How To Be An Election Combat Prepper: First Of All Believe Nothing

We are now 101 days from November 5, 2024, and the presidential election. Regardless of the outcome it's promising to be a vicious campaign as the Democrats struggle to win the House and retain control of the Senate and install a far left Californian as our president. Another significant ingredient will be the collective anger among tens of millions of voters on the right and left who remain upset with the embattled 2020 election process. And finally there is the issue of Democrats reconciling the fact that their presumed nominee lied not only to her fellow Democrats but also to the American people about the mental health of her boss  while he was tottering through almost four years of mid and late stage dementia. It's not our best choice either way as I see it but I'm quite sure the disillusionment and anger will easily translate into plenty of confrontational election tactics.

Around 1513 Niccolo Machiavelli wrote The Prince, a guidebook advising those in power on how to keep it. Four and a half centuries later, Saul Alinsky wrote Rules For Radicals advising those out of power on how to take it from those in charge. It's all about keeping and holding power. We have a huge struggle for that power coming in the next one hundred days. You'll have to read Machiavelli for yourself. It can be a challenge. On the other hand, Alinsky's book is nicely structured, very readable as a playbook, and an aid to the critical thinking you'll need to navigate the campaign battlefield.

In preparation for the desperate and emotional battle that's coming, I thought it would be the perfect time to give readers a booster shot of the political tactics we're likely to encounter from our politicians and their organizations. They won't be new to readers here because they've become the subject of an OTR post in presidential election years. Many of the tactics have been a feature of American elections for well over a century. It took the mind and experience of Saul Alinsky, long recognized as the founding father of community organizing, to best articulated them in his 1971 book. He was after all a Chicago native trained at the University of Chicago and a veteran organizer and political activist in the city's neighborhoods. His experience taught him early that politics was a very dirty game. That's one reason he dedicated the book to Lucifer.

My copy purchased in 1971 during my revolutionary days

Democrats, especially those from the party's "progressive" wing, were well aware of the value of the tactics described herein and used them effectively during their convention in Chicago in 1968. They used them successfully against a naive Republican Party until late in the last century. By then American politics had become a vicious game of win or lose instead of compromise. Eventually GOP campaign strategists recognized political reality required them to fight fire with fire. That said here are the twelve rules or tactics we'll see at work every day until the election and beyond. My condensation of supporting information from the book is in brackets.


1. Power is not only what you have, it's what the enemy thinks you have. [Power is derived from two main sources - money and people.]

2. Never go outside the expertise of your people. [It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone.]

3. Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy. [Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty.]

4. Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules. [You can kill them with this because nobody can possibly obey all of their own rules.]

5. Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. [There is no defense. It's irrational. It's infuriating.]

6. A good tactic is one your people enjoy.

7. A tactic that drags on too long become a drag. [Don't become old news. Even radical activists get bored.]

8. Keep the pressure on. Never let up. [Attack, attack, attack from all sides, never giving the reeling organization a chance to rest, recover, regroup or re-strategize.]

9. The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself. [Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist.]

10. If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive. [Violence from the other side can become a positive because the public sympathizes with the underdog.]

11. The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. [Never let the enemy score points because you're caught without a solution to the problem. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.]

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, not institutions, people hurt faster than institutions.]


Look carefully at these words. Any way you look at them, there is rough play, play for keeps. We've read and heard them daily and watched their consequences unfold on our national stage especially since 2008. Time and experience have taught me well and today I see it as an unsettling and potentially dangerous book now that it has become mainstream. I trust readers will benefit from this information as we face what may well be the most significant national election in our time.

Some readers may be curious how I came to own a first edition of Alinsky's Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals [1971]. First, the political events of the 1960's were not good to me. After President Kennedy's murder in 1963,  Barry Goldwater's loss to Lyndon Johnson in the presidential election of 1964, and the physical and mental slaughter in Vietnam and the US, I became an anarchist in the classical sense of the word. That's when I encountered Rules for Radicals. My copy's been read many, many times, it's a bit yellow here and there, and the dust jacket has a few small tears and scuffs; otherwise, it's in excellent condition.

