order, security from external forces). And the legislators, since it is not their money, are only too happy to dole out such largess to these shakedown artists (Ahem, community organizers). If community organizers are so convinced of the rightness of their actions why don’t they appeal to private charity and funds given willingly by people who OWN those funds? How about trying to get voter initiatives requiring taxes to pay for “deserving” causes on the ballot? (in my opinion a way worse than the previous one of private charity, but better than government grants)
157 · HitlerWasACommunityOrganizer said
Now I don’t buy Obama’s “achievements” as a Community Organizer or most of anything else he’s done…but what you said, not to overstate, is a grosse generatlization and a sweeping statement cutting a huge swathe over a varied panorama.
158 · RahulD said
ROTFLMAO
103 · HitlerWasACommunitOrganizer said
First of all, there aren’t enough private charities around to tackle every issue out there that may need community organization or the mobilization for important causes. I know this because I am on a daily basis looking for grant makers and “private charities” to assist non-profits with the funding they need so badly to improve the lives of folks like you and me.
Secondly, community organizers don’t “suck on the teat” so much as they advocate for changes in public policy or ask for government assistance when the groups they represent, like the gentrified citizens of San Francisco, get royally screwed from actions taken by the government itself.
According to IBD, Obama’s Chicago commuinity organizing group taught heterosexism” as “a negative byproduct of capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy and male-dominated privilege.”
Obama’s been touting his community organizing, so if this is true, he’s opened himself up to being associated with what many Americans will consider left-wing hate speech, not unlike Palin is susceptible visavis her church…but stuff like this has long been out of bounds in mainstream American politics. That’s part of what makes America great.
161 · Manju said
Hey, it’s his right! As Sarah Palin likes to say, Sambo beat the bitch, after all.
It is indeed part of what makes America great that Sarah Palin can say these things and still aspire to the highest office in the land.
Hey Hitler, you are confusing lobbyists with community organizers. You know, the kind of lobbyists Sarah Palin hired to shake down the government for earmarks for her state of Alaska which is #1 in America in demanding and getting dole from the government. What do you think about that? Also what do you think of the farmers and small town denizens who benefit the most from governemnt charity?
163 · Mac_attack said
Lobbyists are just glorified community organizers, organizing a community of like minded interests. Don’t respect either. And the only way to get rid of lobbyists is to shrink the government with lower taxes and lesser power. I hope I have answered your first question. As to your second question if living in small towns is economically feasible without forced charity (from the taxpayers) then by all means live there. But if it is not, consider moving to to a place more affordable and livable.
Excellent article on the subject.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/2073071/revolution-you-can-believe-in.thtml
You must really hate the Republicans then. Whats left? Who you gonna vote for?
No one has yet answered my question as to what qualifies Republicans as “fiscally responsible.”
But I guess it’s just a lot more fun and easy to bash community organizers and make ridiculous Hitler analogies (and by the way, I defer to Reza Aslan on the Hitler subject: “Not everyone is Hitler, OK? Can we put this to bed? Until you’ve murdered 11 million people, you’re not Hitler. You’re just a jackass.”).
165 · RahulD said
Don’t know about extreme leftism, but the article definitely convinced me that paranoia is alive and well.
162 · Hitler was a war hero said
As frustrating as this may seem to leftists, smears like the sambo/bitch allegation not only make dems look like swift-boaters, but its a losing card too…making dems, and perhaps obama by implication, look sharptonesque, willing to undermine race relations for the sake of politics.
the amount of lies being being spread about Palin right is arguably higher than the amount obama had to take during the dem primary. and like obama, she’s effectively rebutted them and gained sympathy with her base, a base in which mccain was once weak.
o god, obmam’s supporters are really blowing it for him
i mean, now all mccain gotta do to reply to patterson, is quote the stuff IBD quotes (hetrosexism byproduct of capitalism, etc) and put obama yet again on the defensive, like with wright, where he’s got to explain away guilt by association.
dems will try to do the same with palin, but that is a losing card since palin is the VP, and their unwittingly throwing their P candidate under the bus in order to get the opposition’s VP.
