Alinsky and the Democrats

The Democrats are winning the war of words. They claim that congress, and specifically the Senate, will be irreparably damaged if Republicans are allowed to exercise their majority. And the electorate is buying it and the MSM is selling it. For example the Democrats don't need a plan to reform Social Security when they can rely on the New York Times et al. to mold public opinion against Bush's proposed reform.

Unfortunately most of the electorate relies on sound bytes to form their opinions; and the Democrats are purveyors of spin par excellence, tell a lie often enough and it becomes the truth for the ill informed.

Saul Alinsky, a leftist radical and Hillary Clinton's one time mentor, wrote a blueprint for current Democrat tactics in his book Rules for Radicals. Diane Alden writes an intuitive treatise citing the relationship between Alinsky's book and the DNC.

Alinsky had a true genius for formulating tactical battle plans for the radical left...The transition of the old Democratic Party to what exists today should not surprise or confound conservatives. Nor should Alinsky's tactics seem foreign. After all, for nearly 40 years, Republicans and the conservative agenda have been getting hammered by the left through the successful use of Alinsky tactics.

In that cause, radicals and the liberal-left gravitated toward the print and electronic media, toward the university professorate and the law. The left, consciously or unconsciously, adopted Alinsky's rules. The impact changed the nature of the Democratic Party and the direction of the United States. Increasingly, the left is succeeding in changing the nature of the Republican Party as well.

Suffice to say the greatest change has taken place in the relationship between the state and the individual. America is rapidly descending from a representative Constitutional Republic to a collectivist empire controlled by elites of one sort or another.

Diane Alden is a graduate of the University of Minnesota with degrees in political science, economics and history. Dubbed the "prairie pontificator," she also has grad work in international economics and international political movements. See her full bio