Community organizer
 

We keep hearing this term "community organizer" in the presidential campaign.
I've never heard that term before. What does it mean? If you are a community organizer, who do you work for? (I mean, do you volunteer or get a paycheck from someone, and if so, who?)

Have you ever been a community organizer or had any experience with one?

Don't go all ballistic on your political views on either candidate, I'm just looking for a definition. Thanks!

Here's an article I found on it. It *might* help.

This might help too

My father (an attorney) once had a "community organizer" (who was not an attorney) attempt to represent his girlfriend in a legal matter. The judge, of course, had none of that and the gentleman barely avoided jail time for attempting to practice law without a license. This man was apparently a complete doofus.

That indirect experience is the height of my interaction with community organizers.

In my experience, those community organizers (definitely a very loose term) who are not volunteers work for non-profit organizations. Sometimes these non-profits are connected to religious institutions, sometimes to political or ideological ones, etc. For example, one of the organizations that B. Obama worked for was the Developing Communities Project, which was formed and supported by a number of Catholic parishes in Chicago to address needs in the neighborhoods those parishes served. He also worked for the Gamaliel Foundation; their website (particularly the sections under "Mission") might give you more information.

I hope I'm not going ballistic on political views here ;), but I found it quite unbelieveable that Giuliani, the former mayor of NYC, would be so dismissive of community organizers. Sure, I bet some of them made his job harder at times, but I also bet he couldn't have done a lot of what he did without them.

Agree. I don't get why anyone would think of community organizers, or similar titles, as a bad thing. In most cases, those individuals are unpaid or very low-paid, and they do it because they just give a damn about the community they're assisting. You frequently find them in large cities with many neighborhoods, cultures, income levels and religions.

I find it far more relevant work than serving on the PTA.

Thanks folks. After I posted this morning I heard a discussion about this on the radio while I was driving to work. Must be the topic of the day:)

Be careful there with the PTA, PeppyGPhiB. By the current definition being tossed around, Alice Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst would both be "community organizers." And a heck of a lot of PTA members that followed them too.:rolleyes:

Jane Addams, César Chávez, Samuel Gompers, Martin Luther King, Jr., John L. Lewis, and Paul Wellstone were ALL community Organizers according to wikipedia. Its loosely defined, but it is about awareness and getting community and civil rights in to action. The best example is MLK, his whole work as we know it through our generic education on Civil Rights is essentially "community organizing." Of course, community organizers can fall on altering sides of standard morals and ethics.

I think the disrespect to the position as a generality presented at the RNC was ridiculous and unfair. Their work can be greatly compared to politicians and definitely associate themselves with local and national politics.

Do conservatives ever describe themselves as "community organizers," even if the label fits the job they do? I suspect that the RNC is disrespecting the terminology more than the actual work.

And maybe it's helpful to remember that the context, at least for Palin, was responding to people who wanted to minimize the work involved in being a small town mayor. And from that perspective her barb wasn't far off.

All the folks you name in your post were leaders who worked on behalf of a cause(s), but they were leaders who got to shape and define any responsibilities they took on, as opposed the the well defined responsibilities and accountability of being a mayor.

Written by a Chicago radio host and noted Obama supporter? Seriously?


It's definitely not a "bad thing" - but it's very similar to a lobbyist position, but for a non-profit. Also, they're not paid well, but if you look, Obama wasn't too far below the median national income for an individual at $15,000 in 1985.

Of course, it's considerably more relevant than PTA experience, but we all know that no one has ever run on PTA experience alone, no?

o gawd...anyone watching the Daily SHOW???????

Obama's not running on his "community organizer" experience alone. V. convenient that his state Senate experience never is mentioned - from the coverage you'd think he went from community organizer to U.S. Senate. I merely brought up the PTA because Sarah Palin has said in both of her televised speeches now that that was what launched her "involvement."

Exactly - both have used a non-traditional beginning to their political careers to help shape their public image. Both have moved pretty far from that beginning, as well.

