Who the F**K is Saul Alinsky? And Meet the GOP Fictional President Barack X.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Real Time host [Bill Maher] requested that Republicans answer two questions when lumping civil rights advocate Saul Alinsky to the current executive chief. “Why would you invite my outrage by suggesting such a specious link between our president and Saul Alinsky?” he asked. “And two, who the fuck is Saul Alinsky?”

That was my exact reaction when I was accused of using "Alinsky tactics" several years ago by a rather vociferous conservative here on Livejournal. And at the time, I confess being rather intellectually lazy in not caring enough to look up the reference, because I figured the person who was pointing the finger at me was talking out of his ass. But as time went on, I started to notice Glenn Beck was using the same reference in his rants about President Obama, and Democrats, and moderates, and even the media. Eventually I had to look it up, and I had discovered what Bill Maher did: “I wikipedia’ed the guy. Instantly, I discovered the problem: he liked black people. Way back in the 30s, he started organizing the civil rights movement. And as a historian like Newt Gingrich would tell you, the civil rights movement turned out to be a huge burden on white people.” ¹



And of course, that led to a rather interesting discussion on the fantasy-land Republican vision of who President Obama is (who apparently gets his marching orders from Saul Alinsky long dead by the way). This is where I admire Bill Maher's dismissal of the false equivalency that "both sides do it, so what?" Or that "both sides have compelling cases." And Mr. Maher makes his case by comparing recent Republican accusations of their fantasy President Barack X to the left's intense hatred of President Bush.

And this is how politics has changed. You used to have to run against an actual candidate. But now, you just recreate him inside the bubble, and run against your new fictional candidate. That's how Bush won in 2004: by running against John Kerry, a French war criminal. And speaking of Bush, I know conservatives are saying "Oh Bill, come on. Democrats did the same thing to him!" No.

Say what you will about the left's hatred of Bush, at least we were hating on the real guy. We didn't have to invent a bogey-man who tanked the economy, took us to war on false pretenses and tortured prisoners. That was the actual guy. But run down the complaints about "Fantasy Obama:" he wants to raise your taxes, even though he's lowered them; confiscate your guns, even though he's never mentioned it; he reads terrorists their rights, yeah like he did Tuesday night in Somalia." And Obama is anti-work. (video of Newt Gingrich statement from a Republican debate claiming Obama is anti-work). You see the difference is the Republicans hatred of Obama is based on a paranoid feeling about what he *might do*, what he's thinking, or what he secretly wants to change. Anger with bush was based on what he actually did. What Bush was thinking didn't matter, because he wasn't [thinking]."

I know personally, I've been left scratching my head when Mitt Romney takes a break from singing "America, the Beautiful" from his campaign stops, and goes down this litany of things President Obama has done wrong. I'm just glad I'm not the only one who has noticed this GOP fantasy Obama. And it's interesting to see how the Republican candidates squirm when an unemployed person steps up to the microphone and tells the all too typical story: they've had no insurance due to being unemployed, and what would the GOP candidates do to help them now [nothing.] Several questions have been asked by people in their 20s who now have coverage on their parent's policies (thanks to "Obama care), and what would the instant repeal offered by all the candidates would mean on a practical level. The interesting thing is most of the answers are always nebulous policies (no one is more true of this than Ron Paul who can only resort to "When back when I was kid, no one was thrown out on the street for lack of insurance!" And in a real sense, whoever President Obama ends up debating this Autumn, he's going to have a least one advantage with these type of questions: he will be able to point out to the specifics of Obama care that have directly helped those as the implementation continues.

Here is the entire clip:

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[1.] "Bill Maher: 'Who the F*** Is Saul Alinsky?'" written by Mark Russell.

Comments

[kurtvonnegut.livejournal.com]

oh, him again

[chessdev.livejournal.com]

and yet, his points are accurate and correct

[sealwhiskers.livejournal.com]

Like I wrote in your journal:
Saul Alinsky was one of the best Americans ever and fuck anyone who claims differently in the ear!

It's a compliment to you that you were compared to him.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

I'm curious, how did you originally discover Alinsky?

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

I really wish you wouldn't hold back so much when you are offering your opinions :P LOL

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Frankly, I've had enough about this Alinsky guy. But that could be just me and that damn thing The LJ!

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

Maher may be a colossal douche on some things but I think he's right on here. I think this needs to be something people need to be paying a lot more attention to.

So many people are so afraid that the people who are never going to do anything but call them hypocrites are going to call them hypocrites. People want to seem all super rational and fair and because of that they try to be in the center, no matter how valid the sides are. Doesn't matter, they'll find fault where there is none because they want to be in the center like rational people supposedly do.

