Will Gingrich Invoking Alinsky Resonate with Republican Voters?
When Newt Gingrich invoked the name of Saul Alinsky during his "victory" speech in South Carolina, a speech that sounded anything but presidential, I looked at my husband and asked, "how many of those supporters has any idea who Saul Alinsky was and what he did?"
The answer we came to was pretty much none of them. Glenn Beck likes to invoke Saul Alinsky as well, as some sort of malevolent force driving Obama's agenda. I can pick off who are Beck disciples at the instant they say "Alinsky". I would love to see a journalist with integrity (HA! What an oxymoron that's become!) actually confront these yahoos and ask them to define "Marxism", "socialism", "Communism" and what Alinsky had to do with any of these -isms, and what makes him so scary to Republicans. For the record, Wikipedia's bio on Alinsky:
Saul David Alinsky (January 30, 1909 – June 12, 1972) was an American community organizer and writer. He is generally considered to be the founder of modern community organizing, and has been compared to Thomas Paine as being "one of the great American leaders of the nonsocialist left.
Oooh...scary! I'll bet $1,000 that I could take any random tea party nut and they wouldn't know even that much, much less that Alinsky died 40 years ago. The only thing radical about Alinsky--who made it his life's work to help those marginalized in ghettos--was the title of his most famous book, Rules for Radicals.
In the first chapter's opening paragraph, Alinsky writes, "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."[1]
Outlining his strategy in organizing, Alinsky writes:
There's another reason for working inside the system. Dostoyevsky said that taking a new step is what people fear most. Any revolutionary change must be preceded by a passive, affirmative, non-challenging attitude toward change among the mass of our people. They must feel so frustrated, so defeated, so lost, so futureless in the prevailing system that they are willing to let go of the past and change the future. This acceptance is the reformation essential to any revolution. To bring on this reformation requires that the organizer work inside the system, among not only the middle class but the 40 per cent of American families – more than seventy million people – whose income range from $5,000 to $10,000 a year [in 1971]. They cannot be dismissed by labeling them blue collar or hard hat. They will not continue to be relatively passive and slightly challenging. If we fail to communicate with them, if we don't encourage them to form alliances with us, they will move to the right. Maybe they will anyway, but let's not let it happen by default.[2]
For Alinsky, organizing is the process of highlighting whatever he believed to be wrong and convincing people they can actually do something about it. The two are linked. If people feel they don’t have the power to change a situation, they stop thinking about it.
The only people who find Alinsky's writings radical are the Haves, because it suggests that the Have Nots have the power to equalize the system a little more. That's a scary concept for the one percent for which the GOP is entirely dedicated. But unlike former Reagan Budget Director David Stockman in the clip above, I do think this resonates with those Republican voters notorious for voting against their own interests. Because not one of them will bother to get informed on Alinsky. Not one of them will bother to do any critical thinking but simply categorize Alinsky as one of those nefarious bad things from which to be frightened or suspicious of the liberal agenda.
I think Gingrich (and Beck) use Saul Alinsky more because of his name than anything else. It sounds sinister. Foreign. That is all it takes for a typical Teabagger or base Right Winger to be afraid, be very afraid.
Exactly. It's the same reason Orwell named the subject of the 2 Minutes Hate "Emmanuel Goldstein". It's no less racist than announcing you're going to lecture the NAACP about food stamps.
He probably could have said that Obama has been seen laughing with Yakov Smirnoff and it would have had the same effect on the radical clowns he is pandering to.
The people who support the likes of Glenn Beck and Newt Gingrich are not radical. They want to go backwards to a non-existent ideal in the past. Beck loves the Gilded Age. They are both reactionaries.
"The antidote to bad speech is more speech." ~~J.S. Mill
Right, *SAUL ALINSKY conotes a bloodthirsty Atheist Bolshevik Jew who unlike let's say Bakunin was a Chicago-based community organizer just like the Mau-Mau usurper currently the POTUS. And, HE WROTE A BOOK! He's perfect. The fact that the real Alinsky was probably more like Mr. Rogers than Lenin is irrelevant. It's the name, and the linkage that strikes dread into the hearts of the gangrenous imbeciles Humpty hopes to impress.