As a husband and father, and student of the American experience, I have moved right of center in politics and economics over the years, but always maintained a fiercely liberal position on many social issues. In essence I'm now a Jeffersonian Democrat - somewhat conservative, somewhat libertarian, somewhat classical Republican - and that makes it difficult to place me in context in today's polarized political environment. Regardless, most folks smile and take on a puzzled look, but  many of them break out in laughter when they learn I never never once liked Richard Nixon. Not even when I was six years old.

Some Advice On Prepping For The Coming Election Season

 

We are now fifteen months away from November 2024 and the presidential election. Regardless of the outcome it's promising to be a vicious campaign as the Socialist Democrats struggle to win the House and retain control of the Senate and the future of the Biden presidency. Another significant ingredient will be the collective anger among tens of millions of voters on the right and left who remain upset with an embattled candidate consumed by his 2020 loss and a sitting president tottering through a now rapid descent into late stage dementia. It's not a good choice either way and the chorus for change grows louder week by week. I believe the anger translates easily to motivation and in turn to more confrontational election tactics.

Around 1513 Niccolo Machiavelli wrote The Prince, a guidebook advising those in power on how to keep it. Four and a half centuries later, Saul Alinsky wrote Rules For Radicals advising those out of power on how to take it from those in charge. It's all about keeping and holding power. We have a struggle for that power coming next year. You'll have to read Machiavelli for yourself. It can be a challenge. On the other hand, Alinsky's book is nicely structured, very readable as a playbook, and an aid to the critical thinking you'll need to navigate the campaign battlefield.

In preparation for the desperate and emotional battle that's coming, I thought it would be the perfect time to give readers a booster shot of the political tactics we're likely to encounter from our politicians and their organizations. They won't be new to readers here because they've become the subject of an OTR post in presidential election years. Many of the tactics have been a feature of American elections for well over a century. It took the mind and experience of Saul Alinsky, long recognized as the founding father of community organizing, to best articulated them in his 1971 book. He was after all a Chicago native trained at the University of Chicago and a veteran organizer and political activist in the city's neighborhoods. His experience taught him early that politics was a very dirty game. That's one reason he dedicated the book to Lucifer.

My copy purchased in 1971 during my revolutionary days

Democrats, especially those from the party's "progressive" wing, were well aware of the value of the tactics described herein and used them effectively during their convention in Chicago in 1968. They used them successfully against a naive Republican Party until late in the last century. By then American politics had become a vicious game of win or lose instead of compromise. Eventually GOP campaign strategists recognized political reality required them to fight fire with fire. That said here are the twelve rules or tactics we'll see at work every day until the election and beyond. My condensation of supporting information from the book is in brackets.


1. Power is not only what you have, it's what the enemy thinks you have. [Power is derived from two main sources - money and people.]

2. Never go outside the expertise of your people. [It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone.]

3. Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy. [Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty.]

4. Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules. [You can kill them with this because nobody can possibly obey all of their own rules.]

5. Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. [There is no defense. It's irrational. It's infuriating.]

6. A good tactic is one your people enjoy.

7. A tactic that drags on too long become a drag. [Don't become old news. Even radical activists get bored.]

8. Keep the pressure on. Never let up. [Attack, attack, attack from all sides, never giving the reeling organization a chance to rest, recover, regroup or re-strategize.]

9. The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself. [Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist.]

10. If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive. [Violence from the other side can become a positive because the public sympathizes with the underdog.]

11. The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. [Never let the enemy score points because you're caught without a solution to the problem. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.]

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, not institutions, people hurt faster than institutions.]


Look carefully at these words. Any way you look at them, there is rough play, play for keeps. We've read and heard them daily and watched their consequences unfold on our national stage especially since 2008. Time and experience have taught me well and today I see it as an unsettling and potentially dangerous book now that it has become mainstream. I trust readers will benefit from this information as we face what may well be the most significant national election in our time.

In closing, some readers may be curious how I came to own a first edition of Alinsky's Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals [1971]. First, the political events of the 1960's were not good to me. After President Kennedy's murder in 1963 , Barry Goldwater's loss to Lyndon Johnson in the presidential election of 1964, and the physical and mental slaughter in Vietnam and the US, I became an anarchist in the classical sense of the word. That's when I encountered Rules for Radicals. It's been read many, many times, it's a bit yellow here and there, and the dust jacket has a few small tears and scuffs; otherwise, it's in excellent condition. 

