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Obama foes turn to '60s radical for tactical tips [agitation pioneered by Mr Alinsky...]
FT.COM ^

Posted on 08/17/2009 9:28:33 AM PDT by Sub-Driver

Obama foes turn to '60s radical for tactical tips

By Edward Luce and Alexandra Ulmer in Washington

Published: August 17 2009 03:00 | Last updated: August 17 2009 03:00

Opponents of Barack Obama's healthcare proposals are using the tactics of Saul Alinsky, the renowned leftwing activist who helped inspire the US president when he was a young community organiser, says Dick Armey, head of Freedom Works, a group fighting against universal healthcare.

Mr Armey, who was the Republican majority leader in the House of Representatives for most of the 1990s, said his group, which is behind many of the "tea party" protests that have disrupted town-hall meetings in the past two weeks, draws consciously on the forms of agitation pioneered by Mr Alinsky.

Mr Obama, who worked as a community organiser among unemployed steel workers on Chicago's South Side in the late 1980s, was heavily influenced by Mr Alinsky, who inspired a generation of radicals in the 1960s. Mr Alinsky believed that packing public meetings with highly vocal activists would sway their outcomes and give people a taste of the power they could exercise when they showed up in numbers.

"What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander," said Mr Armey, who was one of the leaders of the "Contract with America" Republican landslide in 1994.

(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: alinsky
Hee hee........
1 posted on 08/17/2009 9:28:33 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
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To: Sub-Driver

Alinsky, you magnificent bastard... we read your book!!!


2 posted on 08/17/2009 9:30:16 AM PDT by andy58-in-nh (America does not need to be organized: it needs to be liberated.)
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To: Sub-Driver

And the next thing we need to do “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it”...


3 posted on 08/17/2009 9:36:33 AM PDT by mom4melody
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To: andy58-in-nh

Armey is smart on two fronts. To paraphrase a line from the movie “The Untouchables” ‘If an enemy brings a knife, you bring a gun. If they bring a gun, you bring a bigger gun.’ Sean Connery said it better but you get the jist. Armey is using their tactics on them which at worst, neutralizes their efforts.

Secondly, he has anticipated what their next move will be and has publicly described it which helps to innoculate the public from the crisis mode that Obama and Emmanuel are counting on in order to get their way in September. If we know the tactic is coming, we are immuned to the hysteria they are hoping will come with it.

Nice Job, Dick.


4 posted on 08/17/2009 9:36:52 AM PDT by johnnycap
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To: Sub-Driver

related

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2009/08/dick-armey-sounds-like-big-government.html


5 posted on 08/17/2009 9:38:31 AM PDT by FromLori (FromLori)
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To: Sub-Driver

Schadenfreude !!


6 posted on 08/17/2009 9:43:44 AM PDT by Prophet in the wilderness (PSALM .53 : 1 The FOOL hath said in his heart, there is no GOD.)
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To: Sub-Driver
Turn to 1960s Marxist-Alinsky hippie street rabble?

Rat Party (formerly the traditional, patriotic Democratic Party) leaders and stalwarts are the ideological offspring of 1960s Marxist-Alinsky hippie street rabble!

(That ain't name calling. The Sixties Marxist-Alinsky hippie street rabble really have taken over the traditional, patriotic Democratic Party. Under the hail of "neo-con" taunts many Democrats fled the Party.)

7 posted on 08/17/2009 9:47:56 AM PDT by WilliamofCarmichael (If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
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To: All
Mr Armey . . . said his group . . . is behind many of the "tea party" protests that have disrupted town-hall meetings in the past two weeks

Headline?

England's Financial Times uses state controlled media (SCaM) template
Financial Times A Division Of SCaM?
FT reports: Republican organizers behind disruptions

8 posted on 08/17/2009 9:56:42 AM PDT by WilliamofCarmichael (If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
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To: andy58-in-nh
Remember, as several other Freepers have pointed out repeatedly, the Alinsky methods presume no one will fight back.

Up to this point the Obamistas have not fought back ~ they've tried to pass their opposition off as a joke, or a bunch of KKK types, or as a handful of kooks.

The fact is the only way they know how to fight is by bombing innocent people, rioting at IMF/World Bank meetings, laying down in front of locomotives at atomic power plants, or strong arm robbery on the streets of Chicago.

Which is to say that once they figure out they're being beat down politically they'll resort to violence.

We must be prepared to abandon the Alinsky methods to turn to direct action instantly once the Leftwingtards start killing people.

9 posted on 08/17/2009 10:01:18 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: muawiyah

If Obama’s goons start killing people, all bets are off. Don’t count on anything.


10 posted on 08/17/2009 10:09:38 AM PDT by Nonstatist
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To: Sub-Driver

I am reading the book now. There is some good material there. The best of which, I think is to ridicule your enemy in the most public of ways whenever the opportunity presents itself. Obama really cannot stand that.


11 posted on 08/17/2009 10:13:30 AM PDT by lovesdogs
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To: lovesdogs

Spread the Joker poster.


12 posted on 08/17/2009 10:14:14 AM PDT by nufsed (Release the birth certificate, passport, and school records.)
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To: Sub-Driver
Heartless people try to tell us what to think
Ashes, ashes all fall down

Throwing Stones
Grateful Dead
13 posted on 08/17/2009 10:15:19 AM PDT by Canedawg (FUBO)
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To: muawiyah
Actually, Alinsky tried to inform his students that people do fight back, and to not only be prepared for it, but to welcome it.

For example, consider Rule 10: "The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition." Alinsky argued such pressure was necessary in order to get the opposition to react. It was in the reaction, Alinsky suggested, real opportunities for change existed ("The action is in the reaction").

Also, in Rule 12: "The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative" - here Alinsky insists that the actor must have a plan, and cannot merely resort to rhetoric or violent outbursts.

The key thing for our side is to recognize when an attack is coming, and then have a plan to turn it back around upon the enemy at their weakest point. That's one of my Rules for Counter-radicals.

14 posted on 08/17/2009 10:25:07 AM PDT by andy58-in-nh (America does not need to be organized: it needs to be liberated.)
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To: andy58-in-nh

My first thought too. I got this more than a year ago and have been trying to instruct the local GOP into the methods. Some get it, many don’t want to hear it because it’s too “confrontational.” But we’re winning this.


15 posted on 08/17/2009 3:40:55 PM PDT by LS ("Castles made of sand, fall in the sea . . . eventually." (Hendrix))
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