The right knows that it's not enough to attack Obamacare, or complain about the problems with Healthcare.gov -- you have to give people a villain, in this case, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. This is a specifically Alinskyite approach -- which makes sense because the only people in modern political life who obsess over Ol' Saul's Rules for Radicals are right-wingers.
I wanted to find the text of Alinsky's 12th and final Rule, and where did I find it? At a site called "Best of Beck: Glenn Beck Quotes, Research, References, Transcripts, Audio, Videos."
RULE 12: "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)Secretary Sebelius, for now, this is your life.
The right-wing corollary to Alinsky Rule #12 is "Whenever possible, pick a target who's non-white, a woman, or both." Think about it: Van Jones. Shirley Sherrod. Lois Lerner. Eric Holder. Susan Rice and Hillary Clinton (on Benghazi). Valerie Jarrett (on everything). There are scapegoats who don't fall into these categories, inside and outside the administration -- George Soros, Cass Sunstein, Mike Bloomberg on guns, Chuck Schumer -- all Jews -- as well as Harry Reid (though he takes a backseat to the truly despised Nancy Pelosi on the right-wing hate-o-meter). But the ideal target is still someone who's not a white Christian male. So Sebelius is pretty close to ideal.
Ya know, I've been pretty radically to the left most of my life, but until the Reich-Wingers started quoting from him, I'd never heard of Saul Alinsky!
ReplyDeleteSo, not only do they project - they plagiarize!!!
Could not agree more. They are gunning for a scalp and the media will help them. To the republicans its Josh Micah Marshall's bitch slap theory all over again. By attacking and humiliating your opponent in such a way that he can't or won't fight back you win, regardless of how silly or how pointless the attack.
ReplyDeleteThey specialize in this specific kind of bitch slap--the attack on the entire team of the enemy. By holding up Obama's nominations, by harrassing his picks for various offices, and then by trying to force him to have people step down they are trying to show the Democrats and their voters that they will not be allowed to govern. They are showing us that Obama will not be permitted to pick his team or that if he does you will force him to fire people. Regardless of the merits of the situation you win something when you damage your opponents team. You might want to include Amanda Marcotte, who was defenestrated from the Edward's campaign, as well because this is another example. Always be on the offensive is the right wing method.
This is why it is counterproductive to agree with right wing assessments of the horrors of the ACA or the rollout of the ACA. You can't jiu jitsu them into leaving you alone. They will just push harder for another scalp in order to destroy the program.
aimai,
ReplyDeleteAnd being the herd-mentality cowards that they are, they always hunt in packs.
And they poke and poke and poke, and repeat and repeat and repeat, the same talking points, until the morons in our MSM pick-up the chant as a meme.
I'm looking at you, UpChuck Todd!
Jayzoos, what a waste of a once fairly decent statistical analyst!
Woman Beaters. Real Tough Guys. Macho Men.
ReplyDeleteCowards, candy-asses and squaws.
No fear.
It disturbs me that this site is almost entirely reactive, not proactive.
ReplyDeleteIf you're commenting - merely reacting - you're not winning. Alinsky said that too.
Our side hasn't been winning for 35 years (at least). I don't think it's all my fault, however.
ReplyDeleteA lone coyote (pronounced kay-yote) never wins, but he'll take two or three of the wolves' nuts with him, ensuring if not their eventual death then their ability to sustain the pack. When we cannot overthrow the status quo we wage a word war of attrition. Cuttin' their nuts is the best we've got.
ReplyDeleteThough it probably is a boondoggle. I've long given up trying to turn it back in their faces (reverse project?) as they haven't the wit to be mocked. Truly a zombie apocalypse.