157 · HitlerWasACommunityOrganizer said
I don’t have time to argue about social change strategies to someone who can’t udnerstand the difference between getting money and building power, the role that government institutions (like hospitals and environmental waste facilities) play vs. the role that private charities and foundations play, etc.
What I would suggest, instead, is that you stay on your own turf so that we can have a more engaged conversation. If you want to talk about taxes, do two things:
1) Recognize that the three biggest items BY FAR in the U.S. budget are social security; medicare; defense spending. They amount to about 62% of the entire budget. If you want to reduce your federal taxes, I suggest you take on the AARP (keeping in mind that 1/3 of old people or some such thing were in poverty before the creation of social security) or Northrup Grummon and Lockheed Martin and how they get their money, not community organizers who right now are trying to stop people from being deported (which saves you money) or attempting to force private and public insituttions to have translators in hospitals (which costs you a minimal amount of money and certainly nothing ont he federal budget). Note taht this is not counting state and local taxes and that would play out differently with different dyamics in different locales. 2) Recognize that the biggest factor that will influence your future taxes is the enormnous debt burden the U.S. government carries. If you think the demographic problem of social security is an issue, what do you think of the increasing construction of the economy around the military and the exponentially increasing amount of debt over the last 8 years, mostly due to warfare and trillions of dollars of tax cuts. Those interest payments are going to be what drive up your taxes, not community organizers. Now consider whether you want someone in office who professes to know nothing about economics and has built his entire career around warfare and has shown signs of being a dangerous warmongerer in this campaign alone. Forget, for a second, about what that means for human lives and societieis – just in terms of taxes, it’s the single biggest factor that’s going to lower your standard of living, imo. 3) I suggest you read Christopher Howard’s The Hidden Welfare State. It’s quite dull, but it shows you how the complexity of the tax system makes it a policy instrument–and one that rewards corporations frequently. In any case, the point here is “lower taxes” can be used as an argument for any kind of politics – so, lower taxes for whom – and to what end? 4) Finally, this is a question not just for you but for everyone, including both candidates, who are proposing lower taxes. What exactly is the benefit of lower taxes if the national debt has exploded? What, so you pay $1 today while your children or grandchildren pay $10,000 and suffer a dramatically decreased standard of living? I don’t udnerstand the logic except for stupidity and pandering.
We can talk abot how property is theft another day 😉
166 · Mac_attack said
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I don’t like Republicans. But to answer your question, politics is not reducible to only Republicans vs Democrats. There are a lot more viewpoints in this country and if you just try to explore them and maybe identify with the one closest to you you may be able to help break the duopoly which the two parties have in the national scene leading to a better marketplace of ideas and introducing accountability to the both the major parties.
171 · Manju said
Tell me, Manju, where does your enormous fount of wisdom about the state of the camapaign and what each campaign should do come from? 😉 You seem to have mapped out every conceivable strategy on a daily basis, all of which seem to entail bad news for Obama or matters of “concern” but shift with each shifting wind in the campaign. Why not just be done with it and say that you don’t know what you’re talking about, these are guesses, and really no one fully knows what will happen in what is currently a dead heat, albeit with an electoral vote advantage for Obama given the breakdown of polls and demogarphics and politics across states, and still including a McCain bounce from the convention. It’s like trying to predict who will wint he National League East – you can make some guesses, but beyond projecting off of things like “well the mets bullpen sucks but they’ve been paying better over the last 60 games or so than the Phillies”, you’re left with nothing.
I think it’s far more likely that Obama wins this election than McCain because he runs a well-organized machine of a campaign – but it’s not certain yet. But I’m not going to argue with you because neither I nor you know what we’re talking about to the level of rigour that would be necessary to offer “advice” with the level of certainty that you do.
169 · Manju said
And don’t talk about leftists. You don’t know anything about us. Or pick a more accurate label, like “liberal.” or “Democrat.”