As a husband and father, and student of the American experience, I moved right of center in politics and economics over the years, but always maintained a fiercely liberal position on many social issues. In essence I'm now a Jeffersonian Democrat and that makes it difficult to place me in context in today's polarized political environment. On the other hand, most folks smile and laugh and many are happy to know I never once liked Richard Nixon. Not even when I was six years old.

Saul Alinsky's Rules Of Politics And Power You Should Know

 

We are now approaching 100 days away from November 8 and the mid-term elections. Regardless of the outcome it's promising to be a vicious campaign as the Socialist Democrats struggle to retain control of the House and Senate and the future of the Biden presidency. Another significant ingredient will be the collective anger among tens of millions of voters on the right who remain upset with the presidential election process and outcome in 2020. Regardless of the validity of their claims, the anger translates easily to motivation and I think that in turn translates to more confrontational election tactics.

Around 1513 Niccolo Machiavelli wrote The Prince, a guidebook advising those in power on how to keep it. Four and a half centuries later, Saul Alinsky wrote Rules For Radicals advising those out of power on how to take it from those in charge. It's all about keeping and holding power. We have a struggle for that power coming next year. You'll have to read Machiavelli for yourself. It can be a challenge. On the other hand, Alinsky's book is nicely structured, very readable as a playbook, and an aid to the critical thinking you'll need to navigate the campaign battlefield.

In preparation for the desperate and emotional battle that's coming, I thought it would be the perfect time to give readers a booster shot of the political tactics we're likely to encounter from our politicians and their organizations. They won't be new to readers here because they've become the subject of an OTR post in presidential election years. Many of the tactics have been a feature of American elections for well over a century. It took the mind and experience of Saul Alinsky, long recognized as the founding father of community organizing, to best articulated them in his 1971 book. He was after all a Chicago native trained at the University of Chicago and a veteran organizer and political activist in the city's neighborhoods. His experience taught him early that politics was a very dirty game. That's one reason he dedicated the book to Lucifer.  

My copy purchased in 1971 during my revolutionary days

Democrats, especially those from the party's left wing, were well aware of the value of the tactics described herein and used them effectively during their convention in Chicago in 1968. They used them successfully against a naive Republican Party until late in the last century. By then American politics had become a vicious game of win or lose instead of compromise. Eventually GOP campaign strategists recognized political reality required them to fight fire with fire. That said here are the twelve rules or tactics we'll see at work every day until the election and beyond. My condensation of supporting information from the book is in brackets.



1. Power is not only what you have, it's what the enemy thinks you have. [Power is derived from two main sources - money and people.]

2. Never go outside the expertise of your people. [It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone.]

3. Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy. [Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty.]

4. Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules. [You can kill them with this because nobody can possibly obey all of their own rules.]

5. Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. [There is no defense. It's irrational. It's infuriating.]

6. A good tactic is one your people enjoy.

7. A tactic that drags on too long become a drag. [Don't become old news. Even radical activists get bored.]

8. Keep the pressure on. Never let up. [Attack, attack, attack from all sides, never giving the reeling organization a chance to rest, recover, regroup or re-strategize.]

9. The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself. [Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist.]

10. If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive. [Violence from the other side can become a positive because the public sympathizes with the underdog.]

11. The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. [Never let the enemy score points because you're caught without a solution to the problem. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.]

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, not institutions, people hurt faster than institutions.]



Look carefully at these words. Any way you look at them, there is rough play, play for keeps. We've read and heard them daily and watched their consequences unfold on our national stage especially since 2016. Time and experience have taught me well and today I see it as an unsettling and potentially dangerous book now that it has become mainstream. I trust readers will benefit from this information as we face what may well be the most significant national election in our time.