[mrbogey.livejournal.com]

"Anger with bush was based on what he actually did."

***Bill Maher Actually believes this.***

Part of this tactic Maher employs is he just ignores examples which run counter to his beliefs. If you don't acknowledge the conspiracy scenarios and arguments made against Bush well then they never happened.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

What main stream media accepted conspiracy scenarios and arguments are you referring to in particular?

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Just like when Donald Rumsfeld claimed Saddam Hussein was a serious existential threat to the USA and conveniently neglected this incident:



Those nasty no-goodnik Commie-lovin' Reagans. /snerk

[mrbogey.livejournal.com]

“I wikipedia’ed the guy. Instantly, I discovered the problem: he liked black people.”

Yes, which is exactly the same with why Democrats hate Republicans... Republicans like America.

See how retarded it sounds when someone says the problem you have with someone is for a reason you don't follow?

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

The fact that Obama did not reveal his plans to take away our guns proves that it is a secret conspiracy that only the truly enlightened know of.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

First, my degree is in history and political science. I learned of Alinsky in college, Rules for Radicals was one of my texts.

That Maher, assuming it's not schtick, had no real idea who the guy was yet is allowed to run a political program and wishes to be taken seriously, tells me that he should be taken even less seriously than I already was taking him.

But, hey, he's even still anti-vax after all this time. Especially considering how much you push the global warming stuff, it's stunning you're willing to listen to a word Maher says considering his inability to accept basic reality.

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

Maher is right on some counts and wrong on other counts (ie anti-vax)
This isn't a shocker

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

badlydrawnjeff: "Rules for Radicals was one of my texts."

Oh you're going down.

[soliloquy76.livejournal.com]

He's not a political science and history major. He's a comedian who is interested in politics.

[oslo.livejournal.com]

Cool ad hominem bro.

[allisnow.livejournal.com]

That Maher, assuming it's not schtick, had no real idea who the guy was yet is allowed to run a political program and wishes to be taken seriously, tells me that he should be taken even less seriously than I already was taking him.

I thought the same thing. Of course, I'd imagine it's entirely possible that he's feigning ignorance.

[blueduck37.livejournal.com]

So you-- a hardcore conservative-- have heard of Alinsky.

And that is yet another thing that separates you from 98% of the liberals here.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

It's equally astonishing Republicans viewed Iraq as an existential threat given the massive aid the Reagan Administration gave Saddam Hussein, including intelligence, dual-use equipment for the purpose of manufacturing chemical weapons, taking Iraq *off* the Terrorist states list, and including sending people like Donald Rumsfeld to Iraq to ensure that it knew what a good little ally it was. Not to mention that the whole time Iraq was blatantly violating the Chemical Proliferation Treaty it did so with the good blessing of St. Ray Gunn, who reacted to the one suicide bombing in Beirut by skeedaddling.

And yet people sincerely believed one of the USA's envoys to Saddam Hussein when he said Saddam's WMDs were a threat to the region. Despite that he'd only developed that program with the aid of a Republican Administration in the first place. Quite a bit of evidence that reality exists selectively on a bipartisan basis.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

The Republican Party began as a movement willing to sanction and aid and abet domestic terrorism such as John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, it reacted to the disagreement of a significant minority with the outcome of an election by inaugurating a massive, bloody war. The GOP thus is a sectional terrorist party of extremists that has no recourse in domestic politics beyond murdering American citizens. It has no real claim to legitimacy beyond what U.S. Grant gave it, and has no place thus in a civilized political system. A bunch of thugs and domestic terrorists.

See, this is the exact same logic you're using with Alinsky reversed.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

The really ironic bit is that the GOP's hating on a POTUS who's continued almost all their policies he hasn't expanded/blown out of proportion.

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

Obama's the best Republican President we've had in years!

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

I'll let Peter Griffin say my piece on Alinsky:

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

Apparently Alinsky could predict the future, too.

In Rules for Radicals Alinsky wrote, "[t]he job of the organizer is to maneuver and bait the establishment so that it will publicly attack him as a 'dangerous enemy.'" According to Alinsky, "the hysterical instant reaction of the establishment [will] not only validate [the organizer's] credentials of competency but also ensure automatic popular invitation."

I wonder if, in his time, people referred to him as some homegrown terrorist or racist the way Libs do with the Tea Party when Alinsky said, "I love this goddamn country, and we're going to take it back." Because he did say that (http://www.forestcouncil.org/tims_picks/view.php?id=1075).

[eracerhead.livejournal.com]

Well, no because he was not a terrorist; he didn't threaten physical harm, nor racist; he worked toward relieving the deplorable condition of the ghetto.