That's Alinski's rule #4.
RULE 4: "Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules." If the rule is that every letter gets a reply, send 30,000 letters. You can kill them with this because no one can possibly obey all of their own rules. (This is a serious rule. The besieged entity's very credibility and reputation is at stake, because if activists catch it lying or not living up to its commitments, they can continue to chip away at the damage.)
If we fall for the trap, we lose.
why can’t we live up to our own rules? why claim them if we don’t intend to live up to the most basic of them. i don’t fault them for holding us to them, i fault our people for failing to live up to them/