"Community organizers are the heart beat of America, no matter what the Republicans think."
--annotation to a Daily Show link
Clarification: This was the comment a friend wrote to accompany that link. The same friend now has, as a status message, "Republicans must understand that Obama doesn't lean toward Marxism or Socialism. He leans toward common sense. Right now, common sense means activist government."
Things I love about this quote:
1. Not just a heartbeat, but the heartbeat.
2. Honestly, before Obama, I'd never heard "community organizer" used as a formal job title. I might have naively asked, "Is that like an event planner?"
3. The "no matter what the Republicans think" shows a guileless (or super-convenient) misunderstanding of the point that Rudy Giuliani et al were making. (To be sure, Rudy was cherry-picking just as conveniently when he focused so much on "community organizer" rather than "senator for 18 months" or even "constitutional law professor.") Community organizers are swell and all that, just not necessarily presidential without also accomplishing something else.
Posted by Matt Bruce at September 5, 2008 04:33 PMHeaven help us all if "professional lobbyists" in any form become the heartbeat of America.
As of this moment, the lead paragraph on the "community organizer" wiki page is:
Community organizing is the foundation of the civil rights movement, the women's suffrage movement, labor rights, and the 40-hour workweek. Throughout our history, ordinary people have made good on America's promise by organizing for change from the bottom up. From winning living wages to expanding affordable housing to improving the quality of public schools to getting health coverage for the poor and elderly, community organizers have made and will continue to make our communities and our country better for all of us.Posted by: Kubi at September 6, 2008 10:53 AM
The line in quotes--that's a sentence a friend of yours wrote on a link to the Daily Show? Or was it something that appeared in the media?
Posted by: M.S. at September 6, 2008 01:59 PM