Good piece on Obama’s dubious career as a community organizer. A friend jokingly said he was a “party planner,” but it’s actually similar to a union organizer for the Wobblies:
Community organizing is old-fashioned, bare-knuckle politics for the little guy.
Were you picturing Obama in a soup kitchen instead? It is not your fault. When Obama talks about his time as a community organizer, he does not go beyond a vague and benign description of how he worked with unemployed steelworkers and their families to fight for change. Media coverage of Obama’s days as a community organizer has not been much better. Most journalists tend either to repeat stories that Obama has told in his books, or merely interview people who worked with him at the time without giving you a clear idea of what community organizing entails.
The words “community organizing” themselves probably present the biggest problem.
Hearing the touchy-feely sound of “community,” you may assume organizing has something to do with community service, like working at a homeless shelter.
But there is nothing touchy or feely about community organizing. It has more in common with the brutal contact sport of Chicago politics than it does with any kind of charitable act, such as serving food to homeless people. And like the neon-green relish that garnishes a Gold Coast dog, community organizing is pure Chicago.
31 Jul 2008 at 4:34 pm
This actually makes me feel a little better about Obama.
12 Sep 2008 at 8:32 pm
Intersting and topical subject. And after much research on my own, an accurate, neutral, all-encompassing definition of “community organizer” is simply not available. Thus, how it is ultimately defined is, for all practical purposes, entirely subjective. SO, from everything I’ve read and heard, and aside from whatever humanitarian motivations which may or may not have spurred him on, it appears that, for Mr. Obama, community organizing was intended to be a stepping stone; thus, he was a politically-motivated community activist with the clear objective of building a base with which he could achieve political power. That is neither bad nor good. That is merely my own judgement on the matter.
6 Oct 2008 at 4:16 pm
Like anything it is a position that can be used for the either the benefit of the people or it can be something that can be abused (see Acorn). We can only hope Mr. Obama worked in the position towards positive ends.