Marion Griffin: Finding the root of Obama’s success

In 2008 as Barack Obama marched impressively toward the Democratic nomination and victory in the presidential election, many people asked repeatedly, “Who is this guy?”

His opponents warned of his long association with Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers, two men who would have destroyed the political futures of most folks. But like a graceful matador Obama deftly avoided these two “horns,” as “meaningless and unimportant.” The man who should have received attention to understand Obama, his mastery of the electoral process, and his present policies had been in his grave since 1972 when Obama was only 11 years old. His name was Saul Alinsky. Someone familiar with Alinsky’s methods and philosophy would be surprised at neither Obama’s blitzkrieg to success last November nor the destruction he is bringing on the economy now.

Born in Chicago 100 years ago, Alinsky embraced many of Karl Marx’s tactics of successful revolution, among them confrontation and infiltration. He effectively hid the sources of his strategies by never joining the Communist Party.

It is interesting that the other major player in the Democratic presidential race of 2008, Hillary Clinton, was ahead of Obama to become enamored by the socialism of Saul Alinsky.

Her senior thesis at Wellesley in 1969 was based on Alinsky’s writings and methods. She would have joined his organization had she not decided on law school instead.

She either failed to see how Alinsky’s methods could grow a fantastic voting machine or simply was unwilling to do the work of disguised revolution.

Alinsky’s main work, finished only a year or so before his death, was Rules for Radicals, a book he specifically dedicated to Lucifer.

However, Alinsky emphasized that those who would succeed at social and political revolution must call it change rather than revolution and must cover it with a strong and believable veneer of Christian morality.

Although himself a Jew, he realized that all of his community organizers must work under this deception. In short, he knew that the radical socialism he desired could be reached only if it was camouflaged by things that looked ordinary and typically American. He had no respect for the Founding Fathers or American heroes of the past. He admired Marx, Engles and Lenin, the founders of communism.

He also used Marx’s term of “social justice” instead of “revolution” to hide his desire to destroy our free enterprise, capitalistic system that he despised. By the way, he inspired the two Columbia University sociologists, Cloward and Piven, who also were looking for a way to make capitalism fall.

To summarize the “strategy” to which their names are attached, they recommended overloading the welfare rolls and other entitlements and flooding the electoral process, igniting a political and financial crisis that would overwhelm our economy.

Cloward, Piven and Alinsky would have cheered the many politicians of today who have spent taxpayer money to people who could not possibly repay their loans. What a wonderful way to break the banks – and our backs!

Alinsky’s methodology used easily understood ideas. His main method was multiple “People’s Organizations” headed by those who could control and direst the “recruits.”

Some of the other recommendations in Rules for Radicals are:

1. Organize those who dislike the status quo – America’s prosperity being “unequally distributed.”

2. Get as many people who want change involved in the movement for change. This is the cohesive force of social and political revolution.

3. Change must be slow, so it will not bring knee-jerk reactions against it. This is done by infiltration of churches, union, and political parties.

4. Paint Americans (the “Haves”) who resist radical transformation of society and are against the collapse of the free enterprise system as corrupt, larcenous and, above all, unjust.

5. Do whatever is necessary to produce socialism – even lying – the results being worth whatever will do the job.

6. Supremely important is the organizer, the manipulator, who sets the agendas for the meetings of the discontented. Alinsky wrote, “The organizer is in a true sense reaching for the highest level for which man can reach – to create, to be a ‘great creator’, to play God.”

7. Radicalization of the middle class is extremely important, so they will support the “Have-nots”, the truly discontented.

8. Use the “rules” of the “Haves” against themselves. Point out that Christians cannot live up to Christianity.

9. Keep crises alive and take advantage of each one that can be found.

10. Worthy goals like civil rights, protecting people against asbestos, or improving some part of the environment must in each case be solved by government expenditures.

During 2007 and 2008 Obama organized all over the country. He had a very close association with ACORN, SEIU, who also had mammoth outreaches to voters, especially previous non-voters and anyone disinterested in the investigation of important issues.

My friends, America must never experience the “radical transformation” envisioned by Alinsky, Ayers, Wright and Obama. To do so we must stop all the spending. We may have to repeal all the spending bills being passed by this Congress by voting out all the big spenders next year. The superiority of capitalism over socialism has passed the test of history.

Socialism right now is devastating the economy of Great Britain. For years America has provided an opportunity for everyone to move up. It is insane to advocate a redistribution of wealth which results in a whole nation moving down. I like the idea of everyone moving up. What do you think?



Marion Griffin lives in Asheboro. His columns appear regularly in The Randolph Guide.

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