Question posed to an Wall Street Occupier: Do you know who Saul Alinsky is?
Answer: Does he have a deli on the Lower East Side?
Question posed to Bob Grainger, Chair of the Lake County Democratic Committee: Do you know how Saul Alinsky is?
Answer: Al who?
Question posed to MathMan, a native of Chicago: Do you know Saul Alinsky is?
Answer: No. Why?
Me: Newt Gingrich is talking about him in relation to the President and he's trending on Twitter.
MathMan: Oh. Here, look at this graph of the x^2cos(1/x)
Question posed to a regular consumer of Fox News and right wing radio: Who is Saul Alinsky?
Answer: He's the guy from Chicago who wrote Rules for Radicals which influenced the radical methods of Obama when he was a community organizer and who is now taking our country in the wrong direction with his radical ideas and trying to turn us into a radical European style socialist version of Europe. With its radical ideas. I think he was a communist.
Ah. And, of course, only radical liberals use Alinsky's principals for organizing.
Alinky's main message for organizing: Pick the target (Big Government), freeze it (Do Nothing Congress), personalize it (Gov't wants to take away YOUR rights), polarize it (We're going to take OUR country back). Don’t try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies. Identify a responsible individual (Obama) . Ignore attempts to shift or spread the blame (Stop blaming Bush, this is YOUR mess, Obama!).
First rule ... There's neither logic or rational thought embedded within politics. After that is understood, it all makes sense. Sort of.
ReplyDeleteSilly me. I expect people to use their brains.
DeleteI've heard it said that we are now in the Post-Truth Era.
ReplyDeleteClearly!
DeleteHave you noticed that about the time the Left forgets its own history, the Right trots it out and tries to make it sound as though we actually remember who they're talking about? Next thing you know, they'll be digging up Abbie Hoffman and claiming the Occupy 20-somethings are motivated by Steal This Book.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Nan! And they'll all think that Abbie is a crazy feminazi.
DeleteI got all excited about the Black Panthers ('cause I actually knew some during the 60s) during the mid-terms that swept in the TeaPartiers last time because there was so much vote stealing and voter intimidation that now we have to have new laws protecting us all form Black Panthers by the simple fact of showing our government issued voter ID cards. This is about the only place where big government is a good thing.
ReplyDeleteAn excellent point. And I noticed in last night's debate (1/26), Ron Paul was quick to point out that age discrimination laws could benefit him. I'm sure he was "joking."
ReplyDelete