In closing, some readers may be curious how I came to own a first edition of Alinsky's Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals [1971]. First, the political events of the 1960's were not good to me. After President Kennedy's murder in 1963 , Barry Goldwater's loss to Lyndon Johnson in the presidential election of 1964, and the physical and mental slaughter in Vietnam, I became an anarchist in the classical sense of the word. That's when I encountered Rules for Radicals. It's been read many, many times, it's a bit yellow here and there, and the dust jacket has a few small tears and scuffs; otherwise, it's in excellent condition. As a husband, father, and student of the American experience I've moved right of center in politics and economics but maintain a fiercely liberal position on many social issues. In other words it's hard to define me politically. On the other hand, many of you will be happy to know I never once liked Richard Nixon. Even when I was six years old.

Rules For Our Election Merry-Go-Round 2022

I noticed something different about You Tube last night. The political ads are back. They're brief, repetitive. and best described as ten second lies. Joseph Goebbels, the minister of propaganda for the National Socialist Party during the Hitler years, would be proud. In Georgia we're facing several contentious campaigns over the next seven months. I don't look forward to it because the nation's collective anger and unrest translates easily into more confrontational election tactics. For a long time leftist democrats had the edge because they had a modern day playbook for such contests. It wasn't until the last decade of the last century that conservatives took serious notice. Today the playbook, Rules For Radicals, is required reading for any candidate at any government and corporate executive level. 

Around 1513 Niccolo Machiavelli wrote The Prince, a guidebook advising those in power on how to keep it. Four and a half centuries later, Saul Alinsky wrote Rules For Radicals advising those out of power on how to take it from those in charge. It's all about keeping and holding power. We have a struggle for that power coming in November. You'll have to read Machiavelli for yourself. It can be a challenge. On the other hand, Alinsky's book is nicely structured, very readable as a playbook, and an aid to the critical thinking you'll need to navigate the battlefield.

If you read this blog frequently you've likely encountered similar posts but regardless of how many times you read the rules a quick refresher can only make you better prepared. Many of the tactics have been a feature of American elections for well over a century. It took the experience and mind of Alinsky, long recognized as the founding father of community organizing, to best articulated them in his 1971 book. As a Chicago native trained at the University of Chicago and a veteran organizer and political activist in the city's neighborhoods he was well prepared for the task.

My copy purchased in 1971 during my revolutionary days

Here are the twelve rules or tactics we'll see at work every day until the election and beyond. My condensation of supporting information from the book is in brackets.



1. Power is not only what you have, it's what the enemy thinks you have. [Power is derived from two main sources - money and people.]

2. Never go outside the expertise of your people. [It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone.]

3. Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy. [Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty.]

4. Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules. [You can kill them with this because nobody can possibly obey all of their own rules.]

5. Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. [There is no defense. It's irrational. It's infuriating.]

6. A good tactic is one your people enjoy.

7. A tactic that drags on too long become a drag. [Don't become old news. Even radical activists get bored.]

8. Keep the pressure on. Never let up. [Attack, attack, attack from all sides, never giving the reeling organization a chance to rest, recover, regroup or re-strategize.]

9. The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself. [Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist.]

10. If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive. [Violence from the other side can become a positive because the public sympathizes with the underdog.]

11. The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. [Never let the enemy score points because you're caught without a solution to the problem. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.]

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, not institutions, people hurt faster than institutions.]




Any way you look at these words there is rough play, play for keeps. We've read and heard them daily and watched their consequences unfold on our national stage especially since 2016. Time and experience have taught me well and today I see it as an unsettling and potentially dangerous book now that it has become mainstream. I trust readers will benefit from this information as we face what may well be one of the most significant national elections in our time.

Interpreting The Dirt: Some Preparation For The 2022 Political Campaign

This post appeared a few times over the last six years or so during election campaign seasons. In a few months we'll be entering the 2022 season which I expect to be especially contentious given that control of the House and Senate - the future of the Biden presidency - hangs in the balance. Another significant ingredient in the coming election will be the collective anger among tens of millions of voters on the right who remain upset with the presidential election process and outcome in 2020. Regardless of the validity of their claims, the anger translates easily to motivation and I think that in turn translates to more confrontational election tactics. 

Around 1513 Niccolo Machiavelli wrote The Prince, a guidebook advising those in power on how to keep it. Four and a half centuries later, Saul Alinsky wrote Rules For Radicals advising those out of power on how to take it from those in charge. It's all about keeping and holding power. We have a struggle for that power coming next year. You'll have to read Machiavelli for yourself. It can be a challenge. On the other hand, Alinsky's book is nicely structured, very readable as a playbook, and an aid to the critical thinking you'll need to navigate the battlefield.   

