On Sep 2, 2008, at 10:57 AM, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
> [WS:] Here is a quote from Reed's piece:
>
> "Obama goes a step further in deviating from Alinskyism
> to the right, by rejecting its `confrontationalism,' which severs its
> rhetoric of `empowerment' from political action and contestation
> entirely and merges the notion into the pop-psychological, big box
> Protestant, Oprah Winfrey, Reaganite discourse of
> self-improvement/personal responsibility."
>
> Such an argument can only be made for someone who believes in
> charismatic model of social activisism that I mentioned.
I know Adolph pretty well - in fact I just spent 45 minutes with him on the phone, and I've read a lot of his work - and you couldn't be more wrong. Adolph believes in organizing large numbers of people around an actual political agenda. He's spent years trying to build the Labor Party. There's nothing glamorous or charismatic about it - it's all about knocking on doors, talking to people, signing them up, building institutions. Where do you get this stuff from?
Doug