What is a Community Organizer?
Now Obama has placed a great deal of emphasis on his experience as a "community organizer" (particularly for a 3-year period following his college degree from Columbia University). Generally speaking, a community organizer diagnoses underserved social needs and seeks to addresses these needs by coordinating services and resources through some combination of a locally-established group, existing faith-based or philanthropic organizations, businesses, and government. For example, for crime-ridden communities, one might establish a neighborhood watch group in coordination with local police. Similarly, community organizers may mobilize a group of tenants and bring legal or local government pressure on an unresponsive landlord.
Moreover, community organizers may attempt to influence elections in support of their social justice objectives. For conservative community organizers, that might include tax-advantaged enterprise zones, eliminating counterproductive rent controls, tax credits for job retraining, additional resources for faith-based organizations, law-and-order issues (e.g., embedded police officers in the community), and quality alternatives to failed public schools. For liberal community organizers (like Barack Obama), it means a greater government footprint into the local economy and a paternalistic belief that the government bureaucrats, without a natural incentive to cut costs, are more efficient and effective than the private sector, existing local community groups and faith-based initiatives and philanthropies.
Republicans have consistently encouraged volunteer work (e.g., G.H.W. Bush's "Thousand Points of Light"). Under the current Bush administration, there have been several accomplishments relevant to social justice: lower unemployment than under Clinton; a large number of lower-income Americans no longer paying federal income taxes; the higher number of homeowners; a new Medicare prescription drug benefit; large increases in federal spending for education; huge increases in aid to Africa which has made a material difference in terms of controlling the spread of and facilitating treatment for AIDS.
Which Group is More Generous: Religious Conservatives or Secular Liberals?
Arthur C. Brooks, a Syracuse University professor and director of nonprofit studies for the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, former registered Democrat and raised in a liberal household of academics, wrote a recent book entitled Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism. The study, based on rigorous statistical analyses over 10 databases of scientific survey data over the prior decade, adjusted for various demagraphic factors (including age, gender, race and income), concluded: "For too long, liberals have been claiming they are the most virtuous members of American society. Although they usually give less to charity, they have nevertheless lambasted conservatives for their callousness in the face of social injustice."
Brooks noted that religious conservatives, whom attend church, have a strong work ethic, live in a traditional family structure, and instinctively reject socialist concepts of income redistribution and government-funded entitlement programs, are the most generous Americans by any criterion. Secular liberals, even though they tend to earn more and most fervently believe in government social programs, overall give much less. One can't help remembering the words of Scrooge in A Christmas Carol when pressed for a charitable contribution in the spirit of the Christmas season: "Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?"
Sarah Palin as Mayor and Governor
Barack Obama as a community organizer worked with Chicago area churches in less affluent areas to address problems such as area job losses following plant closings; it should be noted he himself has described the end results as largely unsuccessful. John McCain has repeatedly praised Obama's service, the fact that Obama had taken a low-paying job in the service of others when, as a Columbia University graduate, he could have taken a good-paying corporate job or started working on his law degree.
However, there is a world of difference between being a community organizer and being a mayor of a city or a governor. For example, someone who organizes a community watch may need to establish a liaison with the local police force, but the police chief is supervised and/or hired by the mayor. The mayor has to deal with taxes, economic conditions affecting city operations, tax revenues, budget priorities, staffing levels and decisions, pension funding, infrastructure projects, emergency services and business development. A mayor is publicly accountable for each and every decision he or she makes which affects reelection.
Sarah Palin served multiple terms on the City Council before being elected as Wasilla mayor. She later served on a state commission before resigning to take on an incumbent Republican governor for reelection and then beating a former Democratic governor. Over the past two years, she's passed a tough ethics law with Democratic help, vetoed hundreds of millions in spending, killed the Gravina Island bridge project (i.e., the Bridge to Nowhere), cut property taxes, provided for an energy rebate check this fall, increased oil taxes over the objections of Big Oil, and cut federal earmark requests by half.
The Infamous Palin Quip During Her Veep Acceptance Speech
Sarah Palin, who had been attacked by Obama and his cronies, mocking her administrative decision despite the fact that neither Obama nor Biden have made a single executive decision, said the following:
"A small town mayor is kind of like a community organizer only youhave actual responsibilities."
Oh my gosh! It started a firestorm of defensive comments by community organizers whom felt Governor Palin was putting them down. This comment was not directed at community organizers in general; by "actual responsibilities", she is pointing out the fact that she had responsibility for city operations (e.g., snow removal and public safety), meeting the city payroll, and getting the funding for infrastructure projects: she was making administrative, executive decisions. Moreover, she had to stand for election, where she would be held accountable for her ability to meet her objectives/promises and/or decisions mades.
Barack Obama was paid about $12K/yr plus car expenses. Chances are, somebody else had to find the funding for his position and cut his check. He may not have been evaluated or paid according to certain metrics, e.g., how many unemployed people were retrained and gainfully employed. This doesn't mean what he did was without value, but running a public sector organization requires a broader and deeper set of knowledges and skills.
I think Sarah Palin's choice of terms probably contributed to the perceived slight. Instead of "actual responsibilities" I would have probably said "local public executive responsibilities and accountability". However, it's clear from context she's not saying that community organizers don't have responsibilities, but that a mayor has different, broader responsibilities.
Over the Top Reactions from Democrats
NY Democratic Governor Paterson takes Palin's use of the term "community organizer" as veiled racism. This looks like just another smear, after Barack Obama's earlier one to play the race card by alleging that the Republicans were going to say he doesn't look like those Presidents on paper currency...
Then there is Tennessee Democratic Representative Steve Cohen whom said, "Barack Obama was a community organizer like Jesus, who our minister prayed about. Pontius Pilate was a governor." [It should be noted that usual Hollywood liberal elite, up to date on the latest smears, like the overrated actress Susan Sarandon, have been quoted repeating the same line.]
Well, first of all, Rep. Cohen: I know Jesus Christ. He's my Lord and Savior, truly the One. And Barack Obama is not Jesus Christ.
[As for this preposterous nonsense about Jesus being a "community organizer": He constantly rejected others mischaracterizing His mission in sociopolitical terms. It is true that Jesus teaches us that service to others, as God's children, is a powerful prayer to God. But redefining Christ in the vacuousness of secular humanism is an abomination. For example, allowing people to become indefinitely dependent upon the efforts of others, however well-intentioned, is sinful (e.g., codependent family members dealing with an alcoholic). Conservatives often agree with goals regarding the common good but disagree with the counterproductive means, i.e., the government footprint.]
As for the smear of comparing Pontius Pilate, the Roman procurator whom sanctioned the execution of Jesus Christ, to Governor Palin. Well, let's think about this a minute: Pontius Pilate, who washed his hands of responsibility for the death of the Son of Man, sounds more like a politician, say, whom voted "present" some 130 times in the Illinois Senate, or whom turned his back on innocent born-alive babies, stonewalling attempts to mandate medical care, leaving them to die in modern-day infanticide. We don't need that kind of judgment making the next nomination to the Supreme Court.