On the eve of the 2022 election campaigns, I thought it would be the perfect time to give readers a booster shot of the political tactics we're likely to encounter from our politicians and their organizations.  They won't be new to readers here because they've become the subject of an OTR post in presidential election years.  Many of the tactics have been a feature of American elections for well over a century. It took the mind of Saul Alinsky, long recognized as the founding father of community organizing, to best articulated them in his 1971 book, Rules for Radicals. Alinsky was a Chicago native trained at the University of Chicago and a veteran organizer and political activist in the city's neighborhoods.

My copy purchased in 1971 during my revolutionary days

Democrats, especially those from the party's left wing, were well aware of the value of the tactics described herein and used them effectively during their convention in Chicago in 1968. They used them successfully against a naive Republican Party until late in the last century. By then American politics had become a vicious game of win or lose instead of compromise. Eventually GOP campaign strategists recognized political reality required them to fight fire with fire. That said here are the twelve rules or tactics we'll see at work every day until the election and beyond. My condensation of supporting information from the book is in brackets.

1. Power is not only what you have, it's what the enemy thinks you have. [Power is derived from two main sources - money and people.]

2. Never go outside the expertise of your people. [It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone.]

3. Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy. [Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty.]

4. Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules. [You can kill them with this because nobody can possibly obey all of their own rules.]

5. Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. [There is no defense. It's irrational. It's infuriating.]

6. A good tactic is one your people enjoy.

7. A tactic that drags on too long become a drag. [Don't become old news. Even radical activists get bored.]

8. Keep the pressure on. Never let up. [Attack, attack, attack from all sides, never giving the reeling organization a chance to rest, recover, regroup or re-strategize.]

9. The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself. [Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist.]

10. If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive. [Violence from the other side can become a positive because the public sympathizes with the underdog.]

11. The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. [Never let the enemy score points because you're caught without a solution to the problem. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.]

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, not institutions, people hurt faster than institutions.]

Look carefully at these words. Any way to look at them, there is rough play, play for keeps.  We've read and heard them daily and watched their consequences unfold on our national stage especially since 2016. Time and experience have taught me well and today I see it as an unsettling and potentially dangerous book now that it has become mainstream. I trust readers will benefit from this information as we face what may well be the most significant national election in our time.

In closing, some readers may be curious how I came to own a first edition of Alinsky's Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals [1971].  First, the political events of the 1960's were not good to me. After President Kennedy's murder in 1963 , Barry Goldwater's loss to Lyndon Johnson in the presidential election of 1964, and the physical and mental slaughter in Vietnam, I became an anarchist in the classical sense of the word.  That's when I encountered Rules for Radicals.  It's been read many, many times, it's a bit yellow here and there, and the dust jacket has a few small tears and scuffs; otherwise, it's in excellent condition.  As a husband, father, and student of the American experience I've moved right of center in politics and economics but maintain a fiercely liberal position on many social issues. In other words it's hard to define me politically. On the other hand, many of you will be happy to know I never once liked Richard Nixon. Even when I was six years old.

Tactics For Our Time

With 100 or so days remaining until the November election, I thought it would be the perfect time to give readers a booster shot of the political tactics we're likely to encounter from our politicians and their organizations.  They won't be new to readers here because they've become the subject of an OTR post in presidential election years.  Many of the tactics have been a feature of American elections for well over a century. It took the mind of Saul Alinsky, long recognized as the founding father of community organizing, to best articulated them in his 1971 book, Rules for Radicals. Alinsky was a Chicago native trained at the University of Chicago and a veteran organizer and political activist in the city's neighborhoods.

My copy 

Democrats, especially those from the party's left wing, were well aware of the value of the tactics described herein and used them effectively during their convention in Chicago in 1968. They used them successfully against a naive Republican Party until late in the last century. By then American politics had become a vicious game of win or lose instead of compromise. Eventually GOP campaign strategists recognized political reality required them to fight fire with fire. That said here are the twelve rules or tactics we'll see at work every day until the election and beyond. My condensation of supporting information from the book is in brackets.