Tilly
Interestingly, I managed to watch Bill Moyers' interview with Reagan's OMB director David Stockman, no socialist, certainly. He said in the interview that he had attended Alinsky training sessions while in college in the 60's. I shouldn't have been all that surprised as he was my Congressman (Republican) before going to the White House. In college, he was with the SDS so obviously his politics changed by the time he left Harvard divinity in the 70's. I should also add that I am in a very Republican district in Michigan and Stockman's family were successful farmers and big in local politics. Since leaving Wall Street which is where he landed post-OMB, he has moved to the center. Incidentally, the interview was excellent for an understanding of the financial fiasco and what we need to do.
The good life is a day at the beach.
Not... $10,000?
Socialist.
I'm not as wealthy as Romney
So this was on UP With Chris Hayes. Normally the show comes on at 5:00 am on the west coast. Today MSNBC reran the second at 9:00 am pacific (12:00 eastern). Very nice. very nice indeed. Can you please contact MSNBC and tell them how much nicer it was at 9:00. Tell them the whole show should be moved to that time and that it is the best Sunday show on TV.
I watch it on the internet, which I have hooked up to my TV. MSNBC runs almost all of their shows right after they air, which is convenient since I don't have cable, and it was one of the only things I missed when I dropped the service.
Great post, Nicole. I consider myself a long-time lefty and I honestly had no idea who Alinsky was, other than as a RW boogerman. Now I know!
It's truly strange to be in one of the odder multiverses where I find myself agreeing with Stockman, a particularly odious blip from the Reagan past, but his interview with Moyers was quite an eye opener. Clearly he was coming at it from the right, but it seemed to be possible to have arrived at the same conclusions coming from the left.
Newt knew what he was doing. Voters do not know who Saul Alinsky was, but his name sounds Jewish. This is just Newt blowing the dog whistle.
I do think they know who he is, but I've often thought this is why they latched onto him. If his name was Steve Ableforth IV then I doubt he'd be of much interest to them.
Jewish... yeah and he's headed to Florida next. Interesting.
The Tea Partiers are utterly obsessed with Alinsky. Everything Obama does is judged through the lens of Alinsky. They can quote Alinsky in nearly any situation. It's vaguely disturbing.
Gingrich referencing Alinsky will be very effective. And the people who will be drawn to that will be voting for Gingrich because "he will fight" and not "back down" like McCain and establishment Republicans. In their mind McCain lost because he muzzled Palin and was too nice to Obama in the campaign. They want to refight Obama's right to run, they're obsessed with that gun program and various other things Holder has supposedly done and they want a candidate who will go after everything "radical" about Obama.
They're absolutely fucking nuts but they absolutely definitely vote.
And Gingrich's reference to Alinsky taps right into them.
If you can't believe this, go to any conservative message board. Search for "Alinsky community organiser" and you'll find pretty much every on of them. It's seriously freaky. They have their own reality.
But do they know who he was and what he worked towards?
I'm betting they don't.
They don't need to know who he is or what he stands for. Alinsky has been painted in their eyes as "evil". I am on a forum and am under constant attacks by two guys for being an "Alinsky socialist". I have never read his book yet these two TPers are constantly quoting from it telling me that I am living proof of the "socialist" tenets in that books.
Alinsky has been condemned by Beck's circle laden chalkboard :) The truth doesn't matter. Reason doesn't matter. Beck damned the man and the Fox echo chamber hammered the nails into the coffin. These two TPers that I butt heads with claim to never watch Beck (right...) but they swear by FNC.
Guilt by association is all that the TPers need. Truth and reason have no sway in their universe.
