ACORN Sells Out the Poor

The American Spectator ^ | July 9, 2009 | Mathew Vadum

[Kaslin]

The relentlessly sanctimonious Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now may not deserve its carefully cultivated image as a defender of the poor.

That's because the group has become the leading cheerleader for a controversial real estate development that is slated to use eminent domain to remove the poor people it claims to represent.

ACORN, which has long prided itself on fighting the so-called gentrification of neighborhoods as rising property values force the poor to move, has also taken money from the project's developer and signed a binding agreement forcing it to stand behind the project no matter what.

In the world of corporate shakedowns it is commonplace for liberal activist groups to use the money they extract from a supposed "donor" to fund operations, but it is very unusual for a group to take money in exchange for betraying those it is supposed to represent.

But the far-left activist group ACORN, which claims to defend the poor from what ACORN ally Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan) last year called America's "capitalist predators," is doing precisely that.

[yldstrk]

these acorns have no conscience, why wouldn’t they pery on whatever prey is available?

[xcamel]

[synbad600]

The idiots who vote for those who they think are on their side will never learn. I’ve pretty much given up caring. If they want to be poor, ‘victims’, and wards of the government their whole lives, let ‘em.

[Buckeye McFrog]

just like that episode of The Sopranos where Tony’s mob constuction union was clashing with black activists upset at the lack of jobs for them (which ended up with Tony and the minister who lead the protest divvying up an envelope full of cash)

[KarlInOhio]

ACORN, which has long prided itself on fighting the so-called gentrification of neighborhoods as rising property values force the poor to move, has also taken money from the project's developer and signed a binding agreement forcing it to stand behind the project no matter what.

We've already determined what ACORN is, now we're just negotiating on the price.