Alinsky and Cloward and Piven. Oh My!
One of the curious things that I have found in my brushes with birthers and their friends, is an interest in old liberal writings that I had never heard of. Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals is one. Another is the “Cloward–Piven strategy.”
The Cloward–Piven strategy was presented by sociologists and activists Robert Cloward and Frances Fox Piven in 1966 in an article in The Nation, “The Weight of the Poor: A Strategy to End Poverty.” Their strategy was aimed at creating a “guaranteed national income” to replace the welfare system, and this goal was to be attained by overwhelming the existing welfare system through enrollment of everyone who was eligible (they claimed the number of recipients would double). The strategy envisioned the creation of a crisis, particularly in the Democratic Party which was in control of Congress and the presidency at that time by shaking up the coalitions that presently constituted the Party. The action they advocated to make it happen was: “…a massive drive to recruit the poor onto the welfare rolls.”
So from time to time I have seen right-wingers mention Cloward-Piven, and I think I looked it up once and shrugged my shoulders. It’s back again at a little higher level, this time from politician Wayne Allyn Root. Root was been campaigning in Mississippi on behalf of Tea Party Senate candidate Chris McDaniel (who lost in a runoff with Thad Cochran – possible challenge being explored). Mother Jones magazine had extensive coverage of Root’s stump speech. In it, Root says that he and every student at Columbia in 1983 studied Cloward-Piven. Root said he knows this because:
Because I’m Barack Obama’s college classmate, Columbia University class of ’83. And when I was there at Columbia, we all studied a plan called Cloward–Piven
This point is somewhat blunted by Root’s later suggestion that Obama didn’t actually attend Columbia since no one remembers him (not actually true).
Returning to Cloward-Piven, Root characterizes the plan as one to “wipe out America” and to:
… get someone elected president, who looks fantastic, who has a beautiful wife, a beautiful children. A family man. Get him to cut his afro or his long hair, his ponytail. Put on a suit, and then lie to everybody.
There’s nothing like that in Cloward and Piven’s article.
This article inaugurates a new conspiracy category on the blog, “Manchurian Candidate.”
Read more:
Watch the video:
So Mr. Root went to Columbia! Great! Now we can see a reference for all those missing documents! Let’s see the documents for Root so that we can know specifically which of Obama’s documents are hidden away.
It is a tossup as to which is more inane, the “Cloward-Piven” meme or the “Alinsky tactics” meme. Birthers seem to cry “Alinsky tactics” whenever someone makes fun of them (as if the only rule in Alinsky’s book was the one about ridicule) and then attempt to use the tactic against their belittlers. It is a stupid as if we tried to fight the “war on terror” by using terrorism.
Root was spouting his nonsense on David Pakman’s show yesterday; I highly recommend Pakman’s show, as he also occasionally interviews Taitz, Klingenschmitt and various other nutters, and doesn’t let them get away unchallenged.
A little known fact: Saul Alinsky invented and got a patent on ridicule.
Never heard of either one until they began appearing in birther rants.
How about a super conspiracy! “Rules for Radicals” was written by Cloward-Piven! Ermahgerd!!!!
With a foreword by Bill Ayers.
… being ravished by Frank Marshal Davis.
Isn’t calling Root a politician a bit above his paygrade? I don’t remember him ever being elected to anything. Now useless wannabe I could go for. As near as I can determine Root has never had more than a tenuous acquaintance with reality, and it becomes more apparent as time goes by. Funny how the guy he claims he can’t remember out of how many thousand at Columbia and who he swears up and down wasn’t there ended up being a lawyer, a law professor, a senator, and oh yeah President, and he did what with his life, oh right, carps and complains about how awful things are and campaigns for loser candidates.
It’s another brilliant attempt by a birther bigot to be a complete, self-absorbed and self-righteous jackass.
Wayne Allan Root a liar?
Is that really news?
I got it out of the Wikipedia.
So everyone who goes to a lie-barrel college is forced to study a not-so-secret plan to destroy ‘Murica.
Nope, no class warfare pandering in that statement.
In the movie, the “Manchurian Candidate” was the vice presidential candidate, no? So if we have such a scenario playing out here, wouldn’t the Manchurian candidate be Joe Biden? And wouldn’t the brainwashed assassin’s target be President Obama?
Obviously, birthers have been brainwashed by some evil forces who want Obama to be assassinated so they can take over the USA by becoming Joe “get yourself a shotgun” Biden’s puppet masters.
The signs of brainwashing are all there (I got these from Dr. Phil, so they must be right): the extreme obsessiveness, the dependence on a group leader for problem solving without meaningful independent thought, dramatic loss of spontaneity and sense of humor (have you seen their attempts at humor at BR?), and isolation from family and friends.
Yep, that’s it. Mystery solved. The only thing left is to figure out which birther is the assassin (my guess: Falcon), and what the trigger is (my guess: Playgirl magazine).
I am proud as punch to admit that the Barr-Root Libertarian ticket in ’08 was one of the few times I didn’t vote for the Libertarian Pres-VP ticket since the early 90s. Barr turned my stomach and Root made me lose what was left in it. Things have not changed.
Yeesh.
Has Root ever made an honest dollar in his life?
Well, one birfer recently came up with a solution to that dilemma, by replying:
Which, I guess, entail encouraging government officials to go on welfare by telling them they look ridiculous in a 3-piece suit….
Some days, watching birfers is like watching an old National Geographic special, featuring cargo cults, and barefoot primitives who use magic incantations to ward off river demons.
You mean giving out both sides of a Football game to your betting customers isn’t “honest”?
Birthers are crying voter fraud in the loss of McDaniel. Orly Taitz has several articles, including something from Brian Fedorka.
IMO, there is a potential legitimate issue with people voting in the Democratic primary and then the Republican runoff. However, the issue of new voters deciding to particpate in the runoff is complete BS. The law used to challenge them has not only been ruled unenforceable, but would also lead to numerous McDaniel voters being accused of fraud as well, perhaps including McDaniel himself (who would not commit to supporting Cochran if he won the primary as the law in question requires)
Yeah. they are claiming that there ate 800 voters which voted in both the Dem and the Rep primaries, which is illegal. I dont think that is enough to overturn the result, nor do we know for whom they voted for (Finding they voted for McDaniels would be pretty funny) But it might be enough for a Legal challenge. We will have to see
Of course, this is ignoring the IOIYAR issue of Operation Chaos, where Rush Limpmaw told his ditto heads to vote for Hillary in open primaries.to keep the destructive Dem Primary going back in 2008.
I received this from a friend who got it from his son in Mississippi:
Ironically, the long Democratic primary process turned out to be a good thing for President Obama. He was able to build a campaign infrastructure in nearly every state, and then maintain it through the general election.
John McCain, who clinched the nomination by February, had to start building a state-by state campaign infrastructure starting in June. He never did catch up.
Klingenschmitt will be the Republican candidate for the state House seat from my area. I didn’t/won’t/wouldn’t vote for him, and am dismayed about his win in the primary last week.
The previous House member wouldn’t endorse anyone – Klingenschmitt is too nutty to support. The state GOP denounced Klingenschmitt today.
It is wonderful living in such a beautiful area of the country. Sad that many of the nuts here aren’t the kind that grow on trees.