167 · Mary Mary Not Contrary said
168 · Hitler was a war hero said
168 · Hitler was a war hero said
From someone who compares an U.S. Navy man to a Nazi…I will consider your point as much as I considered the line of turds along the pavement during my trip to Dharavi…and stick to my belief that that article should be given as much credibility as all the (barely researched) smears on Palin put together.
But you have your right to believe I’m wrong and you are right just by citing a Wikipedia link…And while you are at it, go about gathering more internet links about how 9-11 was a conspiracy; that Lieberman and the Zionists /insert sneer/ worked in league with McCain and Bush (but more importantly McCain, because he is the same as Bush, and the same as Cheney) to coordinate the CIA, the Mossad, James Dobson, and the Sicarii to bring down the towers.
How US Army soldiers are war-hungry rednecks fighting for either Jerusalem or for oil to keep NASCAR going, not to ensure that our way of life is secure stateside. And how if Sarah Palin comes to power, White Evangelical Supremacist Alaskans will activate Sleeper Cells that will then use helicopters and assault rifles to eliminate vegetarians, gays, feminists, hippies, Kucinich supporters and doctors who perform abortions. Since a lot of Doctors are of Indian origin, and like most Indian-Americans, are poor, thoroughly discriminated and dependent on Social Security, Medicare and such…the Republicans coming to power directly affects all those who Gandhi fought for. AND!! Gandhi was a community organizer and Obama was one too while McCain is a war-mongering blood-libelling Nazi, hence we should vote for Obama.
But, I digress…I’m sorry I got carried away, I was inciting paranoia as is the habit of us Republicans.
172 · Dr AmNonymous said
177 · HitlerWasAcommunityOrganizer said
How fitting, Hitler was very paranoid too.
Yes, yes, i get it, you are a libertarian – the Ameircan kind that does’t understand that power is not solely concentrated in the government, but can exist in multiple social settings, includign int he market. I have four responses: 1) what do you think about community organizing now that you’ve conceded that defense spending, social security, and medicare, constitute more than half the expenditures of governmet revenues? 2) Don’t mix up “deficit” and “debt” – the deficit increased ubnder Bush – deficits can have different uses – as can debts, but what is of concern for those interested in the future success of the u.s. or its people is the massive DEBT increase – look at the chart i gav eyou and you’ll see what i mean. it’s what we mathematical polymaths call “unprecedented exponential growth”; 3) your argument about divided government is interesting; 4) how do you defend not being an anarchist if you believe in individual liberties?
180 · Achha? said
That informative and erudite insight into Hitler was germaine and helpful. Thank you.
181 · Dr AmNonymous said
I laughed at that…It is true! Thats what I love about you structuralists…sense of humor.
I love when people do go out of their way to say that they are “
Llibertarian”…thus proclaiming themselves to be some kind of intellectual Nephilim that are bereft of any petty party affiliations or dispassionate on all the divisions bearing some imaginary mantle of Objectivity.180 · Achha? said
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blockquote>177 · HitlerWasAcommunityOrganizer said
And so is Andy Grove. BTW Hitler was just a fool.
well, as you’ve noticed my advice shifts so i don’t know where your accusation of “certainty” comes from. Yes, it like the NL east, as you say. we’re dealing with human behaviour, there’s high degree of chance and free will, so its hard to predict. it’s like following the market, one day you long a stock the next day short, as the market changes you adjust. and if you think i’ve only talked about bad news for obama you haven’t been closely following my sage advice.
Obama’s clearly rattled now, off his game. the ugly lef is making him look ugly adn the pig comment, whatever the intention, didn’t help. My advice: ignore palin for now, go negative on mccain:
he must go on attack and stop playing defense to mcains attacks.
181 · Dr AmNonymous said
also, while its obvious Mccans hail mary has worked for now (though there’s still a danger palin will implode during a debate or interview) its important to realize that convention bounces usually dissipate. so in a few days, obama should regain the lead if mccain is only up by a few points now. but if the lead sticks, he really needs to control the agenda like mccain is now and put mccin on the defensive.
for example, he’s going around saying mccain is playing the same old bush negative campaigning strategy. fine. but drive the point home. bring up rove’s black baby smear and ask mcccain how he could then turn around and hire rove. put mccain between a rock and a hard place, making him look like he sold out his own kid. his only reply would be to say rove wasn’t involved in that but that would get the press talking and investigating an issue that hurts republicans.
this, along with calling mccain emotional and unhinged, would get a lot of press coverage and put mccain on the defensive. that’s what he started to do at mile high stadium but has since been thrown off his game.
