Mayoral Qualifications

By Chip Townley ( Originally Posted 10/10/2008 )

Our friends on the left have made it abundantly clear that Sarah Palin had no right to starkly compare her experience as Mayor of a small town to that of a community organizer. I would love to capitulate that community organizers are least as valuable as municipal executives, but I must admit that I have been relatively ignorant of exactly what a community organizer does.

In an attempt to assess my own political qualifications, and to discover how I might attain experience equaling that of a mayor, I have been trying to read about examples of community organizers. Earlier today, I found some very specific descriptions of what some community organizers do to effect political change. I have to admit that I was wrong to carelessly dismiss the influence of such individuals, or belittle their impact on the political landscape. What I found is that community organizers make executive decisions for ordinary people like us every day.

The Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) employs thousands of such decision makers, and has flexed its political muscle effectively, both inside Washington and around the country. ACORN was at one time legally represented by Barack Obama, and is currently in support of his candidacy. Obama, in return, has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to ACORN. This group has garnered amazing support from many Democrats in congress, most recently evidenced by a roughly $200 million ACORN earmark nestled into the financial bail-out bill.

So, what do ACORN’s community organizers do? Ostensibly, they “empower” lower income people across the country by registering them to vote, and encouraging them to engage in the political process. But really, they do far more. ACORN employees are miracle workers. They have been known to massively boost voter registration, locate people who cannot be found by any other means, and even bring the dead back to life. That’s right, they have managed to empower the dead, the non-existent, the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys, and even some fast food restaurants ( not the people inside, mind you, the actual buildings), to get out and vote. Anyone with that kind of power should easily be regarded as coequal with a town mayor, perhaps even a lesser governor.

From what I have learned about ACORN and the thousands of potent community organizers affecting this year’s election, I now have a good idea of what I would need to do to qualify for public office, should I ever choose to run. Apparently, I need to get busy at the public library with a pen, a stack of voter registration cards and a phone book. If I can “empower” enough “people” to support my favorite candidate, I can certainly know what it is like to wield more power than any backwater mayor. While I am at it, I just might go ahead and cast ballots for all of those newly empowered “people”, just to make their lives easier. No, that is going too far. That might actually qualify me for US Senate.