They want to be both virtuous protester and villainous rioter. It’s Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals.
“What in the world is happening in this day?!” is an expected exasperation from average citizens protecting their health while recovering from loss of work and wages. It’s also a justifiable response to George Floyd’s death at the hands of a renegade law-enforcement officer. It’s time mutual respect was not just a talking point but a practice — from everyone.
Unfortunately, some Americans have hijacked civil expression by destroying public as well as private property belonging to neighbors already struggling to reopen post-COVID. Radicals and anarchists have always exploited the grievances of individuals to destroy civil society.
In Rules for Radicals, Saul Alinsky, a leftist author in the ‘60s and ’70s and a mentor of sorts for Democrat leaders like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, taught that an incoming organizer must have a “reason acceptable to the people” to show up on the scene and lead the situation. Alinsky notes, “It’s not enough to persuade them of your competence, talents and courage. … They must also have faith in your courage to fight the oppressive establishment.” Wannabe radicals are taught the essence of community organizing and the mechanics of anarchists: Change the end goal, make terms relative, and never come to a point of resolution. Instead, just keep the chaos stirred by playing on fears, emotions, and anger. Alinsky describes “how to organize for power: how to get it and how to use it.” The basis for his formula is to divide the population into Haves, Have-Nots, Have-a-Littles, and Want-Mores, using personal politics to mobilize citizens.
For Alinsky and other leftists, these Have-Nots and Want-Mores are valuable only because they can be exploited to erode the institutions of a civil and decent society. There are Americans just trying to survive in difficult neighborhoods, fighting for their access to good schools and dealing with predators on their streets who will be deserted by the leftists after they are used for political gain.
“Activists would have us believe the government that brought us slavery, Jim Crow, anti-interracial marriage laws, affirmative action and police brutality is the government that will solve the problem. The government that started a war on poverty to bring us a great society actually managed to keep people in poverty and destroy families. But this time, just you wait, the government is going to fix it.” ~ Erick Erickson
The events of recent days have been orchestrated with the aid of the media to use the death of George Floyd and other blacks who have innocently died in police custody. Yes, there are too many minorities unnecessarily dying in the hands of police custody. No, racism is not dead. But the righteous disgust Americans displayed after the death of George Floyd has been commandeered by well-funded activists who play both roles of the situation — the virtuous protestor and the violent agitator — aptly employing key tactics of Alinsky.
“Pick a target, freeze it, personalize it and polarize it” is the declared method to create an enemy of the Have-Nots and Want-Mores. In 2020, the selected target is law enforcement, but instead of writing off every cop as horrible and meeting every grievance with hatred and destruction, we must examine facts to solve the problems before us. The black community needs access to great schools and higher-education opportunities. Minorities need to continue embracing the value of an intact family providing the best for their children. They need good jobs that reflect dignity and self-reliance. They should own property and pass that property to their children. All families need these things.
Yes, there are horrible cops just as there are horrible people in every part of life. It’s why we have laws, licenses, standards, judges, penalties, and jails. But not every law-enforcement officer is Derek Chauvin, a reckless and brutal killer. Defunding police departments isn’t the answer. Violence and anger are never the answer. Exploiting the poor, the fatherless, and the widow are never the answer. Anarchy is never the answer.
Fellow Americans, we must do better.
Written by Robin Smith for The Patriot Post, June 8, 2020