Know Thine Enemy
It is an irony of the current skirmishing about health care that those who could be considered Mr. Alinsky’s sworn enemies — the groups, many industry sponsored, who are trying to shout down Congressional town hall meetings — have taken a page (chapters, really) from his handbook on community organizing.Read this as the equivalent to the scene in Patton where Gen. Patton exclaims "Rommel! You magnificent bastard! I read your book!"
The disruption of the town hall meetings has many Alinsky trademarks: using spectacle to make up for lack of numbers; targeting an individual to make a large point; and trying to use ridicule to persuade the undecided.Well, the left certainly has not given up ridicule as a form of persuasion, but lately their ridicule is sounding more establishment.
Mr. Alinsky observes that “any effective means is automatically judged by the opposition as being unethical”:We are seeing a lot of that. The recent false accusations about Tea Party violence, or accusations of just not being nice and civilized people is exactly what Saul was talking about. And now, with 40 years of documented history where the left used the exact same tactics, what are they to do?
The Tea Party has adopted many Alinsky tactics and used them successfully. They are having trouble with this one though. Me included.
Don’t worry, Mr. Alinsky advised, if they call you names:
The job of the organizer is to maneuver and bait the establishment so that it will publicly attack him as a “dangerous enemy.” ... Here again we find that it is power and fear that are essential to the development of faith. This need is met by the establishment’s use of the brand “dangerous,” for in that one word the establishment reveals its fear of the organizer, its fear that he represents a threat to its omnipotence. Now the organizer has his “birth certificate” and can begin.
The administration is dancing around branding the Tea Party because they know this rule. Obama is an Alinsky disciple as close as Peter was to Jesus, but his congressional allies have had no problem branding the Tea Party as dangerous. I guess this is the curse of being in power. Of being the establishment. There is no documented defense to Alinsky's tactics.
But here is their real problem
Find a single person to focus your energies on:The Tea Party does not have a single person that they can focus on. They are trying hard to pin it all on Sarah Palin, but it's not working. She's a Tea Party supporter, not a Tea Party leader.
It should be borne in mind that the target is always trying to shift responsibility to get out of being the target. There is a constant squirming and moving and strategy — purposeful, and malicious at times, other times just for straight self-survival — on the part of the designated target. The forces of change must keep this in mind and pin that target down securely.
On the other hand, there are plenty of targets in the administration. Van Jones is gone. Anita Done is gone.
The tables are turned, and so far the lefts best hope has been that the Tea Party can't go that last mile and truly embrace the dark side of the force. The dark side that gives the left the ability to deceive and to disconnect from conscience. The right abdicated to the howls of the left when the threat of the nuclear option was considered. An attempt to side step a filibuster. All the while I screamed at the TV "Do it! They would do it to you!" and now they have.
Does the Tea Party have the intestinal fortitude to do to others what has been done to them?
