Subscribe in a readerThe Right Is Wrong on Community Organizers
“I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer – except that you have actual responsibilities”. – Sarah Palin, September 3, 2008.
At the Republican National Convention, the radical right wing asserted their primacy over their Party. They sent many shots across the bow to let any remaining moderates who might be cowering in the hold know that it is time to join in the pillaging or be made to walk the plank.
They made it clear that only Rovian, Bush-speak, radical messages will ring from the podium to rally the crowd, except for those focus group tested bits of rhetorical mendacity meant to create the illusion that they will protect the environment, reduce gas prices and watch out for the little guy.
Among the more gratuitous assaults were the attacks on community organizers by Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin. These remarks were a clear attack on Senator Obama’s roots as a community organizer. I think they picked the wrong group to attack. It’s like standing in the wilderness in Yellowstone National Park, smeared with bacon grease while poking at the bears with a stick. In short, an ill-considered strategy.
Community Organizers. Like Ben Franklin? Like John Adams? Like Mahatma Gandhi? Like Martin Luther King, Jr.? Like Cesar Chavez? You mean the people who go from door to door, person to person, and engage in discussion with members of their communities to make this a better world? You mean people who care enough to make a difference? While it may be true that voluntarily taking on the responsibility to live your values and care for your community may pale in comparison to reviewing parking meter ordinances, I think a little more respect may be called for. How can we teach them?
By organizing. Organizing in our communities. Doing the thing we do best. By organizing against the ethically bereft, treasury looting Bush Administration and their proposed heirs to the throne, John McCain and Sarah Palin. We throw the full weight of our organizing community behind the effort to elect community leaders, with the values most Americans embrace, to office. We teach Rudy, Sarah, John and the whole crew the power of organizing and the “actual responsibilities” we have to our families, our neighbors and our communities.
There was so little truth and integrity in Governor Palin’s remarks to the Republican National Convention that it was almost an honor for community organizers to be singled out for a sarcastic jab. I don’t think it will be too long before those casually disrespectful comments look very frightening in the rear view mirror.
Posted on September 4, 2008 | Filed Under Making Democracy Work | 15 Comments
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And let them not forget that Clean Water Action’s wonderful community organizers have helped to get several of their party members elected to office!
At least, as community organizers, we understand that it’s not those in power that we answer to, but those that we serve in the community. I always figure that if someone in a position of authority isn’t complaining about me, I’m not doing my job.
I thought organization of the people was made illegal, it leads to dissent, also illegal. that’s why we must beat protesters, and arrest AP reporters and photographers, all while installing CCTV cameras to protect the Big Bros with REAL power. i would love to get people organized, but i think it’s a life sentence . . . even if you never go to court.
GOP can kiss my Barack Ass! Vote Ron Paul.
Did you catch the response of the delegates? They thought it was hilarious. What idiots. They are the very ones that are expected to go back to their districts and mobilize THEIR troops. They don’t have a clue. They have disrespected all those who came before us — all those that truly made this a country for the people. Shame, shame, shame. Shame of fools.
One of the tweets from the Convention published in today’s section of The Washington Post: “Mrs. Palin needs to be reminded that Jesus Christ was a community organizer and Pontius Pilate was a governor.”
I see a bumper sticker in our future
If I defended my values by taking up a weapon and marching in step in the Military, they’d brand me a hero. But because I use my constitutional rights to organize people to demand proper representation, I’m branded as worthless, or worse I’m an enabler of the enemy with the blood of my brethren on my hands.
Time to get out there and show them just how responsible we’ll be for Barack Obama’s victory.
Thank You John!!!
To laugh at community organizing is to laugh at THE community.
Never mind the brazen few who roll their sleeves up and organize, like Ben Franklin as John mentioned, or Paul Revere? They’re laughable.
Those laughing at Community Organizing, (with a capital O) have shown their true colors for all to see: Their stripes aren’t red and white.
They seem to be turning a weak shade of green.
Speaking of mayoral responsibilities, Wasilla never had a city manager before Palin. Once she won, she took a $4k pay cut and hired a city manager with a salary of over $60k. Obviously one of her responsibilities was to shirk the ones that came with the job and to ignore that whole right-wing ideology of less government and thrifty spending…
I guess it becomes difficult to understand the meaning of community when you live in eight different houses at a time. And you aren’t sure where they are.
[...] on a grassroots level to participate in governmental and non-governmental decision-making. From Clean Water Action’s Blog: We All Live Downstream: Community Organizers. Like Ben Franklin? Like John Adams? Like Mahatma Gandhi? LikeMartin [...]
[...] just one target. And no, it wasn’t Daughters of the American Revolution. Fortunately for water, people who like equality and people who live in houses – to name just a few beneficiaries of the [...]
I listened to Gov. Palin’s speech and I was impressed. I’m certainly not a right wing ultraconservative but I’m not a far left wing socialist either. I’ve spent my life teaching science in the public schools, raising my children, and trying to impart a love of nature and the environment to both. I grew up along the Southeastern coast and developed my interest in science by noticing the changes that were happening in my own area. I went on to study zoology and ecology at UGA and actually had Dr. Eugene Odom, the father of modern ecology, for my first ecology class. Having said all of this, I thought Gov. Palin was outstanding. Yes, she gave the opposing party a few zingers but it was a political speech and that’s what politicians do. I find it very disappointing that so many people want to belittle what she has done with her life just because she is a strong woman who speaks her mind. I’d rather work with someone who is outspoken and lets you know exactly where they stand (even if I don’t always agree with them) than someone who just says what they think I want to hear. I found her refreshing.
