Blogmocracy in Action!
Guest post by: Et Norsk Troll!
Report from Organizing For America (O.F.A.) meeting in Orange County, California:
Please note: “The O.C.” is quite a conservative area of California. There are many small business owners here as well as professionals who have worked hard almost all their lives and enjoy the fruits of their labor that such hard work brings. While the demographics have changed some (white, black, brown, Asian, whatever…it is a cosmopolitan ‘burb), it is still mostly conservative….
I didn’t make it on time to the meeting (scheduled for 2-6 PM) but did get there in time to see who was there, get some of the material(s) that were being passed out and speak to the main organizer (Cathy). The meeting had the taste and feel of a Jehovah’s Witness meeting, with discussion about how to knock on door to ‘spread the word about Obama’, how important it was to listen to others’ point of view, what to do if someone starts to rant at you and so on. There were about 50 people there, with about 20-25% of the people being minorities (this, according to the US Government’s definition of minority). I would estimate that 35% of the people were younger than 25 years of age and the rest were older than that. I didn’t ask specifically who were members of a union but, having worked at quite a few union shops and jobsites in the past, I’d estimate that well over 50% of the people were members of a union or where sympathetic to one (again, this was only from observation). After the 1st half of the initiation ended and the intermission commenced, I found Cathy (the organizer) and started speaking to her. One of the questions I asked her was “what do you think are three of President Obama’s strongest areas?” Her answers were starling to me:
#1. He sees people’s better angels in them (meaning that he can see the good in all people, even America’s enemies) and works with all people to better America.
#2. He can see things much better than others. He can see things from all angles and make the “hard decisions” that need to be made.
#3. He is vastly smarter than the average person. Because of this vastly superior intellect, he can make the right decisions as opposed to other people.
I then asked her to list three of President Obama’s weakest areas….