November 6, 2008
Political Science Department
A Few Words About Community Organization
I'd been meaning to post something about the foolish way Obama's opponents had been criticizing him for his work as a community organizer, but I never got around to it. Maybe now that he's won, someone will pay attention.
Let's start with Rudy Giuliani's pompous, sneering performance in this video, complete with bizarrely over-acted befuddlement at what a community organizer is. He's acting like it's some made-up nonsense job. That takes a lot of gall, coming from someone whose first political job was as a party committeeman.
Everyone's political career has to start somewhere. Arnold Schwarzenegger may get to start as the governor of a large state, but most politicians have less impressive beginnings: Community organizer, small-town mayor, party committeeman. So what makes being a party hack like Giuliani a better starter job for a politician than being a community organizer? Nothing.
Sarah Palin's comment on the matter is a little more substantive, but it misses the point just as much:
I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.
True. But you know what else community organizers don't have? Armed enforcers and tax revenue. It's a lot easier to get things done when you can force people to obey at gunpoint, and you can take all the money that you need.
When you're a community organizer like Obama was, you can't make anybody do anything. No one has to take your orders, or even your phone call. No one has to give you any money.
To be sure, Sarah Palin gained her authority over the mechanisms of Alaskan government by winning elections. There's nothing illegimate about that. She appealed to people and won their votes.
As a community organizer, however, Obama appealed to people too. Instead of getting their votes, he got their direct personal support for his causes. When you can get people to support you and work toward your cause even though you have no authority over them, we have a special word for it. We call that leadership.
Many people don't like the direction Obama wants to lead this country, but his opponents have just been taught a hard lesson about the error of underestimating Obama's ability to lead.
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Giuliani's comment was amazingly dishonest too. He had many run-ins with ACORN and other community organizing groups as Mayor. He knows very well what they do and he hates it. He hates the idea of poor people having power over what happens in their own neighborhood. He thinks that power belongs to the bankers and property owners who make decisions about inner city neighborhoods before they drive home to their mansion in the suburbs at the end of the day. He thinks decisions should be made at the country club and golf course, not by a bunch of rowdy protesters and community organizers who don't even wear suits. His disgust over community organizing is at the heart of what separates liberals from conservatives.
Me, I'm thinking that it'd be better to elect Mark or Priscilla Olson or Ben Yallow. You may or may not know the names, but they've run World Science Fiction conventions successfully -- and done it solely by leadership, with an all-volunteer staff that not only doesn't get paid, but pays its own way.
That said, whatever virtues Obama has, he was a (largely privately, apparently) self-confessed failure as a community organizer.
In some respects, I think that's to his credit -- he never did, as far as I know, come close to adopting the shakedown methodology of Jesse Jackson or, worse, Al Sharpton. But it's hardly a record of success.
I hope he does a lot better in his new gig. Although, of course, I'm hoping he meets the same lack of success in some areas.
I don't know if you're kidding, but I think organizing a major convention like you describe is a pretty good example of leadership. I'll bet some of those people are also local leaders---organizing blood drives, protesting zoning changes, stuff like that. It doesn't mean they could be president, but it's a start.
No, I'm not kidding, and in fact, there's whole bunch of manager folks I know who got their start managing stuff doing conventions.