As far as the lack of mention of his state Senate experience, that's an issue to take up with media coverage - I don't think it's been outright dismissed, but rather that most people's experience with state government leads them to recognize that most states have a ton of congressmen that really don't do a whole lot. Fairly or not, I think it gets discounted compared with larger positions for that reason - the number of people in those positions is high, and the utility is low.

When I hear the term I think of the Rev. Al Sharpton. Who always seems to be involved in community affairs here.

Yes, conservatives do use the term. One of the anti-choice organizations in the area is quite fond of it...or at least they were until the GOP declared war against it.

You meant a pro-life organization, right? As opposed to a pro abortion organization? People we've got to stop that kind of rhetoric and respect that we can disagree on important issues and still stand together as Americans, evaluating each candidate fairly, and knowing that we won't agree or disagree with either on on every position they take or decision they have made or will make.

Back to the topic, I've seen a few interesting programs on Obama's work as as a community organizer over the past few days and it's helping me, an undecided, registered independent form a better understanding of his experience and point of view.

So when did this term come into the current usage? From what I've seen Obama was working as a community activist or advocate, and a big part of what he was doing was registering people to vote and encouraging them to do so. So why call it "organizer" instead of activist or advocate?

No, I don't mean pro-life, I mean anti-choice. They call me anti-life, I call them anti-choice.

HAHAHAHAHA!

FTW!

This is very true. My hubby's relatives all keep saying I'm anti-life so I say they are anti-choice which really pisses them off. They claim they are for choice as long as choice is defined by them. :rolleyes:

I am tickled to death by the irony of a post that asks to stop 'that kind of rhetoric' immediately after using the term 'pro abortion'. I would think that pro abortion would be equally troublesome to pro-choicers as anti-choice is to pro-lifers. (If not more so, because many people like me are pro-choice but not necessarily pro-abortion.) I am not meaning to pick on you, crescent&pearls, but it really did strike me as deliciously ironic.

As to the original topic, I don't know when community organizer became common terminology, but I've heard it for years. I don't have anything more than anecdotal evidence, but I personally don't think it's a terribly new phenomenon.

I feel the exact same way as you on that sis. :)

I took to be intentionally ironic.

Me too.

What's the organization that you mentioned, Geekypenguin? It seems odd to me that "community organizer" would fit for an anti-abortion/ anti-choice group? Who are they organizing, picketers?

On the other hand, I can see how you might be organizing a community to for women who were having babies and needed support, in which case, you might actually be Pro-Life. What group was it?

I hadn't realized the RNC had declared war. It seems like they were making fun of a job title.

Right-to-Life Wisconsin. I had several friends do it in college. They were organizing people to picket and to sign petitions to ban abortion everywhere all the time for any reason ever.

If the RNC wants to start making fun of job titles I don't think it's going to end well for them given some of the people they run in state races. I thought the mockery of community organizers was absurd. Several people that I graduated law school with are now working in a very similar capacity to what Obama did. It's not an easy job or a well paying one, but it's certainly an important one.

No doubt community organizers are important, but again, I think small town mayor is at least comparable. Maybe I missed a lot of dismissal of community organizers even before that.

But you know, this is just partisan BS. Community Organizers probably skew heavily Democratic and it's not a big risk for the GOP to make fun. It'd be the same with Democrats talking about corporate fat cats. It's not going to really make your own base mad.

Personally, I doubt there was anyone in American who said, “I was all about John McCain and the Republican party, but darn it, they're making fun of community organizers.”

And I doubt any Democratic mayors of small towns switched parties when Palin's experience was minimized either.

As Michelle Obama might say, "this conversation isn't helping my kids." I'm happy to have it with you, but I don't think it matters much.

And even as someone who wants to see abortion restricted, I'm usually creeped out by Right to Life. I think they frequently do a lot to set back the cause more than they help it. ETA: okay, maybe I've overstating here about R to L in particular. But a lot of pro-life groups will go through periods of behavior when their own conduct is far more off putting than it is effective.

