Alinsky Now
  • Home
  • Works/Faith
  • Craft
  • Organizers
  • Community Renewal
  • Legacy
    • Critics
  • Contact

The Fictional Obama

7/31/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
The Obamistas and Righteologues share a key narrative agreement regarding Barack Obama's years as a community organizer.  The fictional narrative works for both.  On the left, his time in the trenches validates his claim to be a man of the people putting his values of community into action.  On the right, his time as a CO proves his leftism and triggers the now standard litany/rant.  All of this nets out as a plus plus for both sides.  Never mind that both are indulging in seriously phony claims.  
As Michael Gecan makes clear in his brilliant little book, After America's Midlife Crisis, Obama wasn't much influenced by the ethos or values of community organizing.  After all, he spent less time in that role as a low level street worker than in college.  The reality is that he was far more a creature of Chicago's Daley Machine politics and the rarified atmosphere of the University of Chicago's constitutional law environs.

The Righteologues trump up Obama's brief stint as a community organizer for their own demonizing purposes.  Dragged in to this fiction is the falsification of Saul Alinsky's track record, organizational innovations and legacy. 

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Frank C. Pierson. Jr.

    Frank Pierson

    Frank Pierson is a leading authority on the life and legacy of Saul Alinsky.    He may be reached at [email protected] 

    Archives

    February 2015
    June 2014
    April 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013

    Categories

    All
    Charles Koch
    Collectivist
    Dixie Cups
    Friedrich Hayek
    Harry Reid
    IAF
    IAF Board
    Industrial Areas Foundation
    Saul Alinsky
    Schopenhauer

    Action
    Alinsky
    Alinskyites
    AT & T
    Barack Obama
    Business
    Campaign Metrics
    Central Planning
    Church Militant
    Commie Pinko
    Community Organizing
    David Plouffe
    Empowerment Zone
    Enterprise Zone
    Foundations
    Gamaliel
    Hillary Clinton
    House Meetings
    Iaf
    Industrial Areas Foundation
    Jewish Roots
    John Carson
    John Legere
    Local Ownership
    Michael Gecan
    MLK Day
    Non Partisan Politics
    Obama
    Organizer
    Organizing
    PCIC
    Peter Buffett
    Philanthropy
    Pico
    Pima County Interfaith Council
    Political Deception
    Politics
    Pope Francis
    Progressive
    Promise Zone
    Prophetic Acts
    Ralph Benko
    Re Imagining Community Organization
    Re-imagining Community Organization
    Right Wing Nuts
    Saul Alinsky
    Stephanie Block
    The Blaze
    T Mobile
    Warren Buffett

    RSS Feed

HOME | WORKS/FAITH | CRAFT | RENEWAL | ORGANIZERS |  LEGACY |  CONTACT 
Picture
© Alinsky Now | All Rights Reserved, 2022