The Triumph of Saul Alinsky

The outcome of this election no longer is in doubt. Obama will win a landslide, and he will have a Democratic Congress that will have numbers akin to what LBJ had in 1965 when he pushed through the Great Society programs.

What we forget is that the real brainchild of this election was the Marxist Saul Alinsky, whose Rules for Radicals still is the Bible of community organizing. Obama’s triumph in November will signal the absolute strength of Alinsky-style organizations, and especially ACORN, the organization that launched his political career.

First, ACORN will make sure that Obama receives an overwhelming number votes in all the inner cities — and those are just the legal votes that he will receive. Obama also will be the beneficiary of many phantom votes just as Al Gore was in 2000, especially in the swing states.Second, the philosophy of ACORN is to destroy private enterprise or at least to make it so subservient of a radical government that it no longer has any independence. We have seen the power of ACORN in making sure that banks obeyed the Community Reinvestment Act to what has turned out to be destructive levels.

Third, even though ACORN is a tax-exempt organization, it clearly is a player in partisan politics. While this is illegal, ACORN has received special privileges and will continue to do so. Like any other organization that has political power, it will seek to destroy competitors, and that will mean organizations like churches (that are not left-wing), private schools, homeschooling organizations, and other charities.

Furthermore, ACORN will do it with the full power of the state behind it. I have come to realize that we are about to enter an age in which the government will be openly hostile to private capital and especially to profit-seeking entrepreneurship. The effects will be devastating over time, and because the Republicans have been so destructive while they governed, the Democrats — and ACORN — will have no political rivals of which to speak.

We libertarians are going to have to re-think how we approach things. Do not kid yourselves; we are going to come under fire for our opposition to the state. The Left has tolerated us because we have aimed much of our firepower at the Republicans and Bush, but as that age is about to end, so will end the benevolent attitudes of the Left. We are about to become the Enemies of the People again.

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8:18 am on October 3, 2008