9 Comments: Community Organizers

Their Contempt... (4.00 / 7)

The contempt Republicans show toward Community Organizers is reflective of the fact that very often, those Republicans who are in power in various cities and states are opposed to what the Community Organizers do, and the causes for which they speak.  In fact, many Republicans never met a Community Organizer they didn't dislike.

Wasn't Mayor Rudy Giuliani usually at odds with Community Organizers who tried to prevent his anti-homeless crusade (out of sight, out of mind), and "renewal" projects that pushed out low income housing and small businesses in favor of corporate development -- his rich-get-richer and poor-get-poorer solutions for New York City that made him so unpopular, until the second week of September, 2001?

It will be interesting to see what Community Organizers in Alaska have to say in the next few weeks.  I trust there are some who are fighting the oil industry who have something to say.

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by: Rep. Jim Splaine @ Thu Sep 04, 2008 at 08:21:54 AM CDT

I get a different message. (0.00 / 0)

It seemed to me that what the Republicans intended to convey was that "community organizer" doesn't mean anything.

Wow, the irony overwhelming.

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by: Douglas E. Lindner @ Fri Sep 05, 2008 at 02:52:07 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

David Plouffe e-mails: (4.00 / 5)

Let's clarify something for them right now.

Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch politicians and their failed policies.

And it's no surprise that, after eight years of George Bush, millions of people have found that by coming together in their local communities they can change the course of history. That promise is what our campaign has been about from the beginning.

Throughout our history, ordinary people have made good on America's promise by organizing for change from the bottom up. Community organizing is the foundation of the civil rights movement, the women's suffrage movement, labor rights, and the 40-hour workweek. And it's happening today in church basements and community centers and living rooms across America.

The giant finds its gait.

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by: Jack Mitchell @ Thu Sep 04, 2008 at 08:48:58 AM CDT

Dear Sarah, (4.00 / 11)

September 4, 2008
An open letter to Sarah Palin,

Dear Sarah,

Congratulations on becoming the Vice Presidential nominee for the Republican Party in the upcoming election.  It is a great thing to see a woman on the GOP ticket. Your candidacy is a truly historic event.

Still -let us not mince words. You were selected because of your gender. The GOP decided that you would appeal to female voters, especially middle aged white women. Women like me.
I watched your speech last night. You emphasized your small town experience and lifestyle as part of your appeal. I'm from an even smaller town than you are. I'm a wife, and a mother. We have some things in common.

You lost me when you ridiculed Barack Obama's experience as a community organizer. I'm a community organizer, Sarah. I spent much of 2004 knocking on people's doors in NH, to get them to register to vote. It was a non-partisan effort. Much of my work was in the city of Berlin, NH, which has a population of approximately 10,000 people. In 2004, Berlin's voter turnout was 92% in most wards, thanks to community organizers. I don't view the work we all did to ensure participation in the democratic process as being something that you, or your party should dismiss as unimportant, or contemptible.

Community organizing has a long, proud tradition. Community organizers started the Civil Rights movement. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a triumph of community organizing - and done without modern technology. The people of Montgomery met at night after work, in churches and planned their strategy. After a little over a year, they won the fight, and buses in Montgomery were no longer segregated.

Another triumph of community organizing is responsible for you being where you are today. Without the women's suffrage movement, you would never have even been Mayor of Wasilla.  You would be home, having babies, with no right to own property, no right to sign a contract, and no right to vote. You would be chattel. Beginning with the Declaration of Sentiments, that proclaimed "all men and women are created equal" to the very end, where Alice Paul and the National Women's Party ensured the passage of the 19th Amendment, you owe your presence on the national stage to those women. Some of those women were jailed and tortured to win you the right to vote.  Those women -those community organizers you spoke of last night with such seething contempt.

I don't accept your contempt, Sarah. I don't accept your glib premise that somehow community organizing is a sport for elitists. I'm betting that the community organizers of the Red Cross would agree.

Sincerely,

Susan Bruce
Jackson, NH (population 835)

http://susanthebruce.blogspot....

Netroots Outreach Director for the Carol Shea-Porter campaign

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by: susanthe @ Thu Sep 04, 2008 at 12:57:27 PM CDT

92%! (4.00 / 1)

That is incredible. Great work.

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by: JimC @ Thu Sep 04, 2008 at 13:04:19 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

well.. (4.00 / 1)

I can't take all the credit for that, Jim - there was a lot of organizing in Berlin that year. One ward had a 94% turnout and ran out of ballots.  

Netroots Outreach Director for the Carol Shea-Porter campaign

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by: susanthe @ Thu Sep 04, 2008 at 13:25:34 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Humility (4.00 / 1)

An important quality in a community organizer!

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by: JimC @ Thu Sep 04, 2008 at 13:27:39 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

What a decent response (4.00 / 2)

to an ubelievably crass insult. Well done, Susan.

It's time for a change and I need a nap. Or is it the other way around?

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by: GreyMike @ Thu Sep 04, 2008 at 13:04:51 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Idle Hands, Sarah. Idle Hands. (4.00 / 2)

Community service is a central pillar to McCain's candidacy.

Palin just threw that under the bus.

The GOP has been pushing "self-reliance" all these years and the parrot cacophony about "tax and spend liberals" is deafing, yet Gov.Palin has no use for community based organizers, who can do alot with meager funds from the federal government. Isn't that the main talking point behind "faith based" organizations.

So, for the quick and dirty political jab, Sarah Barracuda undermines her running-mate and a major enterprise of the GOP.

Smooth.

The silver lining is that now the fundies can hold their nose and vote for the prostrated mavwreck. Their messianic figure has been cued up for 2012.

No wonder she was feeling her wheaties.

PS. I wonder who she is meeting with behind McCain's back?


The giant finds its gait.

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by: Jack Mitchell @ Thu Sep 04, 2008 at 13:04:14 PM CDT

Not just Palin either (0.00 / 0)

Rudy too. Maybe Huckabee? It was clearly a talking point.

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by: JimC @ Thu Sep 04, 2008 at 13:08:58 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

fist bumps appreciated (2.00 / 2)

I cross posted at Daily Kos too.

thank you, fellow community organizers.  

Netroots Outreach Director for the Carol Shea-Porter campaign

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by: susanthe @ Thu Sep 04, 2008 at 13:08:30 PM CDT

Major Pwnage (4.00 / 1)

(h/t flvorful)

The question I have for them is
Why would that kind of work be ridiculous?
WHO ARE THEY FIGHTING FOR? (emphasis mine)
What are they advocating for?

Do they think that the lives of those folks struggling each and every day, that
working with to try and improve their lives is somehow not relevant to the presidency.

I think that is part of the problem, that they are out of touch and dont get it
because they havent spent much time working on behalf of those folks.

The giant finds its gait.

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by: Jack Mitchell @ Fri Sep 05, 2008 at 10:25:51 AM CDT