Posted on 03/19/2009 7:18:41 AM PDT by Tolik
A sitting President of the United States is "organizing a political organization loyal to him, bound by a pledge, outside the government and existing party apparatus. The historical precedents are ominous."
What is so ominous about an organization? Americans, Alexis de Tocqueville famously observed, "constantly form associations.... If it is proposed to inculcate some truth or to foster some feeling by the encouragement of a great example, they form a society."
Certainly, thousands of organizations seek to influence the political debate. There's Newt Gingrich's American Solutions or the left-wing People for the American Way, for instance.
Political parties are another example of an association, of course. Before, during and after political campaigns, the Democrats and Republicans promote their agendas. As legal entities, they have their own constitutions, their rules of business, their chairmen and officers. They have to be accountable to both the government and their members.
But there is a new organization on the political scene -- "Organizing for America," announced by President Barack Obama in late January but officially unfurled last weekend.
Obama describes OFA as a "grass-roots movement" but OFA is a "project" of the Democratic National Committee.
As Politico reported, OFA will take the 10 million person database built up by the Obama campaign "to mobilize support for the president's legislative agenda."
A visit to the OFA website reveals that supporters are not simply asked to sign up, they are asked to take a pledge. A pledge to support -- not the flag, not the constitution, not the country, not even the Democratic Party, but Obama and his "bold plan." OFA does not use the Democratic Party logo but the "O"-shaped logo of the Obama campaign in which the red white and blue of the flag are abstracted to soft pastel colors.
(Celebrities like Ashton Kuchner and Demi Moore did not wait until the official launch to "pledge to be of service" to Barack Obama, of course.)
You will not find any mention of OFA`s governing structure, their budget, their bylaws, or their officers at the OFA website. Donations to the website go to the DNC, but OFA is managed out of the White House. If you click on the comments button, you are taken to a link to the White House email.
Those who take the pledge are asked to "talk with people about the President's plan" and to "ask them to sign their names to the pledge" in support of Obama's policies.
So we have a Movement -- this is their term, not mine -- organized by, and loyal to, a sitting President. Pledge canvassers, armed with your name, will ask you to pledge loyalty to the President too. A president whose term has already become a permanent campaign, is signing up ground forces in a mass organization pledged to personal loyalty to their Leader.
Does anyone know of any historical precedents for this in the United States?
Did Mitch Stewart, youthful director of OFA, who asks Obama's acolytes to organize "neighborhood by neighborhood" study anything at school about Mao's "Red Guards?
How about Fidel Castro's "widespread system of neighborhood informers"?
Or Hugo Chavez's use of "neighborhood committees"?
Did Stewart learn anything about democracy at all?
Do any of Obama's pledged servants understand why a sitting president has no business creating and deploying his own supporters to help organize their neighbors?
Keep in mind that these acolytes have renounced any thought of questioning the actual policies of the maximum leader. Whatever he says, they are for it. They have given their word.
And they are coming to have a talk with you.
As Thomas Lifson wrote, "This is not the way a democracy is supposed to operate."
Another polarizing move from Barack Obama. His permanent campaign is organizing a political organization loyal to him, bound by a pledge, outside the government and existing party apparatus. The historical precedents are ominous. Only this time around the Obama organization supplies YouTube videos on how to organize, and social networking software connects them.
Steve Gilbert was among the first to point it out:
Anyone who is a student of totalitarian regimes, especially Nazi Germany, should recognize this tactic. Mr. Obama has organized his own cadre of Brown Shirts (or, if you prefer, Red Shirts) to agitate for his agenda.
Mr. Alinsky would be proud. And rightly so. For this is simply the continuation of Mr. Obama's perpetual campaign. A campaign, as we noted at the time, that was modeled on Saul Alinsky's organizing principles.
Lona Manning points out that we were warned by Michelle Obama about this:
“Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed.”
Notice that by taking the pledge, Obama believers foreclose any discussion of any issues. Barack Obama by definition is always right, once they have pledged personal loyalty.
This is not the way a democracy is supposed to operate.
Amazing !I will try not to abuse the ping list and not to annoy you too much, but on some days there is more of the good stuff that is worthy of attention.
You are welcome to browse the list of truly exceptional articles I pinged to lately. Updated on February 10, 2009. on my page.
You are welcome in or out, just freepmail me (and note which PING list you are talking about).
Besides this one, I keep 2 separate PING lists for my favorite authors Victor Davis Hanson and Orson Scott Card.
What’s next - pledge takers get a pretty tattoo on their foreheads and/or right hands? Or maybe they’ll all get Nazi type armband. I never thought I’d see this type thing here in America in my lifetime. Scary.
Ergo, the fact that he gets a bunch of ACORN nuts to sign a pledge of devotion to himself will ultimately mean nothing!
Go to hell 0bama.
I must admit I pray for B.O. every night ... pray that the United States of America will be delivered from his clutches!
Here is a link to an article probably written by one of the pledge minions in the Obama Army:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2209758/posts
It gives some insight into how someone who would willingly pledge fealty to a politician views those who don't wish to be come thralls to a government machine.
Yesterday Obama told everyone to “knock on their neighbor’s doors” to promote his $3.5 Trillion budget.
This is standard operating procedure in any Marxist run government.
Why is anyone surprised by this?
ping
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/hitleryouth/hj-timeline.htm
Hitler Youth
Pledge of Allegiance
“I promise to do my duty in love and loyalty to the Führer and our flag.”
Hitler Youth ‘Prayers’ (modeled after the Lord’s Prayer)
“Adolf Hitler, you are our great Führer. Thy name makes the enemy tremble. Thy Third Reich comes, thy will alone is law upon the earth. Let us hear daily thy voice and order us by thy leadership, for we will obey to the end and even with our lives. We praise thee! Heil Hitler!”
“Führer, my Führer, give me by God. Protect and preserve my life for long. You saved Germany in time of need. I thank you for my daily bread. Be with me for a long time, do not leave me, Führer, my Führer, my faith, my light, Hail to my Führer!”
“I pledge to give Obama the middle finger if I am ever that unfortunate to confront him.....”
He told us it was coming and some of us recognized the threat. Has that line been crossed yet? When is enough enough?
I didn't say Obammy wouldn't try. I just think he'll fail.
He's approaching the Presidency (and the Country) as though it is a community in need of organization...and he is wrong!
And add a few choice words too!!
Though the game ain't over til it's over, I think Obama is closer to Moe Howard or Charlie Chaplan than Hitler.
‘...will become a laughing stock before his first administration comes to a close....
Ergo, the fact that he gets a bunch of ACORN nuts to sign a pledge of devotion to himself will ultimately mean nothing!’
We need to be alert and pledge allegiance to America....the country intended by our founders....not a socialist version.
No. If you start blasting away at some misguided soul who comes to your door, you will achieve exactly the opposite outcome from the one you seek.
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