Saul Alinsky, the father of community organizing, had some advice for those who protested the '68 convention. In Rules for Radicals he wrote:
In the midst of the gassing and violence by the Chicago Police and National Guard during the 1968 Democratic Convention many students asked me, "Do you still believe we should try to work inside our system?"
These were students who had been with Eugene McCarthy in New Hampshire and followed him across the country. Some had been with Robert Kennedy when he was killed in Los Angeles. Many of the tears that were shed in Chicago were not from gas. "Mr. Alinsky, we fought in primary after primary and the people voted no on Vietnam. Look at the convention. They're not paying any attention to the vote. Look at your police and the army. You still want us to work in the system?"
It hurt me to see the American army with drawn bayonets advancing on American boys and girls. But the answer I gave the young radicals seemed to me the only realistic one: "Do one of three things. One, go find a wailing wall and feel sorry for yourselves. Two, go psycho and start bombing--but this will only swing people to the right. Three, learn a lesson. Go home, organize, build power and at the next convention, you be the delegates."
In 2008 Jerry Kellman, an Alinsky style activist and early mentor to Obama, spoke inside the convention about the anti-Iraq War Democratic nominee who he trained as a community organizer. Mission accomplished.
I'm sure Obama isn't exactly the same now as he was when he worked as a community organizer. But anyone who has done similar work will recognize the familiar themes of building consensus and uniting a community for change. Some people hear those words and are reminded of Clintonian third way rhetoric. I hear echoes of the training I received in the community organizing tradition. I hear Alinsky's advice to accept people where they are and encourage them to take the next realistic step forward.
I recently got an email from the campaign encouraging people to join Camp Obama to get the same kind of training Obama received as a community organizer. I've seen how this campaign conducted itself in the early primary states. This is the first major Presidential campaign run on community organizing principles and its working very well.