Margaret,
I think it was Sarah Palin who belittled community organizers in her speech, prompting responses in defense. Because you are interested in science I think if you take a look at her approach to denying global warming, supporting risky drilling in the Alaska Wildlife Refuge, endorsing permits to pollute salmon waters off the Alaska coast, you might factor those policy stands into your assessment of Palin.
I really don’t care about her family life. I care about the fact that she’s taken extreme positions on policy matters and will only be a 72-year-old heartbeat away from the presidency if she were elected.
One of the more enlightening descriptions of Sarah Palin’s government experience comes from an engaged citizen in her hometown who wrote:
ABOUT SARAH PALIN
I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992. Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her father was my child’s favorite substitute te acher. I also am on a first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more City Council meetings during her administration than about 99% of the residents of the city.
She is enormously popular; in every way she’s like the most popular girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and won’t vote for her can’t quit smiling when talking about her because she is a “babe”.
It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents for seven months.
She is “pro-life”. She recently gave birth to a Down’s syndrome baby. There is no cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby.
She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym.
She is savvy. She doesn’t take positions; she just “puts things out there” and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit.
Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin’s kind of job is highly sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his work schedule so he can fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or so in summer, but by no stretch of the imagination is fishing their major source of income. Nor has her life-style ever been anything like that of native Alaskans.
Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters.
She’s smart.
Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000 (at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about 670,000 residents.
During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign.
Sa rah campaigned in Wasilla as a “fiscal conservative”. During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.
The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren’t enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for constructio n of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn’t even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later–to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.
While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office redecorated more than once.
These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.
As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.
In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today’s surplus, borrow for needs.
She’s not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren’t generated by her or her staff. Ideas weren’t evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of who proposed them.
While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin’s attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.
Sarah complained about the “old boy’s club” when she first ran for Mayor, so what did she br ing Wasilla? A new set of “old boys”. Palin fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people, creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally grateful and fiercely loyal–loyal to the point of abusing their power to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the case of pressuring the State’s top cop (see below).
As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla’s Police Chief because he “intimidated” her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska’s top cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure and she had every legal right to fire him, but it’s pretty clear that an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn’t fire her sister’s ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen contacts were made between her st aff and family to the person that she later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew her support.
She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn’t like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness.
Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything publicly about her.
When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no backgr ound in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great job which paid $122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party) engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move which some undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a gutsy fighter against the “old boys’ club” when she dramatically quit, exposing this man’s ethics violations (for which he was fined).
As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the “bridge to nowhere” after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.
As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative action restored most of these projects–which had been vetoed simply because she was not aware of their importance–but with the unobservant she had gained a reputation as “anti-pork”.
She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State party leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a fiscal conservative.
Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with Sarah. They call her “Sarah Barracuda” because of her unbridled ambition and predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made point guard on the high school basketball team. When Sarah’s mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her.
As Governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of package of legislation known as “AGIA” that forced the oil companies to march to the beat of her drum.
Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to global warming. She campaigned “as a private citizen” against a state initiaitive that would have either a) protected salmon streams from pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the State’s lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior’s decision to list polar bears as threatened species.
McCain is the oldest person to ever run for President; Sarah will be a heartbeat away from being President.
There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more knowledgeable and experienced than she.
However, there’s a lot of people who have underestimated her and are regretting it.
CLAIM VS FACT
*”Hockey mom”: true for a few years.
*”PTA mom”: true years ago when her first-born was in elementary school, not since.
*”NRA supporter”: absolutely true
*social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed a bill that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships (said she did this because it was unconsitutional).
*pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor to promote it.
*”Pro-life”: mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down’s syndrome baby BUT declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life legislation
*”Experienced”: Some high schools have more student s than Wasilla has residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska. No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city administrator to run town of about 5,000.
*political maverick: not at all
*gutsy: absolutely!
*open & transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at explaining actions.
*has a developed philosophy of public policy: no
*”a Greenie”: no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.
*fiscal conservative: not by my definition!
*pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th century standards.
*pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on residents
*pro- small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city government in Wasilla’s history.
*pro-labor/pro-union. No. Just because her husband works union doesn’t make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim that she is pro-labor/pro-union.
WHY AM I WRITING THIS?
First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informed voter. I am a voter registrar. For 10 years I put on student voting programs in the schools. If you google my name (Anne Kilkenny + Alaska), you will find references to my participation in local government, education, and PTA/parent organizations.
Secondly, I’ve always operated in the belief that “Bad things happen when good people stay silent”. Few people know as much as I do because few have gone to as many City Council meetings.
Third, I am just a housewife. I don’t have a job she can bump me out of. I don’t belong to any organization that she can hurt. But, I am no fool; she is immensely popular here, and it is likely that this will cost me somehow in the future: that’s life.
Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was one of the 100 or so people who rallied to support the City Librarian against Sarah’s attempt at censorship.
Fifth, I looked around and realized that everybody else was afraid to say anything because they were somehow vulnerable.
CAVEATS
I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase in spending & taxation 2 years ago (when Palin was running for Governor) from information supplied to me by the Finance Director of the City of Wasilla, and I can’t recall exactly what I adjusted for: did I adjust for inflation? for population increases? Right now, it is impossible for a private person to get any info out of City Hall–they are swamped. So I can’t verify my numbers.
You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating for the population of Wasil la, ranging from my “about 5,000″, up to 9,000. The day Palin’s selection was announced a city official told me that the current population is about 7,000. The official 2000 census count was 5,460. I have used about 5,000 because Palin was Mayor from 1996 to 2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the mid-90′s.
Anne Kilkenny
August 31, 2008