August 8, 2009
Obama's Getting Alinskied
You've been hearing about it: Democratic representatives, home on the August recess, are -- at least some of them -- holding the traditional "town hall" meetings to hear from voters in their districts.
And some of them are hearing yelling. Lots of yelling.
The folks on the left have a simple explanation: this is a well-funded conspiracy, powered by gazillion dollars in donations from the health insurance gnomes who are having their most profitable year ever (even though they're, well, not); it's a Rovian conspiracy run by Republicans who want the poor to be sick and die. Preferably painfully.
The folks on the right have a simple explanation: the peasants are revolting against an attempt by their newInsect Democrat overlords to impose a government health plan on just about everybody -- sooner or later; even they admit that you get to keep your present health plan as long as you stay in your current job -- except for the insect overlords themselves.
I've got a more nuanced explanation: Obama's getting Alinskied. I had a brief (for me) posting on the subject a while ago; I won't repeat it here.
So, you want another view: go take a look at the Rules for Radicals, and every time you see a news story on the town hall protests, watch for the rules being implemented.
Calling it Obamacare? The bill is being written and rewritten by committees -- formal and informal -- in the House and Senate. But . . . "Rule 11: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. Don't try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies. Identify a responsible individual. Ignore attempts to shift or spread the blame." Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann rant, night after night, that it's abstract corporations and Republican bureaucracies, sorta, that are behind this. They're not with the Alinsky playbook; the protesters are.
"If this government health plan is such a great idea, Senator, why doesn't the law require you to give up your gilt-edged health plan and go with it?" It's actually a fair question -- but it's Rule Four: Make opponents live up to their own book of rules.
You see a whole crowd of loud people showing up at a town hall meeting? The Democrats aren't used to being the recipients of mass, noisy demonstrations. "Rule 3: Whenever possible, go outside the experience of an opponent. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat." And lots of them are retreating -- refusing to hold town hall meetings, or packing them with supporters.
Here's a prediction: you won't see many, if any, of these town hall protesters hauled out of meetings that they're disrupting, even though they are supposedly (and actually, in at least some cases) engaging in the sort of "disorderly conduct" that is prohibited by law.
Why? Because it isn't going to be some health care corporation exec or Republican operative who is going to be hauled out in handcuffs. Nah. It'll be Bob and Alice from the neighborhood. and the narrative that it's all an evil Rovian scheme will be just that much harder to sell when they're the poster children for suppression of dissent.
Obama, the Alinskyite community organizer, is being Alinskied. And that's gotta hurt.
And some of them are hearing yelling. Lots of yelling.
The folks on the left have a simple explanation: this is a well-funded conspiracy, powered by gazillion dollars in donations from the health insurance gnomes who are having their most profitable year ever (even though they're, well, not); it's a Rovian conspiracy run by Republicans who want the poor to be sick and die. Preferably painfully.
The folks on the right have a simple explanation: the peasants are revolting against an attempt by their new
I've got a more nuanced explanation: Obama's getting Alinskied. I had a brief (for me) posting on the subject a while ago; I won't repeat it here.
So, you want another view: go take a look at the Rules for Radicals, and every time you see a news story on the town hall protests, watch for the rules being implemented.
Calling it Obamacare? The bill is being written and rewritten by committees -- formal and informal -- in the House and Senate. But . . . "Rule 11: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. Don't try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies. Identify a responsible individual. Ignore attempts to shift or spread the blame." Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann rant, night after night, that it's abstract corporations and Republican bureaucracies, sorta, that are behind this. They're not with the Alinsky playbook; the protesters are.
"If this government health plan is such a great idea, Senator, why doesn't the law require you to give up your gilt-edged health plan and go with it?" It's actually a fair question -- but it's Rule Four: Make opponents live up to their own book of rules.
You see a whole crowd of loud people showing up at a town hall meeting? The Democrats aren't used to being the recipients of mass, noisy demonstrations. "Rule 3: Whenever possible, go outside the experience of an opponent. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat." And lots of them are retreating -- refusing to hold town hall meetings, or packing them with supporters.
Here's a prediction: you won't see many, if any, of these town hall protesters hauled out of meetings that they're disrupting, even though they are supposedly (and actually, in at least some cases) engaging in the sort of "disorderly conduct" that is prohibited by law.
Why? Because it isn't going to be some health care corporation exec or Republican operative who is going to be hauled out in handcuffs. Nah. It'll be Bob and Alice from the neighborhood. and the narrative that it's all an evil Rovian scheme will be just that much harder to sell when they're the poster children for suppression of dissent.
Obama, the Alinskyite community organizer, is being Alinskied. And that's gotta hurt.
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