Question of the Day (Obama)

(Q) In your opinion is there a link between President Obama and Saul Alinsky the author of Rules for Radicals ? Please do elaborate.

Comments

[Rain]

It seems one of the sillier things that Gingrich tried to use since Alinsky wasn't a communist or the things righties are so terrified Obama is. I don't know how much most who listen to people like O'Reilly know about Alinsky (I hadn't even heard the name until the right began trying to find a way to use it), but I read this and it seems to pretty well indicate who he was and what he was trying to do. Obviously since he died in 1972, there was never any direct connection to Obama.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Alinsky

I wonder why you never bring up anything like what Romney said about how poverty is not a problem in this country as we have programs to take care of the impoverished and if they aren't good enough right now, they can be tweaked. Is he right? Is it not a problem? Seems like that will be more of an issue in 2012 than whether an admitted community organizer, who taught a class at university about Alinsky, (yeah I mean Obama) knew who he was and used some of his ideas. Even Buckley evidently said Alinsky was a genius at getting people to work together for common goals (organizing).

One might disagree with the goals but there is clearly nothing wrong with organizing (Tea party did it too) and if manipulating people to do it is bad, I suggest people might find it's in all political parties-- actually many humans. Manipulation is the name of the game and that includes bring up the name of a man who has been dead for 40 years as a way to suggest Obama is a communist (a man who said he wasn't a communist himself, didn't believe in joining any organization). But fear fear fear is the game and it seems to work to distract people from issues that might be more important like economic disparity which is growing and we should be talking about whether it matters at the least. If you read the articles on the most recent book, it's amazing how much it has changed in our lifetime. Some worry about giving money from the rich to the poor but don't seem to worry so much about what has happened as the rich have gotten it from the poor and a lot because of laws like Romney has fostered that profit the rich the most. He himself did say the rich have done well. He'd know...

I think it'd be good to have real conversations, not attacks of either side, but about whether we do have a problem of poverty in this country or don't we? It's not just whether we have a safety net (which not all get into) but whether there is any way to help people lift themselves up. It's a conversation worth having. Or do we just get ourselves into gated communities and try to protect ourselves from the revolt of those poor that might be coming? It's not like I know the answers to these questions but I'd a lot rather we were at least discussing them and not the distractions politicians put forth.

[Rain]

For anyone interested in more about this situation, Christian Science Monitor, not known to be a leftie paper, had a good article-- http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/The-Vote/2012/0201/Mitt-Romney-s-poor-choice-of-words-Who-s-really-struggling-in-America

It's not directly related to Alinsky but is related to what he saw as the problem back in his time of activism

[Paul]

The question refers to Obama and Alinsky Rain not Mitt Romney. Both Republicans and Democrats have plenty of blame in what has happened to the American economy. Start with Obama (who is the current President) and go back several Administrations - both Republican and Democrat. There are enough culprits and scoundrels to go around !

[Rain]

But what Alinsky was about was poverty and really the middle class being damaged by policies. If it's bad that Obama paid any attention to his thinking, one must look at what his thinking was... And Romney brought this up hence why he's connected to it.

[Rain]

To make it clear, he didn't bring up Alinsky that I know about anyway. He brought up poverty as not an issue for our country as we have it taken care of by programs (at least I guess that's what he was saying). Gingrich brought up Alinsky as connected to Obama because he knows it works... of course, it didn't this time to get him votes but it made it onto Fox as an issue and other places where people like Crowley try to then say Obama is a communist.

[west_rhino]

Via Bill Ayers stands a delicate link between Alinsky and (allegedly) "Kenya's favorite son". One might do better try to link Jomo(sic) Kenyatta and the Mau-Maus to Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. (IMHO).

[Paul]

Jomo Kenyatta thanks you w_r...