Obama's "Empowered" America

Community organizing and neighborhood activism is not about helping people...

It's about harvesting their votes.  Despite billions spent and decades of activism, every dysfunction of poor communities is on the increase:  dependency, violence, school drop outs, drug use, unwed pregnancies.

Beat down by life, America's poor are coddled by community activists who stoke angry grievances against "the system," "the man," the "rich and powerful," whatever gets you through your miserable life.  Every now and then, a mischievous liberal will dangle a bauble or two in front of them just for kicks...

DETROIT -- Detroit's homeless and low-income residents have another opportunity for a chance at millions of stimulus dollars.  The money is available to help low-income residents from becoming homeless and homeless residents to find housing.

Thousands of people lined up Tuesday. Some people in line falsely believed they were registering for $3,000 stimulus checks from the Obama Administration.

This betrays a pathology in certain pockets of America, where people, despite the blows of reality, still believe in free money and the fairy tales their progressive keepers tell them.  They need to believe in themselves...

Here's what embattled ACORN boss Bertha Lewis had to say about empowerment as she railed against the forces assailing her corrupt organization:

"We've seen this play before, whether it was the civil rights movement or whatever, when you organize poor people to have real power, what you do is often turned against you."

Real Power? 

All those poor people standing in line for free stuff don't look empowered to me.  Ask them if it felt like real power being rousted out of their tenement blocks, plied with booze and smokes, and bussed off to go pull the lever for the latest slate of corrupt Democrat politicians. 

Who has the real power?

Liberal Democrats like President Obama, who harvest the votes of the inner city poor by promising them hope while distributing some meager goodies through corrupt community organizers. 

So how does an ordinary American, even an impoverished American, get real power? 

Three letters: J - O - B.   

And if you can't find one, it's time to M - O - V -E.

I am the king of my humble, 40 year old castle, standing on my deck, beer in hand, surveying my postage stamp yard over the lid of my BBQ grill.  I'll never dine at Cannes with the rich and beautiful, but as George Straight sings, "I ain't rich, but Lord I'm free."  And it's all because I have a job. 

And I might still be unemployed had I not escaped the rust belt at the tender age of 17.  What else did I do right? 

I followed Dr. Walter E. Williams' Rules to Avoid Poverty:

* Graduate high school
* Get married before you have children
* If you get married, stay married
* Get a job, any job. A minimum wage job is a stepping stone
* Avoid engaging in criminal behavior

I am not highly educated and I did not come from privilege.  One set of grandparents were Eastern Europeans who were dragged off to forced labor in Nazi Germany.  The other side of my family were itinerant dirt farmers.

If community organizers were sincere about giving the poor "real power" they would teach them the power of self-sufficiency contained in Dr. Williams' rules.  But then, that's no way to build a liberal political movement...   

ClickonDetroit
WaPo - Milbank