The Agitator: Barack Obama's unlikely political education

The New Republic ^ | March 19, 2007 | Ryan Lizza

[snowsislander]

In 1985, Barack Obama traveled halfway across the country to take a job that he didn't fully understand. But, while he knew little about his new vocation--community organizer--it still had a romantic ring, at least to his 24-year-old ears. With his old classmates from Columbia, he had talked frequently about political change. Now, he was moving to Chicago to put that talk into action. His 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father, recounts his idealistic effusions: "Change won't come from the top, I would say. Change will come from a mobilized grass roots. That's what I'll do. I'll organize black folks. At the grass roots. For change."

His excitement wasn't rooted merely in youthful enthusiasm but also in the psychology of a vagabond. By 1985, Obama had already lived in Hawaii, where he was born and raised by his white mother and grandparents; Indonesia, where he lived briefly as a child; Los Angeles, where he started college; and New York, where he finished it.

...

Not long after Obama arrived, he sat down for a cup of coffee in Hyde Park with a fellow organizer named Mike Kruglik. Obama's work focused on helping poor blacks on Chicago's South Side fight the city for things like job banks and asbestos removal. His teachers were schooled in a style of organizing devised by Saul Alinsky, the radical University of Chicago-trained social scientist. At the heart of the Alinsky method is the concept of "agitation"-- making someone angry enough about the rotten state of his life that he agrees to take action to change it; or, as Alinsky himself described the job, to "rub raw the sores of discontent."

[snowsislander]

There was a posting that linked to the same article at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1998120/posts, but that posting was titled "Revered Jeremiah Wright, 'former Muslim' (?!)" and was itself concerned only with the revelation that Jeremiah Wright is a former Muslim.

There was also a posting from Rush Limbaugh's website about this column at New Republic Reported in '07: Rev. Wright a "Former Muslim", but again it was focused on the Mr. Wright's Muslim past.

I think the body of the original piece deserves a bit more scrutiny than just that one angle about Mr. Wright, so I have posted this under the original article's name, and with an excerpt from the very long article at The New Republic.

[TornadoAlley3]

http://www.infed.org/thinkers/alinsky.htm

Alinsky

[Senator Goldwater]

Alinsky, yet another fascist from the Left.

Obamarama’s not short on his supply of these.

[syriacus]

"Fishy" Obama grew politically in waters polluted by Marxists and radicals. Environmentalists tell us to avoid contaminated fish.

Too bad he doesn't glow green.

If he did, then people would know they are idolizing someone who is toxic.

[popdonnelly]

Obama is the darling of every radiclib left over from the 1960’s. Except for grandma, there is no significant figure or mentor in Obama’s personal history who isn’t an obvious leftist.

[elpadre]

As I have read, often the radical anarchists who disrupt global conferences on economics, poverty, etc - meetings at which the Western powers are trying to take on global tasks in a cooperative manner, call themselves “community organizers.”

These are said to be old style Marxists.

Even in small communities today, local NAACP units send their people away for training as “community organizers,” and return as trained protesters.

[Jabba the Nutt]

Here's a question I'd like to ask Obama, so you community organized people in southside Chicago, can you tell us how your community organizing improved the lives of these people? It's over 20 years later now, why does southside Chicago still need help, if you made the situation better? If you couldn't make the situation better for Americans in southside Chicago, why should Americans across the nation have any faith that you can improve their situation?

Questions a non-leg-tingling MSM would ask, but obviously won't ask.

[conservativeharleyguy]

Past headline:
In 1985, Barack Obama traveled halfway across the country to take a job that he didn't fully understand.

Future headline:
In 2009, Barack Obama traveled halfway across the country to, once again, take a job that he didn't fully understand.

[caseinpoint]

I guess that’s what makes Iran’s “student protestor” (read, embassy hostage-taker) so smitten with Obama. They have so much in common.

[caseinpoint]

Need to wake up: meant to write student protestor “President” (and I’m not even going to try to spell his name). Brain’s not in gear yet.

[freekitty]

Everyone should read this. It will give you a clearer idea of who and why Obama and Hillary and Bill are who they are.

[DJ Taylor]

A thank you letter

As your future President I want to thank my supporters, for your mindless support of me, despite my complete lack of any legislative achievement, my pastor's relations with Louis Farrakhan and Libyan dictator Moamar Quadafi, or my blatantly leftist voting record while I present myself as some sort of bi-partisan agent of change.

I also like how my supporters claim my youthful drug use and criminal behavior somehow qualifies me for the Presidency after 8 years of claiming Bush's youthful drinking disqualifies him. Your hypocrisy is a beacon of hope shining over a sea of political posing.

I would also like to thank the Kennedy's for coming out in support of me. There's a lot of glamour behind the Kennedy name, even though JFK started the Vietnam War, his brother Robert illegally wiretapped Martin Luther King, Jr. and Teddy killed a female employee with whom he was having an extra marital affair and who was pregnant with his child. And I'm not going anywhere near the cousins, both literally and figuratively.

And I'd like to thank Oprah Winfrey for her support. Her love of meaningless empty platitudes will be the force that propels me to the White House.

Americans should vote for me, not because of my lack of experience or achievement, but because I make people feel good. Voting for me causes some white folk to feel relieved of their imagined, racist guilt.

I say things that sound meaningful, but don't really mean anything because Americans are tired of things having meaning. If things have meaning, then that means you have to think about them.

Americans are tired of thinking. It's time to shut down the brain, and open up the heart. So when you go to vote, remember, don't think, just do. And do it for me.

Thank You, My Fellow Americans,

Barack Hussein Obama, Jr.

By djtaylor731

[sportutegrl]

Imagine two college grads. One becomes a stockbroker or other executive, with a 100K salary. The other becomes a 'community organizer', with a much smaller salary, paid for with donations or tax dollars. The stockbroker pays 30K per year in federal, state, and local taxes -- money that goes for schools, roads, defense, etc.

Who has made a tangible, real contribution to this country?

[Missouri gal]

Am I the only one to notice how B. Hussein Muhammad Obama’s ears change, depending on who posts the photos? ON MSM news, his ears are tactfully normalized, even diminutive. In photos NOT from the MSM, apparently, a straight-on shot shows him so jug-eared it hurts.

Just wondering how that happens.

[Lumper20]

And why do these Wall Street types, who manage state pension funds like CALPERS and the CA. Teacher’s Union pension fund,plus many other plans love this guy? Congress has no guts to put real teeth into law or laws that would regulate oil and other commodity speculators. Sham hearings targeting the oil companies without addressing the real problems like the above, plus the elected officials saying do not drill off my coast or endanger the polar bears are laughable. The camels seen fine in the desert near oil wells. Forget the SEC being given more teeth to stop the speculators. The Sherman Anti Trust Act took a Congress with guts. We have a Congress fully bought and paid for IMHO. Gutless whimps.

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=613&Itemid=1

[Albertafriend]

Thanks for that link. It’s a wealth of information on Alinski and the links at the bottom of the article look interesting too.

[neverdem]

Why did you link it to page 8?

[snowsislander]

Why did you link it to page 8?

It was an error, and thanks for pointing it out.

Admin moderator, if you could modify the URL for this thread to change the final "8" to a "1", it would be most appreciated.

[snowsislander]

The link to page 1 is

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=a74fca23-f6ac-4736-9c78-f4163d4f25c7&p=1

[GodGunsGuts]

...