Incite Not To Rioting

I'd never heard of a community organizer. Apparently Obama didn't know much about it when he decided on it either. Here's what he wrote: "There wasn't much to the idea...When classmates in college asked me just what it was that a community organizer did, I couldn't answer them directly. Instead, I'd pronounce on the need for change. Change in the White House...Change in the Congress...Change in the mood of the country." (Dreams of my Father, 133) Interesting.

When I read up on the subject, I didn't anticipate what I'd find. Saul Alinsky is a famous community organizer who wrote on the subject, trained community organizers in his methods, and created a foundation for the training of young radicals. Obama is recognized as a master of his tactics. Mike Kruglik, a one-time fellow organizer said that Obama was "the undisputed master of agitation...With probing, sometimes personal questions, he would pinpoint the source of pain in their lives, tearing down their egos just enough before dangling a carrot of hope that they could make things better." (Link)

Here's how Alinsky described the organizer's role: "He begins his 'trouble making' by stirring up these angers, frustrations, and resentments, and highlighting specific items or grievances that heighten controversy...He has taken a group of apathetic workers; he has fanned their resentments and hostilities by a number of means...He dramatizes the injustices..."(Link) He essentially stirs the folks up, gets them feeling abused and taken advantage of, tells them things can be better--and points to examples where things have changed the way he describes, and then uses them as pawns to achieve his objectives. It's really a con all along. The organizer has some objective, gets the people mad enough to get engaged in the cause, and uses them to his advantage.

So, who pays the salaries of community organizers? In the case of Obama, it was the Woods Fund of Chicago where years later he served on the board with Bill Ayres. I also discovered the Woods Fund is a major contributor to the all too famous ACORN. (Link)

Of ACORN, here's how one report described their business model: "ACORN's business model involves choosing a corporate target, attacking it, reaching a financial settlement, and then beginning the cycle again with a different target". Their own manifesto says their "lifeblood is conflict with targets outside the organization". (Link) Obama was also a lawyer for ACORN for a short time, in case you hadn't heard...

All of this immediately brought to mind something else I'd read. Here it is: "Now, it was for the sole purpose to get gain, because they received their wages according to their employ, therefore, they did stir up the people to riotings, and all manner of disturbances and wickedness, that they might have more employ, that they might get money according to the suits which were brought before them..." (Link) How could that be a better description of ACORN's business model?

Agitation, stirring up to anger and resentment, dramatizing injustices, conflict as a lifeblood? Not what I expected. Call me naive I suppose...