Where's Waldo? Reading Alinsky.
Ruth Marcus says she generally shares Obama’s ideological perspective, but is nonetheless disappointed that he so often seems missing in action on the major issues of the day. Marcus wonders whether Obama’s apparent ducking of his leadership responsibilities contradicts "the conservative portrait of Obama as the rapacious perpetrator of a big government agenda," or whether he somehow manages to push big government and go missing simultaneously.
The answer is that there’s a method to what Marcus calls Obama’s "Where’s Waldo?" presidency. It’s called community organizing. When Obama first came to Chicago from New York, his organizing mentors worked to break him of his tendency to lead with his own ideology. They taught him, in good Alinskyite fashion, to keep his views to himself, and to act by soliciting (and quietly manipulating) the desires of others instead.
During campaign 2008, the "leaders" of Obama’s original community group regaled the press with tales of Obama’s modesty. He sat in the back of the room, while they did the talking. In fact, their actions were elaborately scripted and choreographed by Obama, the group’s real leader. An Alinskyite organizer is supposed to look as if he’s beyond ideology, stirring up the group to action only when reacting to some apparent slight by the powers that be. (In fact, organizers have elaborate techniques for provoking potential targets into apparent offenses against the group.)
Marcus is puzzled by Obama’s unwillingness to articulate a clear message in support of his ambitious health reform plan. But of course, Obama didn’t want to foreground the ideological rationale behind his heath-care proposal. He wanted to pitch it as a largely "pragmatic" economic fix instead. Marcus is mystified by Obama’s unwillingness to lay out the basis of a possible agreement to avert a government shutdown. But of course, Obama is doing his best to paint Republicans as the initiators of a shutdown. Marcus wonders why Obama won’t weigh in on Wisconsin. But of course, Obama’s organizers helped create the Wisconsin conflict, which is now supposed to appear as a strictly grass-roots initiated phenomenon.
The mystery here is not Obama’s actions, but Marcus’s failure to recognize the real conservative critique of Obama. Obama "perpetrates a big government agenda," but without owning up to his systematic intention to do so, much less the ideology behind the plan. As I argue in Radical-in-Chief, Obama is still very much the Alinskyite organizer. He’s even told us so. Yet to Obama’s admirers in the mainstream press this remains unexplored territory.
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Jul '10
Re: Where's Waldo? Reading Alinsky.
What Ruth Marcus doesn't comprehend is Obama's profound laziness and his utter lack of substance.
Between golfing, hoops, vacations and partying with the stars, the guy never puts in a decent day's work.
May '10
Re: Where's Waldo? Reading Alinsky.
Kenneth: What Ruth Marcus doesn't comprehend is Obama's profound laziness and his utter lack of substance.
Between golfing, hoops, vacations and partying with the stars, the guy never puts in a decent day's work. · Mar 2 at 8:32am
But Kenneth, wouldn't profound laziness and utter lack of substance contradict what Stanley Kurtz is saying? If Obama is successfully organizing and being Alinskyite, then isn't he ambitious, only stealthfully so?
Re: Where's Waldo? Reading Alinsky.
But Obama has weighed in on Wisconsin, and as John Yoo points out, Obama is contantly inserting himself into state and local matters, demonstrating that he lacks a proper undersatnding of the role of chief executive.
Here's Obama on Wisconsin a couple weeks ago:
And again this week:
I'm not sure how Ruth Marcus would prefer him to weigh in on Wisconsin, but she can't say he hasn't.
Jul '10
Re: Where's Waldo? Reading Alinsky.
Katherine
Kenneth: What Ruth Marcus doesn't comprehend is Obama's profound laziness and his utter lack of substance.
Between golfing, hoops, vacations and partying with the stars, the guy never puts in a decent day's work. · Mar 2 at 8:32am
But Kenneth, wouldn't profound laziness and utter lack of substance contradict what Stanley Kurtz is saying? If Obama is successfully organizing and being Alinskyite, then isn't he ambitious, only stealthfully so? · Mar 2 at 9:35am
Personally, I perceive Obama as little more than a mascot for the Pelosi/Reid 111th Congress. He didn't initiate the healthcare-reform bill, the stimulus package or finance reform. He was merely the Billy Mays for a Congress that had believed their day, at long last, had come.
Mar '11
Re: Where's Waldo? Reading Alinsky.
