Conservatives borrow a liberal’s fighting rules
The late Saul Alinsky was a leftwing community organizer extraordinaire and an early mentor to Barack Obama. Alinsky literally wrote the book on tactics that the powerless should use against the powerful, as Noam Cohen noted in yesterday’s New York Times.
Dick Armey paid tribute to Alinsky’s methods: “What I think of Alinsky is that he was very good at what he did but what he did was not good.”
And if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Armey and other organizers of the town hall protests over health care have paid even higher tribute to Alinsky by adopting his tactics.
Being on TV can be empowering:
Machiavelli would be proud of Armey and his cohort for successfully adapted the tactics of the liberal enemy to further the conservative agenda.
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15 comments Add your comment
bob
August 24th, 2009
2:43 pm
If it’s good enough for ACORN it’s good enough for townhallers.
jconservative
August 24th, 2009
2:52 pm
I agree – imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
demwit
August 24th, 2009
2:56 pm
Conservatives definitely caught the left off guard. Now.., if they could only adapt that limp wrested slap, scream and run technique.
bob
August 24th, 2009
2:58 pm
I wonder how many times Nancy Pelosi called ACORN or other left wing protestors Un-American.
Tommy Lee Maddox
August 24th, 2009
2:58 pm
Using spectacle to “make up for lack of numbers”? There’s a whole bunch of folks out there; maybe try counting beyond your ten fingers.
demwit
August 24th, 2009
4:12 pm
A journalism degree doesn’t actually require one to do much counting. And don’t even get me started on the use of logic.
Steve
August 24th, 2009
5:12 pm
Does no one believe that some people might just be offended enough to speak out? Does every angry person at a meeting have to have been “organized” by someone? While some of that is going on, I think a good part of it is simple…the government already runs enough of this country, and some more people simply have lines where they say “enough!” When we find the government program that is more efficiently run than one that is private, it might be the first…..so don’t ever believe that “health care reform” will mean “more for less($)”
John
August 24th, 2009
5:27 pm
She still can’t acknowledge that the majority of Americans (liberal or conservative) don’t want this bill passed.
Class of '98
August 24th, 2009
5:57 pm
Gee Cynthia, you didn’t seem to be too dismayed over the Alinsky-taught tactics when they were used by LIBERALS!!! I don’t remember you writing any columns outlining Alinksky’s tactics when liberals where practicing them. Oooops, they still do. They are also showing up at town hall debates.
As usual, the pinkos can dish it out but they can’t take it.
I Report/ Vast White Wing Conspirator (-: You Whine )-:
August 24th, 2009
7:00 pm
I guess the next step is to have the Townhallers register a bunch of dead people to vote and then throw the most massive electoral fraud in US history.
We wouldn’t want to disappoint ole Queen Pinko, now would we?
Just because
August 24th, 2009
10:02 pm
Blah, blah, blah . . . Cynthia, you ain’t seen nothing yet if you think the townhallers are using the same tactics outlined by Alinksky . . just wait!
Jay "Numbnuts" Bookwoman
August 24th, 2009
10:13 pm
This $h!t is boring.
DeborahinAthens
August 25th, 2009
6:09 am
Tommy Lee Maddox, if there were a “whole bunch” of you out there, you wouldn’t have lost the elections. There are a “whole bunch” more of us that got sick and tired of the conservatives trying to run our lives and circumventing the Constitution. Now that the Republicans have had the opportunity for ten years to govern and win the hearts and minds of the American people, and have squandered the opportunity, they have to step aside. Unfortunately, the blow-hards of the party don’t get it, and figure if they screech loud enough they will drown out the minority. I only hope and pray that it doesn’t work.
MikeB
August 25th, 2009
9:03 am
Deborah……..Squandered? Don’t think so… I guess when the media is in the tank for one side or the other, this is what we get in America.
Conservatives running your lives? Hardley…… Unless you are one of those people with their hands out…….. Then yea.. By saying “No”. Conservatives try to keep citizens safe(though I don’t agree with all of their methods), they promote rolling up sleeves and getting to work for what you want in life, and they promote responsible choice making by those who do work and invest for their own future.
This is a bad thing? Anybody can do this in America. Examples are all over should you choose to be inspired by those vs. the alternatives…….
If you are results driven, you would not be fearful of conservative viewpoints you would embrace them. If you are excuse driven, and looking for some entity to provide for you or make your life easier, then carry on into the warm fuzzy “spinland” of libralizm led by the story changing Barrack Obama and his minion……….
he’s a smart guy, no doubt. Its what he is using his intelligence for that bothers me. Absorbing power, A Day of Service? (9/11) vs. a day of rememberance and reflection. Just a couple examples.
Anyone who thinks they know how to spend the money I make better than Me, myself or I, yes I have an issue with. Especially when that tax money goes to the lazy. That whole subculture is a creation of liberal minds.
Cosby Smith
August 27th, 2009
12:53 pm
Ahh, Ms Tucker acknowledges that Obama has a mentor. Now we know the true Obama and his agenda. But wait, those tatics are ok for him, but let anyone else use them and as Nancy says, they are unamerican. double standard again at the AJC!