Why they keep Invoking Saul Alinsky
Interesting Crooks & Liars post about why Republicans (like Newt Gingrich at his SC victory speech) keep bringing up Saul Alinsky, who most Republicans haven't heard of and who's been dead for 40 years. My wife and I had almost exactly the same conversation that C&L's Nicole Belle did with her husband.
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.....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.
Newt is taking a page out of Glenn Beck's book, of course, who talks about Alinsky as much as he does Woodrow Wilson. And why not? Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are both on the record as Alinsky admirers and of course Alinsky's name has a certain, shall we say, "ethnic" quality about it, not unlike my own. Even more important (and this is just the kind of thing that people on the left need to understand better about a big part of the right in this country) are the acknowledgements that Alinsky wrote for his book RULES FOR RADICALS: “Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history... the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom — Lucifer.”Alinsky, of course, was being figurative, but for millions of Americans (hundreds of thousands of whom believe Barack Obama is the Antichrist), there is nothing "figurative" about the Prince of Darkness. That is what this particular dog whistle is about--the left's alliance with the Devil. If you don't believe me, Google "Alinksy" and "Lucifer" and see who comes up.If you enjoyed this post, please go to my Facebook page and "like" it (there is a button that will take you there on the top right hand side of this page). You can also follow me on Twitter. Itanimulli
