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The National Review editorial leans heavily on reporting on Obama by Stanley Kurtz of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. According to the National Review, De Zutter “tells us that the young politician did not accept ‘the unrealistic politics of integrationist assimilation — which helps a few upwardly mobile blacks to “move up, get rich, and move out.’
And what brand was that? The editorial continues: “For Obama and Wright, integration encouraged blacks to buy into the notion that they can overcome obstacles like racism and poverty on their own, without relying on the government. That kind of self-reliance makes it harder to build coalitions for liberal policies, and such coalition-building is what community organizing — Obama’s post-college vocation — is all about.”
My reading of De Zutter’s profile is very different. Obama had observed that the rage was in endless supply, and he wanted some good to finally come of it. But he did not intend to “supply the agenda.” In a passage of the Reader article that the National Review ignores, De Zutter explains: “What makes Obama different from other progressive politicians is that he doesn’t just want to create and support progressive programs; he wants to mobilize the people to create their own. He wants to stand politics on its head, empowering citizens by bringing together the churches and businesses and banks, scornful grandmothers and angry young.”
