Just curious: Saul Alinsky has been associated with Obama and Clinton.

[JanMichael]

I'm curious how his very Left (socialist and Marxist) ideas, with which I am associated with work wise and agree with personally, can be identified with either front runner candidate? While both are obviously to the left of McCain neither seems to me to be even close to Mr. Alinsky. Yes a paper was written by Hillary decades ago and I believe that Barack mentioned him sometime ago but how does Alinsky's ideas jive with the campaigns and actual policies that they will try to pursue?

Just curious.

Please be civil too as this may in fact be my first GD-Primary thread starter.

[frazzled]

1. It's about grassroots political organizing

He really laid the basis for how to do that.

[JanMichael]

4. The question is about the ends not the means.

I'm quite aware of the grass-roots Alinsky concepts and methods. I should have made that clear, sorry.

My curiosity lies not in the methodology but in the aims and goals of that methodology which is only a tool.

[Raven]

2. Grassroots organizing. Attempting to lift people out of poverty.

Funny, Alinsky was my idol in the 60's and I never thought of him as a radical. He got results.

[BeyondGeography]

3. Here's a good read on that...both candidates have made sincere choices, I wouldn't shit on them

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/24/AR2007032401152.html

==Today, as Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton face off for the Democratic presidential nomination, their common connection to Alinsky is one of the striking aspects of their biographies. Obama embraced many of Alinsky's tactics and recently said his years as an organizer gave him the best education of his life. Clinton's interest was more intellectual -- she turned down the job offer -- and she has said little about Alinsky since their association became a favorite subject of conservative critics during her husband's presidency.

Alinsky was a bluff iconoclast who concluded that electoral politics offered few solutions to the have-nots marooned in working-class slums. His approach to social justice relied on generating conflict to mobilize the dispossessed. Power flowed up, he said, and neighborhood leaders who could generate outside pressure on the system were more likely to produce effective change than the lofty lever-pullers operating on the inside.

Both Obama and Clinton admired Alinsky's appeal for small-d democracy but came to believe that social progress is best achieved by working within the political system, and on a national scale.==

[JanMichael]

5. Now why did you use the words "shit on them"?

I was asking a sincere question I see no need for prickliness.

I'll look at the article later, thank you.

[sandnsea]

6. Marshall Ganz

Trainings have been lead by a diverse set of experienced -- even legendary -- organizers. The Dean campaign had Internet gurus; the Obama campaign has community organizing gurus. Many have come to the campaign through relationships with Figeroa and Barack Obama.

Figueroa: "For me, personally as an organizer, coming from labor, it's been an incredible experience to invite mentors of mine--colleagues in labor organizing, community organizing and faith community organizing to come and be part of truly an inspiring movement....And it's a really powerful message to our activists to be trained by some of the same organizations and organizers who trained ."

This past weekend's Atlanta training was lead primarily by Harvard Professor Marshall Ganz, once a National Organizing Director of the United Farm Workers and now sought-after advisor to political campaigns, unions and NGOs. In 1968, Marshall Ganz dropped out of Harvard to join the civil rights movement. He returned to his hometown of Bakersfield California with "Mississippi Eyes" and was able to see for the first time the poverty, racism and injustice that had been around him his whole life. He joined Ceasar Chavez as a farm worker organizer and was mentored by figures from Saul Alinksy's community organizing movement. Ganz eventually returned to complete his undergraduate degree at Harvard, and then stuck around to earn a PhD and become a professor.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zack-exley/obama-field-organizers-pl_b_61918.html

[Adelante]

7. If I am not mistaken, Hillary actually knew Alinsky as a college student

Obama's first job out of Columbia was for an Alinsky-inspired organization, but Alinsky was dead by then.