The teabaggers are only obsessed with Alinsky because he's been painted as such a bad boogyman by assholes like Beck and others on the right. They only know what they've been told. I know this because a teabagger friend of mine who watches FoxPropaganda and listens to Beck and Lardbaugh, brought up Alinsky's name and I asked him who that was. He couldn't answer. All he could say was that he knows Alinsky was a bad man and that Obama is obsessed with him. I told him to stop being so stupid. We haven't talked since then.
What you say might be true but I think it is only valid for the 20%ers. there are a lot of Republicans who will not vote for Gingrich no matter what and there are even more Independents who will vote against him. Gingrich has big problems in his own Party.
I grew up in "the left" and have only moved farther to "the left" as I've grown older.
I never heard of Alinsky until Beck, Newt and now Nicole have talked about him.
But the following quote is precisely what I have been railing about for over a year now.
Why do Dems whine endlessly about "saving the Middle Class" with nary a peep about the Working Class?
Don't they realize how much they piss off Working Class Americans by ignoring them while concerning themselves exclusively with the tribulations of those better off than they are?
So of course Working Class Americans are susceptible to right-wing propaganda.
Stupid Democrats!
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
Because they have merged into the same thing.
The original middle class were the shop owners, entrepreneurs, skilled craftsmen, professionals and the like, while the working class were unskilled workers. That distinction doesn't hold water anymore, eventually most of the working class were skilled workers too, and as prosperity rose the boundaries of the middle class extended to cover most of those who might once have been considered a separate working class.
Of course for the last 3 decades the increase in inequality has not reopened a division between the blended working and middle class, it has moved them all down together.
More importantly, nearly everyone considers themselves to be middle class, from dishwasher to CPA, and there is no reason to make a distinction since they are pretty much in the same boat. (OK, the CPA's may have rather better seats in the boat).
.. and that's what counts ..
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
No they certainly don't. And these days, most of the 'middle class' are the working poor.
The whole 99% of us are getting the corporate knife twisted in our backs.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
My main point is that if the Dems would stand for "Working Americans" instead of exclusively for "The Middle Class" they would encompass BOTH the Middle Class and the Working Poor.
Just logically, if there is an Upper Class and a Middle Class there has to be a Lower Class - and believe me it exists, and it existed before the economic meltdown. It comprises some 30-40% of the population. And they vote !!
But it's not just a matter of appealing to all voters. If there's a safety net for all of us, placed below the Working Poor, it will support all of us.
Just putting up a safety net for The Middle Class (apparently the goal of the Dems) isn't going to help either the Working Poor OR those who have fallen from the Middle Class.
So it's not just a matter of semantics or politics, it's a matter of economic necessity.
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
"Food Stamp President',' Poor Kid Poopcleaners','black's paycheck's ', 'black's food stamps", those are the dog whistle phrases that worked with these backwards inbred racist goobers. Sorry Spewt, Saul Alinsky won't cut it anymore. If you want more racist votes you have to go straight to NI@@er from here on out, my fat pasty friend. Good luck with that Rush wore that out years ago. Remember Mayor "Naygar"? Rush thought that was genius. Kinda put him on the KKK map. Ah good times.
wrote is irrelevant to Newt's aims. The name sounds vaguely Russian. Which translates to communist.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
in a communist class?
The name isn't vaguely Russian. It's as Jewish sounding as "Food Stamp President" is redneck-bait racism. And my dog isn't even whistling Dixie.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
From my own experience:
I sell books on Amazon, and every copy of Rules for Radicals gets bought in an instant. But it's not just liberals buying it - not unless it's some bleeding liberal that asked me to ship the book to their work address at a munitions manufacturing company in Arlington, Texas.
They'll gladly demonize Alinsky in public, but some of them are happy to read it in private. Because it works.
Maybe they are buying them up, and then burning them... Either way, i hope you keep re-stocking.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
Conflate socialism with Soviet Communism, they have no clue who Alinsky was except that he has a Russian sounding name, therefore, he must be an evil Commie counterinsurgent. Pig Newton fancies himself to be an "intellectual," in reality he is an ignorant and egotistic bully who tries to intimidate his way to fame. On the other hand, he is probably a genius to his imbecilic followers, most of whom have 6th grade educations if they're lucky.