1. Power is not only what you have, it's what the enemy thinks you have. [Power is derived from two main sources - money and people.]

2. Never go outside the expertise of your people. [It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone.]

3. Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy. [Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty.]

4. Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules. [You can kill them with this because nobody can possibly obey all of their own rules.]

5. Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. [There is no defense. It's irrational. It's infuriating.]

6. A good tactic is one your people enjoy.

7. A tactic that drags on too long become a drag. [Don't become old news. Even radical activists get bored.]

8. Keep the pressure on. Never let up. [Attack, attack, attack from all sides, never giving the reeling organization a chance to rest, recover, regroup or re-strategize.]

9. The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself. [Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist.]

10. If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive. [Violence from the other side can become a positive because the public sympathizes with the underdog.]

11. The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. [Never let the enemy score points because you're caught without a solution to the problem. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.]

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, not institutions, people hurt faster than institutions.]

Look carefully at these words. Any way to look at them, there is rough play, play for keeps.  We've read and heard them daily and watched their consequences unfold on our national stage especially since 2016. Time and experience have taught me well and today I see it as an unsettling and potentially dangerous book now that it has become mainstream. I trust readers will benefit from this information as we face what may well be the most significant national election in our time.

In closing, some readers may be curious how I came to own a first edition of Alinsky's Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals [1971].  First, the political events of the 1960's were not good to me. After President Kennedy's murder in 1963 , Barry Goldwater's loss to Lyndon Johnson in the presidential election of 1964, and the physical and mental slaughter in Vietnam, I became a leftist radical by 1971.  That's when I encountered Rules for Radicals.  It's been read many, many times, it's a bit yellow here and there, and the dust jacket has a few small tears and scuffs; otherwise, it's in excellent condition.  As a husband, father, and student of the American experience I've moved right of center in politics and economics but maintain a fiercely liberal position on most social issues. In other words it's hard to define me politically. On the other hand, many of you will be happy to know I never once liked Richard Nixon. Even when I was six years old.

Rules For Radicals: A Mid-Convention Booster Shot

With Republicans heading home from Cleveland and Democrats gathering in Philadelphia, the national political convention season has reached its midpoint this weekend. I thought it would be the perfect time to give readers a booster shot of the political tactics we're likely to encounter from now until the election in November. The tactics were developed by Saul Alinsky, long recognized as the founding father of community organizing, and best articulated in his 1971 book, Rules for Radicals. Alinsky was a native of Chicago, trained at the University of Chicago, and a veteran organizer and political activist in Chicago neighborhoods. Alinsky's name may not be familiar to most Americans but they are certainly aware of Chicago's other successful and internationally famous leftist community organizer. Barack Obama.

We've already had an eight-year tutorial on community organizing tactics coming out of the White House. We shouldn't expect the use of such successful tactics to be confined to left wing politics especially given that we have all the ingredients for a vicious presidential campaign in the coming months. 

My copy

To help readers identify, understand, and appreciate the rules as well as respond to their power to influence American voters, here they are as written with supporting information is in brackets:

1. Power is not only what you have, it's what the enemy thinks you have. [Power is derived from two main sources - money and people.]

2. Never go outside the expertise of your people. [It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone.]

3. Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy. [Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty.]

4. Make the enemy lie up to its own book of rules. [You can kill them with this because nobody can possibly obey all of their own rules.]

5. Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. [There is no defense. It's irrational. It's infuriating.]

6. A good tactic is one your people enjoy.

7. A tactic that drags on too long become a drag. [Don't become old news. Even radical activists get bored.]

8. Keep the pressure on. Never let up. [Attack, attack, attack from all sides, never giving the reeling organization a chance to rest, recover, regroup or re-strategize.]

9. The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself. [Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist.]

10. If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive. [Violence from the other side can become a positive because the public sympathizes with the underdog.]

11. The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. [Never let the enemy score points because you're caught without a solution to the problem. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.]

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, not institutions, people hurt faster than institutions.]


I trust readers will benefit from this information as we face what may well be the most significant national election in our time.

