My President Was an Honor Student at Alinsky Academy

"The most significant part of Barack Obama's education was not at Columbia University or Harvard Law School, but the years he spent being trained in the Saul Alinsky system for community organizing and then practicing what he learned." Eagleforum.org

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All practicing leftists have been influenced by Saul Alinsky, author of Rules for Radicals; the essential primer for all good America hating radicals. Written by the great granddaddy of all community organizers, Alinsky's book lays out the tactics to be employed in creating a revolution. When I was growing up in Chicago in the 1960's, these folks were known as "paid agitators", a far more accurate description of what they do. Community organizers were carpet baggers who blew into town for the express purpose of whipping the locals into frenzy over some grievance, real or imagined. This type of "organizing" is not to be compared with legitimate, local grass roots organizations that get together to put pressure on local officials to bring about a change for the better. Alinsky style organizers are not concerned members of the community who pressure city hall into putting in a new stoplight. For the Alinskyite, the actual issue is of no consequence. The organizer doesn't care about the community. The agenda is to gin up a revolt which gives the organizer power. As Alinsky put it: "You want to cause fear, confusion and retreat in the enemy, i.e. the Haves." (Alinsky, Saul D. Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals. Toronto: Random House, 1971. Pg. 127). Remember Hoffer's work on mass movements: the organizer's task is to inject the society with an ailment and then offer the movement as the cure. "Agitate, aggravate, educate, then organize." As is always the case with socialism, Alinsky's programs never succeed. Barack Obama's lack of success as a community organizer is what motivated him to pursue a law degree. By all accounts, Barack Obama was a model Alinsky student; evidently results are not considered in the grading process. In actual practice, the results of Obama's agitating were less than spectacular. He organized the residents of the Altgeld Gardens public housing project to have dangerous asbestos removed. It was a small victory, at best. Workers sealed the asbestos in some units but quickly abandoned the project. Some tenants still have asbestos today. A $500,000.00 initiative for a jobs bank was a flop. Despite a few bright moments, overall, Obama's community organizing was ineffective in bringing any genuine help to the people he claimed to want to represent. Obama had the benefit of receiving his training from disciples who had studied with Alinsky himself; he went on to train hundreds of others in Alinskyism. Barack Obama has said that his Alinsky training was the best education of his life. A former fellow organizer told the New Republic that Obama was the "undisputed master" of agitation. (Freddoso, David. The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media's Favorite Candidate. Washington, DC: Regnery, 2008). What distinguished Alinsky from your run of the mill revolutionary is Alinsky's preference to wreck the system from within the existing order rather than resort to violence; not that violence out of the question, however. Alinsky was a big believer in the end justifying the means. Saul Alinsky also subscribed to a style of ethics that has been described as "very fluid." In other words, there is no right or wrong in any absolute sense. Marxists despise religion, the original source of morality; the Marxist has substituted the state for the church. The future president's mentor didn't believe integrity was an important quality, but creating the illusion of integrity is essential. Just how does one qualify for Alinsky training? Saul had specific traits he wanted to see in his pupils, number one and most important: ego. Alinsky believed the best organizers were the ones driven to play God; who were irreverent; could demonstrate a sense of humor, and had confidence. Eagleforum.org Undeniably, Barry Obama was just the kind of guy Alinsky was looking for. It is astounding that Obama is using the White House to harass private citizens. But Obama surely would have earned a gold star if Saul Alinsky was still with us. L. David Alinsky, son of Saul, submitted a letter to the Boston Globe which was published, extolling the virtues of dad's star pupil. Right after the Democratic National Convention, Alinsky Jr. wrote: "I am proud to see that my father's model for organizing is being applied successfully beyond local community organizing to affect the Democratic campaign in 2008. It is a fine tribute to Saul Alinsky as we approach his 100^th birthday." Boston.com Excerpted from Obamanutz: A Cult Leader Takes the White House, by Joy Tiz, MS, JD. Available July, 2009.