In a parenthetical, Judis wrote: “Indeed, Alinsky’s first group, the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council, had become a bastion of support for segregationist George Wallace in the 1960s.”

This lead everyone in Chicago in that era to understand that Alinsky did not have all of the answers.

In a certain sense, the entire history of leftism is an attempt to find the path to true socialism. Marx proposed that his science of history showed that capitalism would collapse and that the proletariat, organized by their experience of working in the capitalist’s manufactories, would then seize power and create communism. By the end of the 19th century it was clear that was not going to happen. Sorrel advanced the idea of syndicalism and the general strike to replace it. His disciples such as Mussolini and Lenin, based their systems on his theories, but things quickly got ugly.

In the US, Alinsky hoped to use community organization to build the infra-structure for socialism. That became untenable when Back of the Yards turned out to be “objectively reactionary” The bloom really came off the rose for BHO in the 80’s:

“Joravsky kicked off the discussion by recounting Alinsky’s core principles. Green then brought up a controversial organization, Save our Neighborhoods/Save our City (SON/SOC), that had launched in February 1984 in response to fears that Harold Washington would promote public housing in certain white neighborhoods–leading to an influx of black residents. As Green noted, SON/SOC was organized by Alinsky disciples who were following their mentor’s principle of basing demands on self-interest.”

Obama drew the correct conclusion. Alinskyism was unworkable and would not create socialism. He then followed the same path (although I have no idea how much history he knows) as Mussolini and Lenin. He set out to use the leadership principle (Fuhrerprinzip) to create socialism. He had determined to become the ONE.

Folks: we have got to stop him.

A successful Community Organizer would seem to be reasonably useful (at least he can get things done)…

Depends on what they get done. We certainly would not regard a successful fascist community organizer as “useful”. Likewise, an organizer who works from a far left perspective that seeks to increase dependence on the state and elevate the power of a leftist political class would not be “useful”.

A successful Community Organizer would seem to be reasonably useful (at least he can get things done), an unseuccessful one rather less so.

The job (and salary from the NGO) is the thing. As Obama’s community boss said last week, “we accomplished little” but they sure did spend private and government cash on administrative expenses (those salaries again).

I think we’re supposed to view his time as a community organizer as indicative of his idealism and willingness to self sacrifice. It’s his version of McCain’s Hanio Hilton. As with most things on the left, were suppose to judge him based on his intentions, not his practical results.

Why are we supposed to respect or applaud this resume item again?