How Do You Define Community Organizer?

So what on earth does a community organizer actually do? Most of us, to be honest, really have no idea. But it's actually a very noble role, when defined in its classic sense: a wide area coordinator of different agencies to meet the health and welfare needs of a community, analyzing common problems and finding solutions, often serving on community councils and action groups.

I know these people. Many of them are involved in local urban ministries working with the homeless, revitalizing blighted areas through urban rehab programs, and establishing free community health clinics. But these fine folks are a far cry from the in-your-face political activism practiced by A.C.O.R.N., the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

Over the years ACORN activists have famously disrupted Federal Reserve hearings, burst into closed meetings of city council in Chicago, disrupted a bankers dinner in Baltimore along with delivering several bus loads of profanity shouting protesters to the mayor's home terrifying his wife and children. Their defenders justify the tactics because "intimidation works." More recent targets have been "big box" stores like Wal-Mart, attacking them over municipal "living wage" laws.

But they're not just a bunch of pranksters. ACORN also flies under the radar in more subtle ways, determined to take over a system from within rather than overthrow it from without. It is a powerful combination of an aggressive side with a sophisticated inside game and Chicago is one of its more powerful chapters.

In 1997, 200 activists organized by ACORN leader Madeleine Talbot, tried to storm the Chicago city council session pushing past the metal detector, backing police against a wall, and blocking council staff from entering or exiting the building. Madeleine Talbot was the woman who brought Barack Obama into ACORN, where he helped train her staff.

I am not suggesting that Obama directly incited or encouraged these "direct actions" by ACORN, only that he was involved in a leadership training role which has been documented. And Obama's snug relationship with ACORN presented some definite conflicts of interest in his rise to power.

Obama's relationship with ACORN includes his representing the group in a "motor voter" case, organizing their "Project Vote" in 1992, and serving yearly at leadership training seminars. During his time as Illinois State Senator, he introduced legislation favorable to ACORN's concerns on living wage and banking practices. And many ACORN staffers would serve as shock-troops on his early political campaigns.

According to the New York Times, Obama's service on the boards of the Woods Fund and the Joyce Foundation "allowed him to help direct tens of millions of dollars in grants" to various liberal organizations including ACORN, which endorsed Obama in his State Senate campaign which he won.

Again, there is no proof he did anything illegal. But the opportunity certainly existed and the relationship with ACORN is troubling for a man who is supposed to "transcend partisanship". After all, legally designated non-partisan groups can desire partisan outcomes, as ACORN has shown in supporting Obama's political races. And it's just one more in a long line of disturbing associations that seem to cloud the past of this man who wishes to become President.

This post was based on Stanley Kurtz's article "Inside Obama's Acorn". To read that report and for links to supporting articles click the article title.