Political Nihilism
Monday September 8, 2008
"Being a small-town mayor is sort of like being a community organizer -- except with real responsibilities."
-- Governor Sarah Palin (R-AK), 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee
"[Obama] worked as a community organizer. What? [audience laughter] He worked — I said — I said, OK, OK, maybe this is the first problem on the resume. He worked as a community organizer."
-- former mayor Rudy Giuliani (R-NYC), from his speech at the 2008 Republican National Convention
[derisively]: "I don't even know what [community organizing] is."
-- Giuliani, from a FOX News interview delivered shortly thereafter
"The oppressors do not favor promoting the community as a whole, but rather selected leaders."
-- Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1968)
For activists, 2008 has been the Year of Shut Up. Numerous Republican talking heads--at the convention, on television, and on the blogosphere--dedicated considerable energy to mocking the Roman Catholic poverty relief coalition to which Obama dedicated three years of his life after law school. Hillary Clinton, during the Democratic primaries, argued that Lyndon B. Johnson be seen as the primary hero of the civil rights movement, not the community organizers who risked and in some cases gave their lives to make his reforms inevitable. Even Obama himself, by far the most activism-friendly of the major-party candidates, has boasted of "taking on the special interests" (a category that includes activist groups) and refusing to accept PAC money (which comes from activist groups)--but to his credit, that's about as far as he's taken it.
If there's one lesson that has come from the convention regarding activism, it is that it's a waste of time. Stay home and watch television, Palin and Giuliani seem to be telling us, because we can't change anything anyway. If community organizing--the bedrock of all social justice activism--is a joke, then any participation we have in the democratic process, beyond mailing checks and showing up at the poll booth, becomes a joke. The civil rights movement becomes a joke. The feminist movement becomes a joke. The immigrants' rights movement becomes a joke. The gay rights movement become a joke. The antiwar movement becomes a joke. Democracy itself becomes a joke.
If we don't bother with community organizing, then we leave the issues important to us to the politicians--politicians who, if they ignore community organizers, can't possibly have our best interests at heart because they have no way of knowing what our best interests are.
John McCain, to his credit, has contradicted Palin and Giuliani's message by describing Obama's community organizing work as "very honorable." But if he really believes that, he must be having second thoughts about the company he keeps--and whether they really have much of a commitment to democracy.
Giuliani's remarks are especially problematic. For a former public official with a troubled history on civil rights, a public official who initially refused to meet with black leaders, to mock community organizers and then pretend he doesn't know what community organizers do is a slap in the face to the community organizers he spoke to, and in some cases attempted to co-opt, during his time as mayor. He told community organizers in New York City that he took NYPD shooting and abuse scandals seriously, that he took inner-city poverty seriously, that he took civil rights seriously. I'm sure most didn't believe him, but the few who did probably feel like fools now.
Related: What is Community Organizing?
-- Governor Sarah Palin (R-AK), 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee
"[Obama] worked as a community organizer. What? [audience laughter] He worked — I said — I said, OK, OK, maybe this is the first problem on the resume. He worked as a community organizer."
-- former mayor Rudy Giuliani (R-NYC), from his speech at the 2008 Republican National Convention
[derisively]: "I don't even know what [community organizing] is."
-- Giuliani, from a FOX News interview delivered shortly thereafter
"The oppressors do not favor promoting the community as a whole, but rather selected leaders."
-- Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1968)
For activists, 2008 has been the Year of Shut Up. Numerous Republican talking heads--at the convention, on television, and on the blogosphere--dedicated considerable energy to mocking the Roman Catholic poverty relief coalition to which Obama dedicated three years of his life after law school. Hillary Clinton, during the Democratic primaries, argued that Lyndon B. Johnson be seen as the primary hero of the civil rights movement, not the community organizers who risked and in some cases gave their lives to make his reforms inevitable. Even Obama himself, by far the most activism-friendly of the major-party candidates, has boasted of "taking on the special interests" (a category that includes activist groups) and refusing to accept PAC money (which comes from activist groups)--but to his credit, that's about as far as he's taken it.
If there's one lesson that has come from the convention regarding activism, it is that it's a waste of time. Stay home and watch television, Palin and Giuliani seem to be telling us, because we can't change anything anyway. If community organizing--the bedrock of all social justice activism--is a joke, then any participation we have in the democratic process, beyond mailing checks and showing up at the poll booth, becomes a joke. The civil rights movement becomes a joke. The feminist movement becomes a joke. The immigrants' rights movement becomes a joke. The gay rights movement become a joke. The antiwar movement becomes a joke. Democracy itself becomes a joke.
If we don't bother with community organizing, then we leave the issues important to us to the politicians--politicians who, if they ignore community organizers, can't possibly have our best interests at heart because they have no way of knowing what our best interests are.
John McCain, to his credit, has contradicted Palin and Giuliani's message by describing Obama's community organizing work as "very honorable." But if he really believes that, he must be having second thoughts about the company he keeps--and whether they really have much of a commitment to democracy.
Giuliani's remarks are especially problematic. For a former public official with a troubled history on civil rights, a public official who initially refused to meet with black leaders, to mock community organizers and then pretend he doesn't know what community organizers do is a slap in the face to the community organizers he spoke to, and in some cases attempted to co-opt, during his time as mayor. He told community organizers in New York City that he took NYPD shooting and abuse scandals seriously, that he took inner-city poverty seriously, that he took civil rights seriously. I'm sure most didn't believe him, but the few who did probably feel like fools now.
Related: What is Community Organizing?
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