These dopes are the Mc Carthyites of the 21st century.
"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."
Robert F. Kennedy
Newt Gingrich Loves FDR - 90 sec. video clip
http://chasvoice.blogspot.com/2011/12/newt-gingrich-loves-fdr-90-sec-video.html
Forget about Alinsky. Newt should start worrying when people start bringing up Wolinsky -- or rather, what Newt was up to while trying to impeach Clinton for philandering. And since Newt has never seen a camera he doesn't adore, there's lots and lots of footage of him being an evil little pig-faced hypocrite. As the saying goes, time wounds all heels, and after all these years, Newt's nasty past is waiting to finally catch up with him.
The only thing that matters to these wannabe-Neanderthals is (D) equals Democrat, 'Darkie' etc.
No need to go any deeper.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
Reslug assholes love Newt's hatred and bigotry.
I'm happy to see this brought up for discussion, because I've wondered why the Dems have apparently abandoned the working class, the poor, whatever we call the group that now includes me. Yes, it seems most people identify themselves to a pollster as "middle class," but is that really what they think? Red Americans feel marginalized by whatever "elites" they are not part of, and that feeling is what the Rethugs are exploiting. Do the Dem pols think the middle class will abandon them if the party reaches out to include the rest of us?
I had no idea who Alinsky was either, except as a bogeyman for the wingers. He sounds worth reading.
A society without religion is like a psychopath without a loaded .45
My husband argues with these Beck disciples all the time, and once, in sheer frustration, asked one of them what they felt a free market was (expecting some long-winded economic Randisms), and was met with "It means that I can shop in any market I want to, and the government can't tell me where to shop"!
Sometimes the most basic questions are the most telling.
It's true that most of Beck's followers are clueless and convinced of his line of horse manure, but not all are idiots I found.
When Beck addressed Rules for Radicals, he deceived his audience pretty much every time making Alinsky out to be a Marxist. You can try to convey this to Beck's sheeple, but he has them convinced that up is down. There's no getting through to them that he's a propagandist for the fascistic order of corporate domination of American society and gov't.
I'm not surprised that Gingrich is using similar tactics as Beck since their both reactionary blowhards out to deceive the gullible right.
"The antidote to bad speech is more speech." ~~J.S. Mill
FYI: In August 1967, the FBI's Chicago Field Office recommended that Alinsky be placed on the FBI's "Rabble Rouser Index". HQ approved.
What ever happened to the "character matters" evangelicals in the repuglican party? Just shows you what total frauds they were and are to vote for that draft dodging, womanizing, ethics violating, three time divorcee Newt Gingrinch.
I haven't been the recipient of a very paniced email.......
and combine that with the title of his book, Rules for Radicals," that's enough to scare the ignorant. Scaring the ignorant if Beck's forte, and Newt is not beyond using scare tactics and race-baiting....just like Beck.
Forget that Gingrich once referred to himself as a "revolutionary." Newt could scare the hell out of his reactionary supporters by quoting...Newt.
"The antidote to bad speech is more speech." ~~J.S. Mill
When I did some freelance reporting for various small and large newspapers in L.A. in the late 60s and early 70s, I met people who had trained with Alinsky. They had nothing but praise for him. I think it is high time we took pride in being advocates of "European-style socialism" and told these hustling bigot hypocrite self-dealing surrogates for Koch et al. to STFU.
"Respect for the rights of others is peace." --Benito Juarez
I read Alinsky when I was in high school (bought it at the drugstore!) and wondered why the Left didn't take his working-class activism seriously. The Right fears worker power more than they fear exposure. Not that they need to worry-they think we're gutless bully-targets. A good mixture of Alinsky and Edward Abbey is what we really need to incite respect for daring, and then a groundswell of emulation by both unemployed Damyanks and forcibly idled good ol' boys.
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