Day By Day by Chris Muir May 17, 2009 – Bitch, Yet Still Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals
Day By Day by Chris Muir
Alinsky provides a collection of rules to guide the process. But he emphasizes these rules must be translated into real-life tactics that are fluid and responsive to the situation at hand.
RULE 1: “Power is not only what I have, but what the enemy thinks I have.” Power is derived from two main sources — money and people. “Have-Nots” must build power from flesh and blood.(These are two things of which there is a plentiful supply. Government and corporations always have a difficult time appealing to people, and usually do so almost exclusively with economic arguments.)
RULE 2: “I never go outside the expertise of ‘my people’.” It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone.
(Organizations under attack wonder why radicals don’t address the “real” issues. This is why. They avoid things with which they have no knowledge.)RULE 3: “Whenever possible, I go outside the expertise of the enemy.” I look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty.
(This happens all the time. Watch how many organizations under attack are blind-sided by seemingly irrelevant arguments that they are then forced to address.)
RULE 4: “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.” If the rule is that every letter gets a reply, I send 30,000 letters. I can kill them with this because no one can possibly obey all of their own rules.(This is a serious rule. The besieged entity’s very credibility and reputation is at stake, because if activists catch it lying or not living up to its commitments, they can continue to chip away at the damage.)
RULE 5: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions.(Pretty crude, rude and mean, huh? He wants to create anger and fear.)
RULE 6: “A good tactic is one ‘my people’ enjoy.” They’ll keep doing it without urging and come back to do more. They’re doing their thing, and will even suggest better ones.
(Radical activists, in this sense, are no different than any other human being. We all avoid “un-fun” activities, and but we revel at and enjoy the ones that work and bring results.)
RULE 7: “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.” Don’t let it become old news.
(Even radical activists get bored. So to keep them excited and involved, organizers are constantly coming up with new tactics.)RULE 8: “Keep the pressure on. Never let up.” I keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, I hit them from the flank with something new.
(Attack, attack, attack from all sides, never giving the reeling organization a chance to rest, regroup, recover and re-strategize.)
RULE 9: “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.” Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist.
(Perception is reality. Large organizations always prepare a worst-case scenario, something that may be furthest from the activists’ minds. The upshot is that the organization will expend enormous time and energy, creating in its own collective mind the direst of conclusions. The possibilities can easily poison the mind and result in demoralization.)RULE 10: “If I push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive.” Violence from the other side can win the public to my side because the public sympathizes with the underdog.
(Unions used this tactic. Peaceful [albeit loud] demonstrations during the heyday of unions in the early to mid-20th Century incurred management’s wrath, often in the form of violence that eventually brought public sympathy to their side.)
RULE 11: “The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.” I never let the enemy score points because I’d be caught without a solution to the problem.
(Old saw: If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. Activist organizations have an agenda, and their strategy is to hold a place at the table, to be given a forum to wield their power. So, they have to have a compromise solution.)
RULE 12: “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” I cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. I go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.
(This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)
According to Alinsky, the main job of the organizer is to bait an opponent into reacting. “The enemy properly goaded and guided in his reaction will be your major strength.”
Do we see some interesting examples in our every day lives with the media LEFT, President Obama and the Congressional Democrats?
How about Keith Olbermann and the daily “Worst Person in the World Award?”
The Democrats demonizing first Karl rove, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Steele, then Dick Cheney, etc. etc.. A designated RIGHT hater of the week, so to speak.
Kind of falls into a strategy, don’t you think?
Now, how will the RIGHT fight back with a winning playbook of its own?
Technorati Tags: Day By Day, Saul Alinsky, Keith Olbermann
7 Comments
Dave Hendricks
Hey Flap
Your team is the one who has been contorting themselves with variations on Socialist, Messiah, Fascist, Obamatron, teleprompter ‘humor’ and all of that other nonsense. Your team is the one that considers ‘Liberal’ a pejorative, yet supports a war to install a ‘Liberal Democracy’ in Iraq. We don’t even bother with you. Keith Olbermann is barely on the air anymore.
Sending Dick Cheney out to Meet the Press to support torture is not helping. Having Mitch McConnell, John Boehner or Eric Cantor ever out in public – let alone Michael Steele – does not help your cause.
The GOP *is* marginal. It is a fringe, regional party that appeals to racists and secessionists through a not-that-subtle code language. The problem is, people have picked up on the code. Come back to the center and you have a chance.
When you can’t score goals, don’t blame the other team.
Flap
There you lefties go again.
How stupid do you think the right really is?
You guys are pathetic.
Hey, how is your guy Obama doing with the economy?
Oh yeah after massive spending and earmarks it still sucks – great job!
Flap
And, Dave on your ridiculous assertion that the GOP is a marginal and/or a regional party. Here are a couple of posts that you may have missed:
http://flapsblog.com/2009/05/01/poll-watch-the-rise-of-the-independent-voter/
http://flapsblog.com/2009/04/29/believe-it-or-not-the-gop-is-not-a-regional-party/
Check your facts next time……
Dave Hendricks
Nice try using cartoons to comfort your marginalized tea-bagging com-‘patriots’. Note the blue. It’s where the majority of the population actually live. Including where you live. We normal people surround you.
Flap it’s not my assertion that the Republican Party is a regional party, It’s currently a mathematical and geopgraphic fact. Why don’t you try looking at the election results from the last two cycles. And where people are voting? You lost Florida (again). You have no representation in NE, the cradle of the United States of America.
Cacti and Prairie grasses don’t vote – people do. The red areas that McCain carried also correspond to the lowest educated and poorest voters, the same ones that buy the notion that the national GOP is in their corner. Wherever people have college degrees and higher incomes, the democrats win. Wherever labor wants to build something, democrats win. In those other areas, they lose.
By the way, ‘my guy’ Obama is doing a fine job, despite treasonous attempts to subvert his attempts to jump-start the economy after your team trashed it the last 8 years. The stimulus that you hate so much hasn’t even been spent yet.
Cmon, Flap, you’re no dummy. Stop acting like one and join the rational people who want the USA to succeed. Stop hating America. Even Joe the Plumber is quitting the GOP.
Flap
Try reading the links at #3 above and looking at the maps.
What Bull Shit.
Keep living in your dream world, dude.
Dave Hendricks
Another Valiant Try. But another FAIL.
My degree is in political science and I studied under David Bositis (http://www.religionandsocialpolicy.org/interviews/article_print.cfm?id=127) and have been reading district maps since the early 80s. I’ve been working on campaigns for 35+ years.
Do you need to be schooled on the meaning of Political Id? Independents have been growing in numbers for decades. They ebb and flow after election periods. 5 months after a seminal election means nothing. Obama carried Independents in the General.
I think you are looking for facts to support your argument, whatever it is. The problem is that your process is backwards.
Why not look at the results of the last elections and then try to explain them. That’s how this works.
What happened is that your team has no message other than ‘I don’t want to pay taxes’ and ‘I hate Obama’
Those messages are what is pathetic and uncreative. Please keep doing it.
PS good luck on the marathon. Go for Sub 4! But finishing it is good enough. I’ve never had the balls to run one! go for it!
Flap
More names and diversions – See Saul Alinsky above.
You stated the GOP is a fringe regional party and it is not.
This is a lie but you say some other BS and try to give some authority that “I hate Obama.”
Just more nonsense, sorry.
Cogitate on this:
And, the map: http://flapsblog.com/2009/04/29/believe-it-or-not-the-gop-is-not-a-regional-party/