The Roots of Obama’s Change

Barack Obama was a student of the radical, socialist school of Saul Alinsky. Although Alinsky died in 1972, Obama had read and accepted his teachings of social change. Alinsky’s book “Rules for Radicals” spelled out a form of change through “power-politics” and community organizing. The goal was to make poorer citizens aware of their situation and play on this to gain political power. Does this tactic seem familiar to what Obama is now doing?

In the 1980s, Obama worked for Jerry Kellman, a community organizer who was trying to get Chicago black clergy and churches involved in “social change.” Kellman’s organization, the Calumet Community Religious Conference, was a product of Saul Alinsky’s teachings.

Alinsky wanted a peaceful revolution using the ballot box and not the violent tactics of other Obama friends such as William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. He also felt that the middle class held the power to make changes, not the low income and minority ethnic groups.

Alinsky point out that “When more than three-fourths of our people from both the point of view of economics and of their self-identification are middle class, it is obvious that their action or inaction will determine the direction of change.”

In 2008, the middle class paved the way for Barack Obama’s election. Most people did not know who Barack Obama was, but his “Hope and Change” rhetoric fooled them! The word “change” being the key to Saul Alinsky’s silent revolution and Barack Obama’s unlikely election.