Today on Morning Joe, Nicole Wallace from the McCain Campaign asked: What is community organizing? Isn't it about getting people together to protest? Of course, the cast of Morning Joe never challenged those statements because they do not discuss democracy, only voting. But I digress...
Yet, Wllace's statements are important for the way in which they represent the Conservative view of democracy. We can explore these questions in many ways yet it seems that the questions Wallace raises involve the breakdown of "order" through "democracy." Isn't community organizing about "protesting," i.e. disrupting order? Isn't it about disrupting community? Isn't Obama just an outsider? All of these questions return us to the struggle for Civil Rights and the Culture Wars of the 1960s.
At the base of her complaints is a vision of democracy that Wallace, and conservatives detest. Any form of community involvement, except for religion, is not to be accepted. "Politics" concerns the virtue of great leaders, which is then transferred down to the people. "The people" themselves do not possess the virtue to act on their own or to engage in "democracy" as they will only cause trouble as they disrupt the proper forms of "authority."
The contrasting visions of democracy, between elite and participatory, is one of the reasons why I supported Obama in the first place. In the Democratic primary, Clinton presented herself as a technocrat in policy- elect me and I will solve your economic problems, etc. In the presidential race, we face the same contrast- elect John McCain because he possesses the virtue to lead, regardless of whether or not he possesses any knowledge on the topic. Even Clinton possessed the sense to demonstrate knowledge on the economy and we knew her to be authentic.
This contrasting visions of democracy is an important contrast. And the hostility of the conservatives toward "democracy" needs to be called out.
1 comment:
Also, one thing nobody seems to be calling them out on, re "community organizer" jokes:
Aren't community organizers heroes according to GOP Policy platform. Don't GOPers always go on about how it isn't up to the givernment to address economic and social injustice... charity and church and COMMUNITY ORGANIZING are the places to which we should be turning, not to higher taxes.
Harrogate never bought that argument--you need both grassroots COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION, and you need social safety nets, to take care of the weakest among us, and to accomplish goals such as lessening the number of abortions.
But no matter. there is no excuse for GOPers being able to get away with pretending they don't know what Community Organizers do, and that such people aren't contributing a hell of a lot to our society.
There once was a guy named John McCain, about whom it could be argued anyway, that he has some shred of intellectual honesty, let alone honor.
Post a Comment