Republicans Hate Community Organizers
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I watched apoplectic yesterday as I saw Rudi Gulliani glibly ennunciate the new Republican mantra: The Republican Party Hates Community Organizers. Guliani did this by asking dismissively, “What does a community organizer do? I mean, I’m trying to figure this out” on Fox Nues. Gov. Sarah Palin echoed this sentiment with “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities” in her acceptance speech to the RNC.
Ok, Mr. Guliani and Mrs. Palin, you two were both mayors of a city and/or a town, right? Maybe while acting in that capacity as mayor you came across one or two community organizers? Since you both have put “MAYOR” as a bullet point on your presidential resumes, I think the job interview has now revealed that you were not paying attention at times that you should have been.
At this time, I would like to give a hat tip to Gordon Smith. I’m not sure he will accept the title of Community Organizer, but let’s give some credit where its due. Is your community about to put in an unnecessary and unwanted diesel power plant without proper oversight and community approval? Do you have a corrupt guy named Charles Taylor as your representative to Cognress? Are your public parks being auctioned off to private developers by your city council in the dark of night? Trust that Gordon will help get his community organized on these issues. And the Republican Party hates him for it. We Hooligans love him.
If you pass up lucrative career opportunities to help your fellow citizens restore themselves from stunning job losses in a community, the Republican Party hates you.
If you rally your fellow citizens to improve a school, reduce neighborhood crime, defend public lands from private encroachment, or do anything that impedes progress as defined by the few for the few, the Republican Party hates you.
19 Comments
September 4th, 2008 at 9:07 am
Now this is elitism.
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September 4th, 2008 at 10:06 am
I believe this was in rebuttal to Obama’s referring to Palin as the Mayor of Wasilla (or whatever) as opposed to Governor of Alaska.
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September 4th, 2008 at 10:10 am
Billmon writes at dKos that the “community organizer” mockery was an attempt to paint Obama as a radical:
http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/4/02739/39108/335/585475
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September 4th, 2008 at 11:08 am
I hope Democrats don’t run from the “Community Organizer” label, like they did from “liberal”, “activist”, and “intellectual”.
Community organizers are absolutely critical to representative democracy.
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September 4th, 2008 at 11:09 am
That’s a strategy that will work with the party loyal, but I don’t see it working with the voters they need to get, the so-called “independents”.
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September 4th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
There is no evidence to support this sensationalistic headline.
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September 4th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Clarence,
Did you watch last night? Did you watch the contempt with which Rudy Giuliani spoke those words “Community Organizer” and the derisive laughter from the audience? Did you miss Palin’s mockery of it as well? Only 24 hours ago Mrs. McCain and Mrs. Bush were urging folks to help in their communities and talking about how important it is to do so.
Open contempt may not equal hatred, but I’d say it’s a coin toss as to which those folks were feeling last night.
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September 4th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Kwame ’09!
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September 4th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Shad: if you thought that was elitism, check this out…
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September 4th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080904/NEWS01/309050001
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September 4th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Greenie,
I must be missing the relevance…
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September 4th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
I think Joe Klein said it best:
Keep in mind, too, that this community organizing stint happened 20 years ago. Since then, Obama has gone to law school, worked as a lawyer, a constitutional law professor, a state senator (in a district with a population nearly as large as the entire state of Alaska), and then a U.S. Senator. Knocking Obama for community organizing is like saying that all JFK ever did was sink his own PT boat.
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September 4th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
A good point:
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September 4th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Gordon in the boxes:
I listened on NPR. Contempt and derisiveness, if true, do not in and of themselves prove hatred. I would have to guess that you project your own feelings onto this and contempt equals hatred for you. Are you contemptuous of me and if so do you hate me?
She certainly did mock. Mocking is an action that can be seen. Determining hatred in someone’s heart requires one to be on the level of the all knowing god or gods. Same question: Does mockery equal hatred? I can only speak for myself. If I mocked someone derisively it would not be because I hated them. It would be because I found their logic silly. I can’t think of anyone I hate.
This last statement totally supports my original assertion that the headline above is unsupportable. These two ladies are Republicans and they didn’t say anything negative about community organizers.
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September 5th, 2008 at 6:07 am
Clarence, I stand by the headline. You seem to concede contempt by the Republicans but draw the line at hate. Based on the dictionary definition of the two words, drawing a bright line between the two would be parsimonious to the extreme. It is true, we don’t know what is in their hearts. But it is also true that we judge ourselves on our intentions and judge each other on our actions. These Republicans took the action to engage in this scorn about the role of community organizer. They did it in a coordinated manner to score points with their audience. It was no accident. It is on the record, they can’t deny they did it and they knew they would be judged by it. (How’s that for personal responsibility!) It would be the height of hypocrisy if they came out to say they didn’t mean it in their hearts. The fact that disdain for community organizers is completely at odds with pushing power out of Washington and federal funding of faith based organizations for helping within their communities, both major initiatives of the Republican party, means that the Republicans have painted themselves into a corner here. You can try to squeeze all the meaning out of the word hate you want but you can’t unring this bell.
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September 5th, 2008 at 11:34 am
I am sorry for you Gordon.
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September 5th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
I imagine you’re sorry for a lot of folks..
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September 5th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
I have pretty much decided to vote for Barr so I really don’t have a dog in this fight.
The partisanship displayed here is truly sad. When people who are given good minds give themselves over to the doing of good and then proceed to achieve it by deception are sick. I am sorry for all of you who love your party and your ideology more than people. I am even sorrier for the fact that you cannot even see it. Maybe somehow you will mature.
I have no ill will for any of you.
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September 7th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
I understand that the Republicans say that they were responding to the mayor comment from the democrats, but why choose this point to attack. My success in life was due to community organizers being active in my neighborhood. I think it was low of the republicans and actually solidified the democrats cry that THEY ARE OUT OF TOUCH WITH EVERYDAY PEOPLE.
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