– Center for Community Change: When Sarah Palin demeaned community organizing, she didn’t attack another candidate. She attacked an American tradition — one that has helped everyday Americans engage with the political process and make a difference in their lives and the lives of their neighbors.

– Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now: ACORN members, leaders and staff are extremely disappointed that Republican leaders would make such condescending remarks on the great work community organizers accomplish in cities throughout this country. The fact that they marginalize our success in empowering low- and moderate-income people to improve their communities further illustrates their lack of touch with ordinary people.

– USAction: These groups, and the millions of individuals they represent, are dismayed by the recent dismissal of their efforts in the form of political attacks. Community organizations have been at the heart of every major reform in modern history – from the Boston Tea Party to the civil rights movement for example, the quest for civil rights began when community organizers mobilized the disenfranchised.

– Community Organizers of America: The last thing we need is for Republican officials to mock us on television when we’re trying to rebuild the neighborhoods they have destroyed. Maybe if everyone had more houses than they can count, we wouldn’t need community organizers. But I work with people who are getting evicted from their only home. If John McCain and the Republicans understood that, maybe they wouldn’t be so quick to make fun of community organizers like me.

Faith In Public Life has more responses from leading community organizers."

It’s obvious that this is an important election for the United States and the world for a number of reasons. The American economy is not as great as it should be and people are really hurting, its national security has never been a more important issue, and its addiction to oil can only end in tragedy if the problem isn’t addressed. On a global scale, there are two wars going on, crazy terrorists that want western ideals to perish have never been more vocal, and the global climate is in a state of crisis. But, you intelligent people know this already.

Since the beginning of this campaign, I’ve believed that there is something else at stake in this election that doesn’t get a lot of airplay.

Many of you know how your nation was formed and on what ideals it was founded on, and that those ideals laid out a blue print for the western world, or any willing nation, to follow suit. I truly believe that it are these ideals that are at stake, and it has never been so clearly confirmed, for me, than when John McCain chose Sarah Palin for VP that this is true.

The notions of truth, justice, and freedom have existed long before the U.S came into being. For the longest time, though, they were only accessible to those with power and riches. It was until the likes of John Locke, Jean Rousseau, and John Mill began to argue that every individual should have access to them in the form of inalienable human rights. And it wasn’t until a group of men, now known as the Founding Fathers, took these ideas and implemented into an almost perfectly governed nation.

Over 200 years later and it still these ideas that give America its power – not its culture, not its military, and not its economy. And it is on these ideas that the western world is now founded on. We do not just want freedom of the press, to privacy, of religion, or the right to due process, the right to dissent, no, we demand and expect them. Without America, this would not be the case. Because western societies and the U.S have become such symbiotic nations, its difficult to imagine what happens to the Western way of life if the American way of life is put in even more jeopardy.

This is another reason why this moment in history demands change.

The last 8 years has been a constant “fuck you” to this sentiment. This current administration seems to have no sense of this history and seem to be proud of that. They’ve eviscerated Habeas Corpus, the right to privacy is becoming a myth, “half-truths”, at best, have been used to justify war, and separation of church and state has never been more blurred. This administration believes that America is powerful, and it always has been, but they put their belief in the wrong kind of power. Military and might are not what makes America endure its influence. Doing what is politically expedient is not what makes America the force that is. Using fear to retain that power is what should eventually take that power away. Along time ago, there was a ruler named Vlad who used fear, albeit much more extreme. How was he remembered? Bram Stoker used him as inspiration for his infamous novel Dracula.

But, you all know of these indiscretions.

I once admired John McCain for most of the reasons he acquired his “maverick” image. I hoped that, perhaps, if Barack Obama, McCain would revert to that guy once he was president. Since May, though, it’s clear that he never really was a ”maverick”. McCain’s view of American power is the same as the current administration; that through the military America is strong. And he intends to keep in line by doing what is political expedient; this explains his views on oil drilling and why the Democrats should be cautiously optimistic about his VP choice.

He chose someone who is not different, when it comes to the issues, from McCain and Bush. Some have worried that this choice can blunt any criticism the Obama campaign may throw out. If she’s inexperienced, so is he! He’s from outside Washington, so is she! This misses the point; Obama does not, and never has, attacked these issues. He will attack the fact that McCain made a bad judgment call, or that she does not believe humans cause global warming. Most importantly, though, she is no different from those who’ve been running Washington this past decade. In this choice, it’s abundantly clear that McCain ambition is misdirected and he is intent on the presidency for the wrong reasons. He has shown no interest in rebuilding what America is losing.

Obama has talked a lot about change since this began; change Washington, change the economy, change the way foreign policy is carried out, change the status quo. This is great, and it is needed, but I’ve always felt that saying he wanted to “change the status quo” was not quite a right statement. In America, the status quo is not George Bush and his cronyism, not even close. In the history of the United States, George Bush is a fucking anomaly. The status quo is those ideals I mentioned above that every American values, treasures, and holds dear. They do, and always have, embodied those ideals. That is what makes them so infectious in countries where the majority lives oppressed. It is the embodiment of these ideals that gives America its power and its leverage in the world.

This election is just as much about change as it should be about a restoration.

Like I said, this does not get much airplay, as I’ve looked for someone, somewhere making this a legitimate campaign issue. I finally found someone doing just on Thursday night. Barack Obama himself. What he has demonstrated, which was highly amplified in his speech, is that he understands that both change and a restoration are needed better than anyone in the U.S. He’s able to articulate it in an accessible way; much like the Founding Fathers were able to take such complicated theories and make them accessible to the average citizen. Do not be mistaken; I am not comparing him to the Founding Fathers. What I am saying is that he understands what they were trying to do, that some of that has been lost recently, and will be even more so should McCain succeed. His VP pick only backs up this point.