The Current Obama Administration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Current Obama Administration - Essay Example Alinksy believed that the people he was working with had no power in the community, but he sought to make that community heard. [Alinsky] believed that widespread poverty left America open to the influence of demagogues and that the only antidote was active, widespread participation in the political process†¦[he] envisioned an ‘organization of organizations,’ comprised of all sectors of the community...† In fact, many of the people he worked with felt like they had no say in their own lives, and as a result some turned to crime. â€Å"[Alinsky] realize[d] that criminal behavior was a symptom of poverty and powerlessness.† Alinsky believed in empowerment of the people, and the Have-Nots desperately needed someone who would step up to the plate for them and plead their case. â€Å"Alinsky considered himself a realist above all, the ultimate pragmatist†¦[he] had no qualms about assorted versions of morality in the pursuit of worldly power. He didn't coddle his radical acolytes or encourage their bourgeois distinctions between good and evil when it came to transferring power from the Haves to the Have-Nots.† Alinsky claimed that making the opposition live up to their own standards was something that would trip up the opposition every time, because the other could not live up to its promises in a political showdown. Saul Alinsky said, "Make the enemy live up to his/her own book of rules. You can kill them with this. They can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity." The Obama Administration would do well to fight fire with fire, especially on the topic of the health care reform debate. There are about 40 million Americans who have no say when it comes to facing big insurance companies, and therefore are uninsured. If Obama and his Administration held the Republicans' feet to the fire, and really extracted from them that what they did not want was tort reform-but for people to continue going on without health insurance-the dark underbelly of Republican politics would certainly be shown. The Republicans would then be beaten by their own game. The people Saul Alinsky chose to organize were people who had no relative value. "[Alinsky] recruited and guided indigenous leaders who identified common interests that brought together previously hostile ethnic groups of Serbs and Croatians, Czechs and Slovaks, Poles and Lithuanians into a large organization, the Back of The Yards Neighborhood Council."7 The Obama Administration, likewise, has done well to hire a bunch of people from different backgrounds. They should still continue this policy. Saul Alinsky commented, "One of the criteria for picking the target is the target's vulnerability ... the other important point in the choosing of a target is that it must be a personification, not something general and abstract."8 The Obama Administration must focus on the vulnerable points of the Republican Party. If one msut choose the topic of health care, the main sticking points that will keep the Democrats in power-as one is sure this is a factor Obama wants to have a successful presidency-is to expose the Republicans' "can't-do" attitude, obstructionist politics, and misguided, misinformed, and idiotic notions. "An organizer working in and for an open society is in an ideological dilemma to begin with, he does not have a fixed truth -- truth to him is relative