Posted on 03/04/2009 7:13:41 AM PST by mnehring
Over the last forty years, Republicans, Conservatives, and anyone that believes in and loves America has been increasingly under attack by the left wing in this country who want to remake it. These attacks have been based on the foundation built by Antonio Gramsci and the works of Saul Alinsky. Among those works is a book called “Rules for Radicals“, in which Alinsky outlined a set of tactics that could be used by socialists to infiltrate all areas of our society and work to bring about their ends.
The dirty little secret is that President Obama is one of the top Alinsky acolytes, has been taught this radicalism from his childhood, through college, and has taught it to others. Sarah Palin may have criticized him for being a “community organizer”, whatever that is, but one thing that job gave him was experience in applying Alinsky’s rules, and then rising through the ranks of Chicago politics all the way to the White House!
Alinsky’s rules are:
RULE 1: “Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.”
RULE 2: “Never go outside the expertise of your people.”
RULE 3: “Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.”
RULE 4: “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.”
RULE 5: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.”
RULE 6: “A good tactic is one your people enjoy.”
RULE 7: “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.”
RULE 8: “Keep the pressure on. Never let up.”
RULE 9: “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.”
RULE 10: “If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive.”
RULE 11: “The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.”
RULE 12: “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”
You don’t have to think too hard to see how these rules have been used to attack, attack, attack the Republican party. Rule 4? See Larry Craig’s alleged bathroom activities, Newt Gingrich’s marital infidelity, and Rush Limbaugh’s prescription painkiller abuse. Rule 5? See all the various comedians such as Saturday Night Live, Jon Stewart, and Steven Colbert. Rule 6 applies there as well. Rule 12? See the endless criticism of President Bush over the last eight years, which has currently been turned against Mr. Limbaugh. Rule 8, too.
I’ll add an Obama corollary rule 13:
RULE 13: “If you’re non-white, and criticized by a white person, cry racism; if you’re a woman and criticized by a man, cry sexism; if both, and cricized by a white man, then cry both.”
Now that we know the tactics that have been used against us, what do we do about it? How do we effectively combat these tactics, especially when those who are the experts at these tactics are now in possession of the power of the White House and the Congress? Can we turn these rules around and use them against the leftists? What would “Rules for Conservatives” look like?
I’ve been thinking about this for a while and I don’t have a good answer. In this way, I guess I’m no worse than the Republican party because they haven’t come up with any answers either. One thing that might save us, though, is that now that Obama and his ilk have taken the reins of power, it is quickly becoming evident that they don’t know what the heck they are doing. Their incompetence once in power may be their undoing. Maybe they don’t understand Rule 11 as well as they think they do.
What say you in the comments?
These rules have worked in the past because welfare chiselers, college students, teachers, and others of that ilk have had more time and more motives for such activism than those of us who have to go to work and pay their freight. When times were good there was no incentive for folks like us to be angry rabble rousers.
Now that more of us are unemployed or underemployed, and watching our beloved country turned into a banana republic before our eyes, the shoe is on the other foot. I am in favor of vigorous dissent and civil disobedience to throw a wrench in Obama’s gears. Let’s speak truth to power, good and hard.
There is a decent list here, a place to start:
1. KNOW YOUR FACTS.
2. TAKE THE LOW ROAD.
a. NEVER DIG IN. ATTACK AND ADVANCE.
3. TAKE BACK THE SCHOOLS.
4. DUMP THE RINOs.
5. CLUB THE LIBERALS.
6. ORGANIZE AND MARCH!
7. POLICE OUR RANKS.
See the link for more info on each topic.
RULE 1: "The enemy's power is only what they prove they have; make them prove it every time they use it. They are liberals and unwilling to work hard, so make it harder to get loot by stealing from you or from your neighbors than by just getting a job."
RULE 2: "Make the other side prove every claim and prove the expertise and lack of bias of their people every time."
RULE 3: "Whenever possible, go with facts rather than feelings, which are closer to the territory of the enemy, but don't neglect feelings - make the (truthful) case for freedom and conservatism being the compassionate option."
RULE 4: "Live up to our own book of rules from the start, including fighting for the literal Constitution in every government action."
RULE 5: "Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon, so use it even when it seems too easy."
RULE 6: "A good tactic is one that promosted freedom and limited government. Even if your people don't enjoy it, it's better to fight than to be enslaved by socialists."
RULE 7: "A battle that drags on too long becomes a drag, so make liberals fight until they die of old age rather than giving in under the mistaken assumption that rewarding them for stealing will allow you to move on with your life. It won't. Giving in just makes them come after you harder the next time."
RULE 8: "Keep the resistance on. Never let up."
RULE 9: "Make them implement their threat. The threat is intended to be more terrifying than the thing itself, and liberals can't actually follow through or they would have real jobs where following through produces something of value."
RULE 10: "If you push a positive hard enough, even those in the middle will recognize its value.
RULE 11: “The price of a successful defense is another attack, but one that comes from a weaker enemy of freedom.”
RULE 12: "When the thugs pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it, stand up proudly and explain why they are on the wrong side."
I witnessed how Rule #5 could be broken.
George Will was on Jon Stewart’s show about half a year ago.
George Will was calm, cool, collected and solidly knowledgable about the facts behind his beliefs. Jon Stewart tried to ridicule him on everything, but George Will prevailed. At the end of the interview, Jon Stewart shook Will’s hand and told him to his face, “you’re too much for me.” George Will looked like a genius and all Stewart could do was hope to retain as much of his dignity as possible.
Likewise with Rush Limbaugh and Harry Reid and the attempt to censure Rush. Rush took a day to think about it and came back with a pure genius of a response (the auction for charity of the censure document).In the end, Limbaugh looked like the hero and Reid looked like a complete fool.
I would suggest, to beat Rule #5:
1. Address the attacker directly. It doesn’t need to be immediate, but does need to be timely.
2. Be highly knowledgable of the facts behind your convictions.
3. Remain calm and courteous.
4. Don’t counter-ridicule. You have the opportunity to make the attacker look like a clown, so don’t blow the opportunity. If you engage in similar behavior, you end up looking like a clown, but without originality.
5. And never, never, never apologize for your convictions, or for those who have similar convictions.
Rarely has this been done as brilliantly as Fred Thompson's 39 second response to Michael Moore over Cuban health care.
Fred Thompson on Micheal Moore.
Another great example of how to break rule #5
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