What Obama has lacked until now, compared to the more successful fascist and communist dictators of the past 100 years, has been mobs--large numbers of supporters willing to turn out for rallies or to beat up opponents. SEIU and ACORN are too small to have much of an impact. Maybe their hope is that they can mobilize the illegals plus a share of citizen or legal-resident Hispanics plus left-wing activists to provide a critical mass for protests and intimidation.
Of course the 60-70% of the population which doesn't share his agenda may push back, no matter how much they get called racists by the media and by government leaders--it's the "boy who cried wolf" phenomenon of diminishing returns.
That is the subject of an ongoing debate...I think it's real. Someone will be along any moment to straighten me out.
The difference is we have the guns.