In closing, readers should know that after seven years in Washington in the 1960's I was a lefty radical by 1971.  That's the reason I have a first edition of Alinsky's Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals [1971]. It's been read more than once, a bit yellow here and there, and the dust jacket has a few small tears and scuffs; otherwise, it's in excellent condition. Now I look at the rule book and its players from two quite separate points of view as the tactics have become mainstream in the world of politics. Time and experience has taught me well and I've moved right of center on political and economic issues but liberals young and old will be happy to know that I never once liked Richard Nixon. 

It's Election Time, And Time For A Saul Alinsky Playbook Refresher

My copy

 A few years ago a post appeared in this blog about Chicago's internationally famous leftist community organizer. No, not the one  currently occupying the White House. OTR's subject was Saul Alinsky, the founding father of the modern-day community organization movement. Alinsky died in 1972 shortly after the publication of his most famous work, Rules For Radicals (1971). Though both political parties use these rules, they are particularly alive and well - and well-polished - in the thoughts and actions of Barack Obama. He is after all the other internationally famous leftist community organizer from Chicago, and his coalition is in control of the Democratic Party.

Again, expect both political parties to uses various aspects of these tactics. but expect Obama and his party to release a relentless attack on their opposition as their odds on losing the election increase. You can bet the declining economy will guarantee us a dirty, vicious race on the part of the underdog. To help readers identify, understand, and appreciate the rules as well as respond to their power to influence American voters, here they are as written; supporting information is in brackets:

1. Power is not only what you have, it's what the enemy thinks you have. [Power is derived from two main sources - money and people.]

2. Never go outside the expertise of your people. [It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone.]

3. Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy. [Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty.]

4. Make the enemy lie up to its own book of rules. [You can kill them with this because nobody can possibly obey all of their own rules.]

5. Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. [There is no defense. It's irrational. It's infuriating.]

6. A good tactic is one your people enjoy.

7. A tactic that drags on too long become a drag. [Don't become old news. Even radical activists get bored.]

8. Keep the pressure on. Never let up. [Attack, attack, attack from all sides, never giving the reeling organization a chance to rest, recover, regroup or re-strategize.]

9. The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself. [Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist.]

10. If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive. [Violence from the other side can become a positive because the public sympathizes with the underdog.]

11. The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. [Never let the enemy score points because you're caught without a solution to the problem. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.]

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, not institutions, people hurt faster than institutions.]


In closing, readers should know that OTR was a lefty radical in 1971. Time and experience taught him well as he moved right of center - new liberals will be happy to know that he never once liked Richard Nixon. Now he  looks at the rule book and its players from two quite separate points of view as the tactics have become mainstream in the world of politics. He trusts his readers will benefit from information in this post as they likely face the most significant national election in our time.

Source: Wikipedia

New Target For The White House

Dick Cheney is the new target of the Alinsky Rule 12 tactics being carried out by the White House. They have made their choice, now watch carefully over the next week or so to see how this target is:

1. Frozen
2. Personalized
3. Polarized

Look for points that isolate Cheney from his support network, listen for the usual negative adjectives directed at his person as a means of rallying the leftist fringe, look for ridicule, hyperbole and the redemptive call to take the "high ground" with progressives everywhere. This is scary stuff, my friends. Thanks to Instapundit for the alert.

White House Invokes Alinsky's Rule 12 Against Fox News

The White House has used Rule 12 from Saul Alinsky's community organizer manifesto, Rules For Radicals, to attack Fox News. This is a simple tactic and one they have used repeatedly since the inauguration. In fact, it's getting so easy to recognize, I wonder how much longer it will take the average voter to catch on. The whining only goes so far.

Rule 12 is very simple: "pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." It's a great way to divert attention from unpopular situations and rally the loyalists. Look for Rule 12 to be with us for a long time.

If you care about the fate of your country and don't know this book, you will not be prepared for next year's campaign.

Source: Jim Hoft, now blogging at First Things.

Breitbart On The Bush-By-Proxy Syndrome

As soon as this column by Andrew Brietbart reached an audience - probably sometime early Sunday - it was making news. Bloggers were talking first. It was everywhere on talk radio yesterday and on Fox News during prime time. The column is another fine analysis of how the left uses the tactics developed by Chicago's Saul Alinsky, the "father of community organizing" and how and why those tactics may be turning on Democrats.

