Politwix

In an eye-opening portrait of Obama written by Ryan Lizza of the New Republic, Lizza examines Obama’s political roots.

 ” Every strain of black political thought seemed to converge in Chicago in the 1980s. It was the intellectual center of black nationalism, the base both for Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaigns and for Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam. It was, in short, an ideal place for an identity-starved Kenyan Kansan to immerse himself in a more typical black American experience.”

“What really inspired me was the civil rights movement.” said Obama in his book Dreams of my Father . 

Upon coming to Chicago, Obama signed on as a community organizer, encouraging South-Side churches to become involved in grass-roots politics to improve their community.  

 Community Organization was pioneered in Chicago in the 1930’s as a powerful grassroots social movement that changed activisim forever in the US. It is widely accepted that the father of this movement was a pragmatic Russian-Jewish immigrant named Saul Alinsky. Through his new employer, Obama began his schooling primarily based on the teachings of Alinsky.  

 Alinsky was a University of Chicago criminology graduate student fascinated with the Chicago underworld. He managed to get close to Al Capone’s mobsters in an effort to learn more about the inner-workings of their organization and politics. It is said that Alinsky was profane, outspoken, narcissistic, charming and saw life how it actually was not through some academic idealism.  Kruglik, Kellman, and Galluzzo, Obama’s new employers, had all studied his teachings through the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), the organizing school Alinsky founded.

“The first and most fundamental lesson Obama learned was to reassess his understanding of power. When Alinsky would ask new students why they wanted to organize, they would invariably respond with selfless bromides about wanting to help others. Alinsky would then scream back at them that there was a one-word answer: “Power!  You want to organize for power!”"

Obama learned the fundamentals of community organizing the Alinsky way. The training manual he learned from includes workshops and sections devoted to understanding, gaining and using power like “power analysis,” “elements of a power organization,” “the path to power.”.

Alinsky is also well known for his organizing manifesto entitled Rules for Radicals.

“At the heart of the Alinsky method is the concept of “agitation”–making someone angry enough about the rotten state of his life that he agrees to take action to change it; or, as Alinsky himself described the job, to “rub raw the sores of discontent.”

Alinsky also believed that the second principal of organizing was the awareness that self-interest is key to success.

 ”The key to creating successful organizations was making sure people’s self-interest was met,” Obama said, “and not just basing it on pie-in-the-sky idealism. So there were some basic principles that remained powerful then, and in fact I still believe in.”

Obama’s belief that success depends on appealing to people’s self-interest may be revealed in a recent earmark revelation.

In 2004, Obama’s wife Michelle held an administrator position for the hospital with a salary of $121,910. In 2005, shortly after Obama became senator, Michelle was promoted to the newly created position of “VP of External Affairs” with a salary of $316,962.

In 2006, Obama requested one million dollars for the University of Chicago hospital for the purpose of building an pavillion. This earmark was apparently not granted.

If Obama still adheres to the principles of this early training in community organization, it would go a long way in explaining why the he would have entered contact Rezko for “advice” when the senator was trying to find a way to purchase a home that was out of his price range. 

Obviously it was in Obama’s self-interest to get help when buying his faux-Georgian mansion. The question that I have is that if Rezko helped him out, why was that in Rezko’s self interest?

I hope the answer to this question is uncovered before it is too late.

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