Marina Alfisher:
Thank you, Mr. Obama.
When Barack Obama ran for his first Presidential term, many of us were introduced to the term of “Community Organizer”. I have not heard of the term previously, and turned to Wikipedia for assistance, which defined it in the following way:
Community organizing is a process where people who live in proximity to each other come together into an organization that acts in their shared self-interest. Community organizers generally assume that social change necessarily involves conflict and social struggle in order to generate collective power for the powerless.
Although traditionally implied to represent a class struggle, applied to the political landscape in the state of Massachusetts, the “powerless” is anyone, who is not aligned with the mainstream Democratic party establishment. The current Senate and 4th District Congressional election could not serve as a better demonstration. To a person who grew up in Russia, this election conjures up the images of the old Soviet Union election tactics.
The elections in the former Soviet Union worked in the following way. A single party-sanctioned candidate declared his/her candidacy for an elected office. In order to give an appearance of legitimacy to the election process, the populace – willingly or unwillingly went to the polls and cast their votes for the preselected candidate. Although the outcome of the elections was predetermined, many elections had greater than 90% voter turn-out! What American politician would not give for such an overwhelming victory. The people who were in charge of delivering such staggering results were called the “agitators” – officially appointed by the party to go door to door to pressure the people to get out to vote.
When the newspapers reported that Elizabeth Warren was urged by Democratic party to run against Scott Brown to reclaim the “Kennedy” seat – how could we not start to wonder about the power of establishment. After David Axelrod, Obama’s top strategist, virtually “crowned” her as the nominee and after another “Warren”, already in the running, dropped out of the race, emphasizing that party leaders did not ask him to step aside –could we not suspect their fear of voter confusion and possible splitting of the votes. When the same newspapers declared that Joe Kennedy, III, was a “prohibitive favorite, virtually ensured to win the election in a district that last elected a Republican in 1944” did we not feel “powerless” against such an inevitability?
This election I became very involved, inspired by “hope” of the “social change”. I have been “agitating” the community to get behind those candidates who present the best ideas that will assure that our communities and our country continues to grow and succeed. I would like to cast my votes for the candidates whose presence in Washington will assure representative democracy for my community rather than the path to political careers lasting for over 50 years.
Mr. Obama, thank you for the best civic lesson that this naturalized citizen has ever hoped to learn.
posted by: jrtelegraph
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