Why Republicans are Dead Afraid of Community Organizers

Why did all of the keynote speakers at the Republican National Convention last Wednesday night spew so much venom and scorn on community organizers? It’s no mystery. Unlike the elite of Republican Party who spoke last night, pretending that they haven’t presided over eight years of unparalleled mendacity and corruption, community organizers are driven by principle. And that principle is help people to tell truth to power.

Community organizers come from all walks of life, bright and shiny college grads, factory workers fresh off the assembly line, mothers and fathers involved in their kids' schools, grandmothers and grandfathers, folks who decide to give something back to their communities after retirement. They come in all colors, and speak many languages. They represent all faiths, as a matter of fact many work under the auspices of faith-based organizations. They are active, they have to be, community organizing is hard work, but they are not simply activists. Unlike some activists who strive to become leaders, spokespersons or symbols for a cause, community organizers teach others to lead, to speak, and to articulate their own visions for themselves.

Community organizing isn’t a glamour job. When I worked as a C.O. for a neighborhood non-profit that provided senior and youth services, my job was simple: leave my door open at all times so that neighbors could come in and tell me what they thought, what they needed, what they hoped for and what they were concerned about. Who did they need to contact to get a stop sign placed on a busy intersection near the elementary school? Could the neighborhood start a community garden in the blighted area down by the freeway? I set up meetings with the captain of our police precinct and neighbors troubled by a suspected drug-dealing neighbor. I made sure that when the city convened planning meetings and hearings that all the stakeholders were informed, not just the privileged and powerful. I coached neighbors who had never done any public speaking how to address elected officials, and how to effectively get their concerns and hopes across. I was successful when my neighbors, not me, sang their own songs.

I remember sitting with a group of youngsters in a chamber at our city hall while they waited to testify before the city council about the positive influence a youth center had on their lives. They looked at the vaulted ceilings, the paintings on the wall, all the symbols of power, and told me as they scrunched down in their seats that this was the first time they had ever been inside city hall. I told them that this was their city hall, not the mayor’s, not the city council’s, and that they were in the right place. I told them that the city council had one job that day, to pay attention to what these kids came to say. The kids sat up straighter and looked around with a new pride of ownership, and then gave their testimony with strength and purpose.

It’s no wonder the Republicans are scared to death of community organizers. The Republicans think that power naturally belongs to them, whether it’s Rudy I Got No Delegates But I'm a Keynote Guiliani, Rush Multi-Million Dollar Corporate Baby Limbaugh or the Fox Republican Myth Machine News. But Barack Obama told truth to power last week in Mile High Stadium, when he said this election isn’t about him (or Sarah Palin’s family), it’s about you. Community organizers will tell you that the White House is your house, not Bush’s, not McCain’s, not the oil companies’, not the lobbyists’. And that’s the message the Republicans don’t ever want you to hear.