One of the real unsung social commentators/public intellectuals here in Philadelphia is University of Pennsylvania historian Thomas J. Sugrue, who's done some fantastic work over the years on issues from civil rights to current affairs. He recently did a must-read piece for Salon on why conservatives are right to be afraid of Saul Alinsky:
In the truest sense of the term, Alinsky was a populist, who sided with those whom he called “the Have-Nots, and the Have-a-Little, Want Mores.” Alinsky’s small-d democracy shaped his strategy. He argued that leaders had to start by listening to ordinary people, not directing them from the top down. In Chicago, Alinsky launched organizing efforts among the ethnic workers in Chicago’s meatpacking plants, whose plight had been made infamous by Upton Sinclair’s “Jungle.” In the early 1960s, he launched a campaign to improve the quality of life for the black residents of Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood whose housing stock had been gutted by absentee landlords and whose jobs had disappeared because of the corporate search for cheap labor and high profits. And just before his death, he called for a campaign to tap the disaffected lower middle class and turn their anger away from minorities and toward “specific issues — taxes, jobs, consumer problems, pollution — and from there move on to the larger issues: pollution in the Pentagon and the Congress and the board rooms of the megacorporations.”
It's fascinating that a character who died more than 40 years ago is generating so much interest today. And it's a shame that he's not here now, because there's no doubt that Alinsky would have been in Barack Obama's face, pressuring him to make good on more of the progressive changes that he promised voters in 2008.
The other takeaway from the Sugrue piece is something that seemed clear the moment back in 2008 that Sarah Palin belittled Obama for his past as a community organizer. A community organizer such as Alinsky (or Obama in what feels like his very distant, distant past) tries to help disadvantaged folks take full advantage of the rights and opportunities they already have -- registering to vote, for example. The idea of Americans from different communities exercising their rights is terrifying to conservatives. They should be ashamed.
Saul Alinsky was an American hero.
could you be any more misguided. jeez— rysagr- Will Bunch truly hates America. By the way, there are arabs who think Osama bin Laden is a hero too.— Comrade Noodlehead
- Lie, cheat, steal to accrue power. Yup, you nailed it.— Mr. Smith
- Where's your article lauding Bernadette Dohrn?— Mr. Smith
- Disgraceful. Wasn't Obamaa+ big into forcing mortgage lenders to loan to people who couldn't afford to repay their loans? Did Scrunch forget about the collapse of the mortgage industry and housing market??— Thoughtful&concernedvoter
- smitty, who said anything about lying and cheating. What's wrong with telling people about their rights and how to use them? More 'fraidy cat righties. And no,noodles,it is conservatives that hate America. They are always trying to keep citizens from using their rights.— mike l
- smitty, who said anything about lying and cheating. What's wrong with telling people about their rights and how to use them? More 'fraidy cat righties. And no,noodles,it is conservatives that hate America. They are always trying to keep citizens from using their rights.— mike l
- No thoughtless, it was Bush thafirst came up with the banks and mortgage companies pushing mortgages to all people. It was part of his Ownership Society. Funny how righties always conveniently forget what Bush did and blame Obama for it.— mike l
- Yeah, Sal's got one heck of a legacy. Only ~55% of the voting eligible public show up for presidential elections. The numbers are much worse for Congressional elections.— RG
- Wait. You're blaming a guy who has been dead 40 years for the modern voter apathy in this country? Nice argument. Let me write this one down.
— Mr_Cool - Doesn't look like his efforts in Woodlawn succeeded. Of course, the government is still throwing money at it.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/7389679-418/federal-grant-gives-troubled-woodlawn-a-second-chance.html— RG - @mike I- You might want to go back a little further than Bush. I know the left thinks everything started with Bush but try to resist.
Clinton has his fingerprints all over the origins of the housing crisis.— Wiseman6 - As usual, the right wingnuts are quick to chime in with lies and misinformation in a desperate attempt to distract from their failed, greed-driven agenda. But as their hero Ronnie Raygun famously said (in a rare moment when he was awake), facts are stubborn things. Fact is, the mortgage crisis was caused by unscrupulous lenders, not by efforts to make homes affordable to all (though we all know the right hates it when serfs own land). And when it comes to lying and cheating to accumulate power, those right wing activist judges who anointed the losing candidate as president in 2000 are topped only by the administration of the guy they chose.— Mr. Baseball
- ///But as their hero Ronnie Raygun famously said (in a rare moment when he was awake), facts are stubborn things. ///
Actually John Adams said that as he was defending the British soldiers in the Boston Massacre trials. Reagan said "facts are stupid things."
But don't let the fact that you are wrong get in the way from a good hyperventilation session.
- "The idea of Americans from different communities exercising their rights is terrifying to conservatives"
How's that working out in Philly? Detroit?— RG
Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
E-mail Will by clicking here.
PLEASE COMMENT WITH PASSION...
...but not with racial slurs, potentially libelous allegations, obscenities or other juvenile noise. Such comments will, at our discretion, be deleted in their entirety, and repeat offenders will be blocked from commenting. ALSO: Any commenter advocating killing any government official will be immediately banned.
Thanks.
- Atrios
- Kiko's House
- Suburban Guerilla
- Booman Tribune
- All-Spin Zone
- Philly (Dragonballyee)
- Afro-Netizen
- Rowhouse Logic
- MyDD
- Bad Attitudes
- Billmon
- iFlipFlop
- CorrenteWire
- upyernoz
- Tattered Coat
- Fables of the Reconstruction
- Slacktivist
- Citizen Mom
- The Next Mayor
- Philly Future
- Philadelphia Will Do
- Philebrity
- Young Philly Politics
- Phillyblog
- Welcome to Phillyville
- Phawker
- A List of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago
- Keystone Blog
- Philadelphia - America's Hometown
- BlankBaby
- Above Average Jane
- Phillyist
- Metroblogging Philadelphia
- The Clog
- Josh Marshall
- Daily Kos
- Juan Cole
- Oliver Willis
- Andy Borowitz
- War and Piece
- Wonkette
- BuzzFlash
- Raw Story
- Cursor
- Crooks and Liars
- Swing State Project
- Kevin Drum
- Talk Left
- AmericaBlog
- Hullabaloo
- Mad Kane
- Think Progress
- Jesus' General
- The Carpetbagger Report
- Majikthise
- Echidne of the Snakes
- David Sirota
- Glenn Greenwald
- TBogg
- Fire Dog Lake
- Taylor Marsh
- Matthew Yglesias
- Jon Swift
- Drudge Report
- Beer Leaguer
- The 700 Level
- Dick Polman
- Balls, Sticks and Stuff
- Shallow Center
- Philling Station
- Phillies Nation
- A Citizen's Blog
- The Good Phight
- Romenesko
- Editor and Publisher
- Pressthink
- Buzzmachine
- The Inksniffer
- Media Bloodhound
- Eat the Press
- Mickey Kaus
- Media (Huffington Post)
- Blinq
- The Corner
- Instapundit
- Andrew Sullivan
- Free Republic
- James Taranto
- Blonde Sagacity
- ScrappleFace
- Blogorrhea
- May
- April
- March
- February
- January
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- January 2008
- News | Sports | Business | What's Happening | Restaurants & Food | Entertainment | Living | Marketplace | Jobs