Then you haven't met my boyfriend. He's leaning away from McCain/Palin because he thinks she's unqualified and the community organizer railing really pissed him off. I think it might be hard for Republicans to understand how much that part of Obama's background impresses people who understand the reality of grad school loans - he could have taken a six figure job and didn't.

Thank you Mystic Cat.:rolleyes:

If he had believed she were qualified, would it matter? Maybe it would. I'm sincerely wondering.

I think there are Republicans who understand the reality of grad school loans. But I think they filter Obama's decision through the lens of "but he knew he wanted to be a politician." Unless you think you might seek office as a Republican, I'm not sure the six figure job helps as much as being a community organizer would.

Had he stayed a community organizer, more Republicans would probably find his authentic desire to improve his local community admirable, but we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Serious question - does anyone know of a reputable site that talks about the per capita income of Democrats and Republicans? I did a quick Google search but couldn't find anything solid. Because, my own experience has been that I've been around just as many Democrats (if not more) who came from wealthy families.

I'm not sure that Democrats really understand Obama's community organizer background any more than Republicans, as a whole. One way to look at it is, if someone is going to support Obama, his experience as a community organizer is one thing they can offer in his favor.

Again, I really don't have any numbers to back this up, and would be interested to see any stats on the subject. But, as a Republican from a lower-middle class background who has had to work and utilize loans to pay for college and law school, it would be interesting to see how many people are in a similar position.

I googled Democrat Republican demographics and got this:

http://forum.objectivismonline.net/i...showtopic=7967
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/200...me-and-voting/
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...0081551AAu0Izm

Thank you, that's interesting.

Interesting that the info at the links disagrees. Are both that point to richer voters favoring Democrats the same recent election? I think they are. And I wonder if it has more to do with a lot of anti-incumbent fervor the last time around.

Yeah, I don't necessarily think it is a Democrat/Republican thing. The Conservinator grew up very blue collar and I definitely did not. Both of us just find it refreshing to see a candidate "like us" who had to deal with being 40 and still paying for education because most recent politicians on either side of the aisle seem to have not had that issue.

He didn't take the six-figure jobs, but his wife did.

As someone who has A LOT of grad school loans, I can't say that someone's student debt burden makes them a more attractive candidate, or even that they understand "reality." A lot of people stretch out their loans as long as possible, because of the low interest rates. By not trying to pay off their loans quickly, they're able to have a lot of cash on hand to do things like buy a house or just to have additional spending money. A close family member is a physician. She makes enough money to own a waterfront home, several boats, and travel throughout the world, but she's paying less on her loans than I am--and she probably makes at least 5 times what I do.

Of course, this is just antecdotal evidence, but again...student debt doesn't seem like a political issue to me.

I would think it would be impossible to get accurate data because many states do not require people to register by party. It would be completely self-reported, and well, I don't really trust self-reported data at all. Kinda like relying on exit polls.

At your service, ma'am. :)

The following came up in two different letters to the editor published in the local paper today:

"Sarah Palin and her narrow-minded supporters, when disparaging Sen. Barack Obama's experience as a community organizer, should remember this: Jesus was a community organizer, Pontius Pilate was a governor."

Ooooh, burn.

True - plus, if you really want to go back, as in "What was the income level of your household growing up?" it gets even tougher to peg.

And THAT can vary greatly. From first grade to 12th grade, my dad moved up pretty well, so in first grade our family income was pretty low, by 12th grade my dad was making a lot of money PLUS my mom had gone back to college and was working. Perhaps because of all the unions up here, I had always thought of it more as a blue collar(dems) vs. white collar(reps) thing. That one doesn't seem very accurate anymore either.

An interesting point that this article makes is that in blue states, income tends not to be an accurate predictor of which way people vote -- but in red states, it is, and the rich tend to lean Republican. So if you grew up in the northeast, you might not notice much of a correlation, but your experience would be quite different in Texas or Georgia.