If you were tuned into politics in the '90s, you already know about the "politics of personal destruction" as practiced by the Clinton administration. It comes from Rule 12 in Alinsky's Rules for Radicals and was practiced extensively against George Bush. But Bush is out of the picture now and the flailing about for new victims has exposed the leftist strategy for the pure, destructive hatred that it is. Breitbart has hit a nerve.

James Taranto has a nice followup article in today's Opinion Journal.

More On The Cloward-Piven Strategy: Forcing Political Change Through Orchestrated Crisis

I've written before on the Cloward-Piven Strategy and its use by the Obama administration. It is closely related to more than one of Saul Alinksy's rules of organization for mass power put forward in his book, Rules for Radicals. Several administration initiatives - the clunker program, health care, cap and trade - are swirling about us this summer. With that in mind, I feel it's time for another look at Cloward-Piven and its application to political tactics and strategy coming out of the White House. Any parallels there? You bet.

Reprising Saul Alinsky

This year marks the centennial of the birth of the Chicago community organizer, Saul Alinsky. Perhaps you have heard his name in the past year or so in regard to the mentoring of Barack Obama, another Chicago community organizer. Alinksy's name is rarely heard these days, but it wasn't always that way. Beginning in the 1930s, and well into the 1970s, he was the nation's foremost power organizer, almost always associating himself with "progressive" movements. As a radical from the youth rebellion of the 1960s, I have a first edition of Alinsky's Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals (1971). It's been read more than once, a bit yellow here and there, and the dust jacket has a few small tears and scuffs; otherwise, it's in excellent condition. What's inside is excellent, as well, though I never thought I'd be pulling the book from the library in order to educate my readers on the political experience we're living through. In effect, I thought the radical days were behind us. I was wrong because the actions we're seeing from the White House have been taken straight from Saul Alinsky's play book. Obviously, Barack Obama learned his lessons well.

Knowing the rules and understanding them as they are administered by the Obama White House is the first step to countering what seems to be a great leap to the left cloaked in terms of economic rescue. What follows are Alinky's thirteen rules of power tactics, with his elaborations, as they appeared in Rules for Radicals:

Rules of Power Tactics

1. Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have. Power has always derived from two main sources, money and people. Lacking money, the Have-Nots must build power from their own flesh and blood.

2. Never go outside the experience of your people. When an action or tactic is outside the experience of the people, the result is confusion, fear, and retreat. It also means a collapse of communication . . . .

3. Whenever possible go outside of the experience of the enemy. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat.

4. Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules. You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than Christians can live up to Christianity.

5. Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also, it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage.

6. A good tactic is one that your people enjoy. If your people are not having a ball doing it, there is something very wrong with the tactic.

7. A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag. Man can sustain militant interest in any issue for only a limited time, after which it become a ritualistic commitment, like going to church on a Sunday morning.

8. Keep the pressure on, with different tactics and actions, and utilize all events of the period for your purpose.

9. The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.

10. The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition. It is this unceasing pressure that results in the reactions from the opposition that are essential for the success of the campaign.

11. If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counterside; this is based on the principle that every positive has its negative.

12. The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. You cannot risk being trapped by the enemy in his sudden agreement with your demand and saying "You're right - we don't know what to do about this issue. Now you tell us."

13. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. In conflict tactics there are certain rules that the organizer should always regard as universalities. One is that the opposition must be singled out as the target and "frozen." When you "freeze the target," you disregard [arguments of why you have chosen one target and not another] . . .and as you zero in on your target . . . and carry out your attack, all the "others" come out of the woodwork very soon. The other important point in the choosing of a target is that it must be a personification . . . . With this focus comes a polarization. The classic statement on polarization comes from Christ: "He that is not with me is against me" (Luke 11:23).


Perhaps you have heard or read the pundits on the use of Rule 13 in reference to the recent White House attack on Rush Limbaugh, who has himself commented about it. Given time, I think we'll be hearing about more than one or two of the rules because there is powerful and time-tested advice here. Some of it is rather obvious, some a bit fresher, but all of it vital to understanding the administration's tactics as they lurch ever leftward on the road to serfdom.