“What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be. The Prince was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. Rules for Radicals is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away.”
So reads the opening paragraph of Saul Alinsky’s book, “Rules for Radicals.” Barack Obama is a follower of Saul Alinsky taking his first job out of Columbia as a community organizer in Chicago and tutored by a man named Mike Kruglik. Kruglig described Obama this way:
“He was a natural, the undisputed master of agitation, who could engage a room full of recruiting targets in a rapid-fire Socratic dialogue, nudging them to admit that they were not living up to their own standards. As with the panhandler, he could be aggressive and confrontational. With probing, sometimes personal questions, he would pinpoint the source of pain in their lives, tearing down their egos just enough before dangling a carrot of hope that they could make things better.” — “Obama’s Alinsky Jujitsu,” American Thinker, January 8, 2008
Democrats Facing Threats After Passage of Health Care Reform
While wading through a crowd of protesters carrying a massive gavel, Nancy Pelosi was joined by several prominent black Democrats. A racial epithet was called out from the crowd evoking a reaction from Pelosi’s companions. The cameras caught the reaction, but not the provocateur. Neither the police or any news organization caught the individual, but the “main stream media” immediately started linking Tea Party protesters with racism.
In the following days, CNN and others reported threats to Democrats who voted for the health care bill, including a graphic voicemail to Bart Stupak; an anonymous fax picturing a noose was sent to a black Democratic Congressman James Clyburn; Democratic Congresswoman Louise Slaughter reports a brick being thrown through the window of her district office in Niagara Falls, NY. Very troubling indeed.
Having walked down Pennsylvania Avenue with thousands of Tea Party protesters last year, I can say they were the most orderly, principled, polite, helpful gathering of people you could imagine. Naturally the “main stream media” reported nothing of this demonstration other than a sign or two that linked this administration to the Nazis. So was I surprised to see this vitriol suddenly sprout up? While I could understand the frustration with this arrogant Congress and President ignore the overwhelming will of the people, I still couldn’t grasp them going that far.
When I heard about the broken window in Congresswoman Slaughter’s district office, I thought of other protests with broken glass. Protesters smashing windows in Seattle at a meeting of the World Trade Organization in 1999. The G20 summit in Scotland in 2009 had protesters smashing windows. These violent protesters represent the left, not the right. Hmmm…
Last night in Ottawa, the police cancelled a speech by Ann Coulter at the University of Ottawa, because the threat of violence became too great:
After Tuesday night, the hatred incited by Francois’ letter is no longer theoretical. The police called off my speech when the auditorium was surrounded by thousands of rioting liberals—screaming, blocking the entrance, throwing tables, demanding that my books be burned, and finally setting off the fire alarm.
Ms. Coulter received a letter, before her speech, from the provost of the University that she could potentially be criminally liable for hate speech in Canada. Who else spoke at the University without such admonishment? How about Communist Angela Davis? Hmmm…
Rules for Radicals
So what are Saul Alinsky’s instructions to radicals? Here he outlines the purpose:
In this book we are concerned with how to create mass organizations to seize power and give it to the people; to realize the democratic dream of equality, justice, peace…. “Better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.’ This means revolution.” p.3
“Radicals must be resilient, adaptable to shifting political circumstances, and sensitive enough to the process of action and reaction to avoid being trapped by their own tactics and forced to travel a road not of their choosing.” p.6
“A Marxist begins with his prime truth that all evils are caused by the exploitation of the proletariat by the capitalists. From this he logically proceeds to the revolution to end capitalism, then into the third stage of reorganization into a new social order of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and finally the last stage — the political paradise of communism.” p.10
“An organizer working in and for an open society is in an ideological dilemma to begin with, he does not have a fixed truth — truth to him is relative and changing; everything to him is relative and changing…. To the extent that he is free from the shackles of dogma, he can respond to the realities of the widely different situations….”
Everything is relative and changing. Doesn’t that sound like the left’s view of a “living and breathing” Constitution? The Constitution is not what the Founding Fathers intended when the wrote it, but what the words mean in today’s context. In other words, there really is no Constitution, because the Constitution means whatever you say it means today.
“The tenth rule… is you do what you can with what you have and clothe it with moral garments.… It involves sifting the multiple factors which combine in creating the circumstances at any given time… Who, and how many will support the action?… If weapons are needed, then are appropriated weapons available? Availability of means determines whether you will be underground or above ground; whether you will move quickly or slowly…” p.36
Clothe it with moral garments. Did the Democrats argue the merits of health care or did they continually fall back to stories of, for example, “a woman who had to wear her dead sister’s dentures,” said Louise Slaughter. Or, they said that when people were asked about the details of ObamaCare, the public overwhelmingly supported it, so they are not opposed to the whole package. Really? I’m sure that if you picked through the programs of Hitler, Stalin, Castro, and Mao you could get similar reactions: lower unemployment, self-respect, prosperity, etc., but the full package doesn’t work, it’s a lie.
Rules for Radicals: Tactics
9. “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.”
Can you say racism? How many times has this trump card been played? The epithet hurled from the crowd immediately sparked cries of racism and the “main stream media” tied them to the Tea Party protesters.
13. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. In conflict tactics there are certain rules that [should be regarded] as universalities. One is that the opposition must be singled out as the target and ‘frozen.’…
The Democrats squeaked through an ugly health care bill. The next hurdle is to get this far behind them and try to salvage the 2010 election before they are thrown from office. Recent polls show a significant uptick in Obama’s approval, but it is all coming from Democrats. Republicans haven’t budget and Independents are even worse. Hmmm… what do Democrats do now? Read Rule 13.
Pick the target: The Tea Party protesters are the most energized potent force in politics today. They must be stopped. Freeze it: Have some left wing radicals, maybe some SEIU members mingle among the Tea Party protesters and shout the racial epithets and melt away. Pelosi’s parade route was known among the Democrats. They staged it to look like a Civil Rights march from the 1960s. They knew the media would be there and they could see, once on site, where to stand to be heard by Pelosi & co., but not be caught on camera. The lap dog media would immediately launch into grave concerns of the Tea Party turning ugly, “as we knew they would.” Freeze them.
Personalize it. What is more personal than racism? How do you defend against a charge of racism? Polarize it: Paint the Tea Party as a bunch of hateful, racist, violent rednecks with guns and fair minded people will not want to associate with them. They will drift away from the Tea Party and in the absence of another group to organize them, they hope these folks will become dejected and not turn out in November, and Nancy Pelosi can dodge a bullet and tighten her grip on the Speaker’s gavel.
Battle Back
The executive branch is responsible for enforcing the laws. Press them to find out who did these things. Put forth the theory that it is the left trying to discredit the Tea Party people. After all, which is the more plausible explanation, radicals being radicals or law abiding citizens becoming crazed and dangerous? Make them disprove the case.
This appears more dangerous and grave every day. It’s eight months to November. Stay vigilant and don’t let up.
Next up, the Senate Class of 2012
by Bill O'Connell on November 4, 2010
For those of you who enjoyed the great victory in the House of Representatives but felt a twinge of disappointment of not taking the Senate, do not despair. It is only 24 more months until we get another cut at the Senate and the good news is that with twenty-one Democrats and two Independents defending their seats, along with ten Republicans, you could almost make a calendar out of it targeting one Democrat or Independent for each month!
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