The Nation: GOP Mocks Public Service
by Danny Fisher
Like a lot of people, I was outraged by the mocking of public service at the Republican National Convention this week. From Fmr. New York City Mayor Rudy Guilani to Vice Presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK), RNC speakers ridiculed Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s record as a community organizer. This sort of thing is of course insulting to Sen. Obama but also to all the people here and abroad who work so hard in public service as community organizers. I’ve noticed a lot of my friends joining a Facebook group called “Community Organizers,” which features pictures of Gandhi, Dr. King, Benjamin Franklin, and others with the label “Community Organizer” below their image, but it is The Nation this week that articulates best what is so screwed up about denigrating this work. “Republicans thought they were being smart mocking community organizing,” they write. “But what they didn’t understand is that their smug comments weren’t simply an attack on Barack Obama but on the entire grassroots chain of change that has, for over 200 years, made America a more democratic and humane country.”
Why not? They mocked wounded American troops with their faux Purple Heart band-aids at the previous convention in 2004 to deflate the patriotic service and sacrifice of Democratic candidate John Kerry in the Vietnam war. If Jesus were the Democratic nominee I wouldn’t be shocked to see people at the RNC convention with rubber crowns of thorns. I don’t mean that as a swipe at even a large majority of average voters who register as Republican. But as long as you have people like Rove and others who worked on the Bush campaign(s) advising the McCain campaign we should anticipate this kind of thing.