The Kurtz/Marcus debate (if that's what it is) is a great example of the difference between an analyst and a gas-bag (with Marcus taking the gas-bag role, of course). She is "puzzled;" she is "mystified." Her piece therefore lacks any point at all, besides her own feelings. If people are interested in reading about her feelings, then fine. But if people want analysis that could clarify the political situation, feelings won't help in the least. The effect is simply to spread more confusion, ie, "mystification."
Kurtz has the goods. He spent years trudging amongst obscure archives digging up Obama's ideological commitments. It's hard for me to imagine a more tedious activity than plowing through public-worker union documents and so forth. But in the end, Kurtz has a clear point to make. He's not "mystified" by anything Obama says or does. The pieces all fit together for Kurtz by now because he made the effort to really find stuff out instead of just applying ready-made templates to a "mystifying" situation, like Marcus does.
The only thing "mystifying" here is how such a prestigious newspaper like WaPo can publish such hackery.
Edited on Mar 2, 2011 at 10:15amMar '11
Re: Where's Waldo? Reading Alinsky.
Not so fast. At NRO, Kurtz says that he stresses that: "that President Obama is not trying to create an economic crisis on his own watch." Is Kurtz not up to facing the facts that he himself uncovered and analyzed? He has gone into great detail about the community-organizer strategy: class conflict as a way to move the nation gradually to socialist policies (whatever those may be in this "post-everything" world).
Why would he flinch from saying that Obama is trying to generate a fiscal crisis as part of this strategy? Kurtz knows that Obama is smart enough for school. His use OFA, his an "assault on the unions" comment, clearly indicate this. These actions have only one point: provoke class conflict. The more class conflict, the more the more economic crisis. The more economic conflict, the more America will be destroyed. Someone as smart as Obama cannot be blind to such things. He gets the credit or blame for whatever happens.
Oct '10
Re: Where's Waldo? Reading Alinsky.
The Passive-Aggressive Presidency !
Nov '10
Re: Where's Waldo? Reading Alinsky.
Mr. Kurtz,
Many of the books I read throughout the year I consume by listening (hat tip Audible.com). Will your book Radical-in-Chief be recorded and eventually available through Audible or Amazon?
Thank you.
Re: Where's Waldo? Reading Alinsky.
You're right, Diane, Obama did weigh in on this issue, although he scuttled quickly away from it afterwards. When he entered the fray again the other day, his "denigration" comments were clear in putting him on the union side, yet still vague enough to skirt the key issues. Obama is torn on how directly to involve himself here. I touched on the issue in a post called "Obama's Wisconsin Bind."
Roque, I agree that Obama is trying to generate class conflict. That's a theme of my book, and many of my comments since. I do think Obama is flirting with the prospect of financial crisis as a way of stampeding the country into higher taxes and bigger government. But as president, I think he also wants to be careful not to collapse the economy on his own watch. That would only harm him politically. As president, Obama's got to walk a fine line. Being president is tougher than being an Alinskyite community organizer with no responsibility for the trouble you stir up.
Copperfield, I have no idea whether an audio version of Radical-in-Chief is, or will be, available. Sorry.
Mar '11
Re: Where's Waldo? Reading Alinsky.
Stanley Kurtz, Guest Contributor:
Being president is tougher than being an Alinskyite community organizer with no responsibility for the trouble you stir up.
Of course.
One question: I said (above) that your archival work in the obscure halls of Acorn et al would be unbelievably tedious for me. That's why you're a big name thinker and I'm not. Another insuperable hurdle for me would be making all the phone calls and doing all the paperwork and presenting my credentials(assuming I had them) to get access in the first place. Then I imagine that I'd be sitting in poorly-lit warehouses breathing in mold dust for two-three years without even knowing if I was getting anywhere at all. Then I imagine that I'd be poring over these arcane documents and breathing mold dust under the evil eye of some Acorn or union goon. Am I getting close? If so, how on Earth do you manage to tolerate it? Don't you want to quit and live off your investments by now? I would.
Dec '10
Re: Where's Waldo? Reading Alinsky.
Thanks, Stanley. Very insightful.
Jan '11
Re: Where's Waldo? Reading Alinsky.
I think Obama is a lazy Alinsyite, which doesn't seem contradictory to me. He's been carried all his adult life. He is the Affirmative Action President. And who says being a community organizer is hard work, especially if you're just the empty suit who whips up the crowd? If he wanted to work hard he would be in business.
If Mr. Kurtz' book proves I'm wrong, I'll believe it. I too am waiting for the audio version.
Feb '11
Re: Where's Waldo? Reading Alinsky.
Perhaps he would be less reticent about provoking a collapse if he were in his second term, so not concerned about re-election. Let's hope we don't find out.