The sneering and spitting from the right on “community organizing” is one of the nastiest things I’ve seen in a long time.
The right crows about charity, about communities working without government to provide help and services to the needy.
Now they’ve decided that such organizations are sneer-worthy and don’t work. My god, don’t they see what they’re revealing about themselves? They want to yank away government safety nets, leaving people to the tender mercies of other organizations they think are ludicrous and laughable.
They are spitting on churches, charities, non-profits of all stripes. They are spitting on the very people they’ve claimed were better suited to help others, the very people they’ve been counting on to shore up their rhetoric. “The government doesn’t need to pay for that!” they scream. “That’s what charities are for! We’re the most charitable nation in the WORLD!”
Only now we see their true colors. They don’t think charities work.
It’s contemptible. And if they manage to denigrate community organizations enough, they’ll only serve to shift reliance further onto government, raising those all-important taxes.
Does this help? Statements from Giuliani, Pataki and Palin. Yeah, this is kind of crazy. But I think the article sums it up really well. They’re scared of community organizers, because they really get stuff done. They give people the resources and knowledge they need to advocate for themselves–for safe conditions at work, for fair pay, for equal treatment. I’m not sure how anyone can think that’s a bad thing, but some people apparently do.
Well, yes–Sarah Palin said, “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.” That kind of sort of implies that community organizers don’t actually do anything.
This is the response from the National Association of Social Workers.
This sneering, seething contempt they’ve been showing has shown them to be not only hypocrites, but the “elitists” they’re trying to tag Obama as being. Who the fuck sneers at Community Organizing, all while trying to claim that they care more about “working folk” than their elitist opponent who actually DID Community Organizing?
It’s outrageously offensive and I cannot wait for it to backfire in their self-centered, hypocritical faces. They are really scum.
Killing people half-way around the world without questioning why= Brave hero who loves his country.
Working with poor people in your own town, helping them get jobs and have access to good housing so they will no longer be poor=Librul elitist who doesn’t have real responsibilities.
I keep beating this dead horse but no conservative has answered me yet: Why aren’t Christian Republicans bothered by the blatant hypocrisy here? Which of the two individuals above would Christ admire more? Which one exemplies his teachings? Here’s a hint:
No self-respecting Christian–or anyone else, for that matter–should vote for a party that sneers at the above passage. By laughing at the community organizing that Obama was involved in, that’s exactly what they’re doing.
But I expect more silence from the Compassionate Right.
Not that I don’t sincerely appreciate the original author’s integrity on the issue, but I reluctantly must correct you (at least based on that particular cite) and change ‘some of the righties’ (plural), to ‘one, lone, reasonable person who gets it’, based on the filth and bile posted in every single reply to that post.
I knew this campaign season was going to be ugly, but this is far worse than even I expected.
People like Giuliani, Palin, etc. are just sneering at community organizers because the other party’s candidate used to be one and they’re trying to knock his record. It doesn’t reflect their true views, or any views. It’s just empty political sniping.
What does? Every Republican I’ve ever heard speak wants to cut public funding and let private charities pick up the slack. Suddenly, those private charities are stupid.
Why am I supposed to assume they were telling the truth first and the lie second instead of the lie first and the truth second?
No one gets to sneer at something then tell me they respect it and have me believe them. No one.
Relying on private community support fits right in with their whole small-government philosophy, and they’ve been promoting this idea for a long time; whereas the jabs at community organizing only emerged in this one context and were specifically directed at Obama.
It is NOT empty political sniping–it’s a calculated, organized attack to undermine their opponent. It is not nice, not fair, not statesmanlike, not effective in the long run. IOW, it was a cheap shot. How much lower can she go (because Palin was the one who said, not some “operative”)? The irony of Palin calling Obama out on his supposed lack of experience, well, it burns.
This may be politics as usual to the GOP. Most of the rest of us see it has disgusting. Just what will ever reflect their true views? Why not spend some convention time on their platform, instead of trying to knock Obama? If I heard a word of substance from McPain, I might actually listen to him. Funny how he’s trying to co-opt the word change now, but old dogs don’t learn new tricks.
So? Once you take the position that private community organizations are the proper venue for certain societal functions, you foreclose the option of sneering at the concept* just because it happens to give you a convenient cheap shot at your opponent of the moment. Once they do that, it’s perfectly proper to conclude that the original “support” for the concept of private community organizations was a sham and a fraud (i.e. either they simply don’t care what happens to the people who are supposed to turn to them for help, or they actively want such people to be reduced to helpless penury for some reason).
And if (when?) Der Trihs comes along to crow that, yep, it’s the latter, I cannot see any possible grounds for rebuttal.
*Criticizing specific implementations for specific failings is fine, but that’s not what they did.
As a future social worker and participant in community work, this really pisses me off.
I am trying to tell myself that the reason such lies are being spread is genuine ignorance–maybe most people aren’t aware of what community organizing is? They think it’s some kind of charity raffle? This is my most fervent hope.
Honestly, out of everything Obama’s done, the thing that impresses me the most is that he did community organization. It is difficult work with often very little reward. You don’t get into it unless you actually care. Essentially what you must do is create infrastructure out of none, based on the needs of the people, as expressed by the people, while working with the people. It requires vision, fortitude, executive ability, organizational and financial planning skills, the ability to mediate and take all opinions into consideration, and one hell of a big heart. I don’t think there’s a more perfect expression of the way society should operate and I am damn proud of Obama’s commitment to it.
I think Sarah Palin should be ashamed of her filthy words.
This has been my impression, too. I have volunteered for these kinds of organizations, and they do nothing but good work. I’ve never heard anyone on the right claim otherwise. On the other hand, I think the GOP’s focus on Obama’s experience doing community organizing work is tiresome, but not for the reason stated in the OP. It’s pretty lame to criticize someone for their first job, just out of college, as evidence that they don’t have the right kind of experience to be president.
You foreclose that option only if you are committed to making all your statements fit together into a consistent and reasonable argument. While most politicians seem to attempt this some of the time, they are often enough willing to ignore consistency and reason and go for the cheap score.
It may be proper to conclude that, but I don’t think it’s very accurate. I’m not just interested in winning a debate. I am trying to figure out what people really think.
It is true that when the RNC was shitting all over community organization, they were stupidly and obliviously shitting all over church groups and Bush’s own FBCI.
No one ever claimed that Obama’s Community Organizing experience was a qualification for POTUS, by the way, so even if thats’a sll they were tryoing to belittle (which it wasn’t). It was still a bullshit strawman.
I think the truth is they were trying to summon up and mock associations with well-known political activists like Al Sharpton. yes it was racist. Especially on Guiliani’s part, that piece of shit.
I’m not going to come right out and state this as a fact, but the IMPRESSION I’ve gotten from some conservatives is that “community organizer” is sort of code for a particular kind of community organizer. Namely the angry minority kind. I admit I may be way off base here, so I’m asking if anyone else has gotten this feeling.
edit: damn you, dio. that’s even the exact person I was thinking of as an example!