169 · Manju said
Uh-huh. Quoting statements without basis from an ideological rag is a problem if it’s the left, but a-ok if it’s on the right? I didn’t pick that “allegation” without a reason, you know.
Just the facts, man. War hero, community organizer, while we’re discussing Hitler, let’s fill out the profile, shall we?
188 · Hitler was a war hero said
IBD’s certainly ideological, buts its more like “the nation” an establish publication that may or may not be wrong. i left the possibility that they may be wrong open, and if they are, i’m sure someone on the left will pick it up. but so far nada, as far as i know.
but at the end of the day its not the publication that matters, but the accuracy of the statement itself. you’re trying to make this allegation equivalent to the sambo/bitch smear. but unlike smears, this allegation is disprovable, so if there is no basis for it, we’ll actually know.
189 · Manju said
They are both equally disprovable.
And the fact that something is disprovable doesn’t mean that spreading it around is ok. Don’t believe me? Ask your presidential candidate about that black baby thing.
Ha! Keep spreading this crap around throwing in small phrases to pretend you are being fair and balanced, and we’ll keep believing you.
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Bullshit. All you have to do is get the training materials and see if the alleged sentace is there.
sure, if the allegation is false. but we don’t know that. i repeated an allegation, provided a source that was not just some random commentator on a blog, provided a link, and a qualifier. That’s more than most people do.
191 · Manju said
No, your claim is that Obama is on board with some virulent ideology. Even if some training materials have this, that allegation is a smear, plain and simple.
On the contrary, the Sarah Palin allegation just requires getting the waitress to say that this was or wasn’t the case. No extrapolation of motives required.
But, hey, keep spreading the smears. That’s what you’re good at.
192 · Hitler was a war hero said
Bullshit. I nowhere claimed that. We’re discussing the value of commnuity organizing and the legitamcy of mocking theprofession. if these claims are true, you have good reson to mock.
obama by touting it will be forced to respond like he did with wright. that’s legit too, as he himseld admitted. what not legit is assuming obama belives this, which is why i didn’t.
but my major point is, since i’m Machiavellian manju, not that the sambo/bitch smear is a racist/sexist immoral smear (assuming of course its false) but that its also a losing smear b/c it risks obama having to wear, by association, the very label (shartonesque race card player)that he’s so defty avoided despite his politcal opponents (bill clinon and gerry ferroro in particular, and mccain to a lesser extent) repeatedly trying to affix it on him.
Palin’s got some dems so unhinged they’re just not thinking. thankfully, most have backed away from the allegations after first getting excited.
Ah! The “but Mommy, Billy’s doing it too!” defense.
And you know Obama will not be fiscally responsible… how? Crystal ball?
195 · Mary Mary Not Contrary said
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Where you see “but Mommy, Billy’s doing it too!”. I see hypocrisy. The President can spend money but only if Congress authorizes him (and both the above bills were passed in a bipartisan manner; can you name a Democrat who opposed both the above bills?)
Congress is owned by Democrats and the White House is owned by Democrats. You really think Obama will veto any proposal coming from his buddies?
Community Organizer = professional do-gooders with other people’s money
Is a comparision between Olbermann and Goebells, an appropriate corollary debate?
193 · Manju said
If these claims are true, you have good reason to mock community organizing if (a) you believe all of his organizing group is organized primarily around that ideology, and (b) this group represents all of community organizing. Otherwise, it makes as much sense as mocking the value of mayors and governors by finding some mayor who abused their authority repeatedly, and potentially continued the pattern as governor.
191 · Manju said
So, you’re as good as Sean Hannity and Michelle Malkin. Good job.
198 · RahulD said
What, you find that “Hitler was a community organizer” handle ridiculous and hyperbolic too?