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August 22, 2009
Saturday Morning with Republicans
It's been a busy couple of weeks. Two picnics, two to town halls, and now a breakfast fundraiser for the RIGOP. So far, this location has been the most difficult to find, a consideration that the party should perhaps take into account in the future; I imagine a significant proportion of its potential base consists of transplants, like me, who might be dissuaded by a local's instructions to "pass where you used to go over the railroad tracks." And it doesn't take many frustrating experiences for people to decide against subsequent participation.
It's a beautiful spot, though, Water St. in East Greenwich. Of course, Rhode Island has many more than its share of those.
10:45 a.m.
My first thought, as this thing wraps up, is that I really wish there were more time in a day. Ken McKay made some interesting and compelling points that would be great to isolate for y'all to absorb discretely, but I simply don't have the time to filter through the hour-plus of video with that sort of specificity.
My second thought is that you really don't realize how much a table and even a whole room shakes until you're trying to hold a camera steady with your elbows on the table. I'll be stopping on the way home to pick up a tripod or some such.
10:51 a.m.
One thing that I just can't leave the room without saying: Much of McKay's talk was encouraging, but he did make a statement along a thread that one picks up from time to time among Republicans: He spoke of his discovery of Saul Alinsky's rulebook and his astonishment at how closely Democrats follow it. That sort of insight is obviously very important to have, but then he suggested an intention to replicate the strategy.
Strenuous moralist that I am, I think that impulse ought to be resisted for ideological and spiritual reasons. It mightn't be a stretch, though, to think that it's best avoided for strategic reasons, in this environment. One lesson of Obama's candidacy was that people want an end to the meet-the-new-boss-just-like-the-old-boss cycle. In his case, that positioning was deceptive in the extreme. Mightn't it form a stronger and more lasting Republican resurgence to effect that change genuinely?
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>>One thing that I just can't leave the room without saying: Much of McKay's talk was encouraging, but he did make a statement along a thread that one picks up from time to time among Republicans: He spoke of his discovery of Saul Alinsky's rulebook and his astonishment at how closely Democrats follow it. That sort of insight is obviously very important to have, but then he suggested an intention to replicate the strategy
I just watched most of the videos that were posted.
On the one hand, it is dismaying that the national GOP has not been aware of Alinsky and the playbook that the Democrats have been using.
GEEZ, I'm just a nobody in RI and I've been aware for years now of the intentionally flying below the radar left-wing cabal being erected in the spirit of Alinsky. The activities and methods and COORDINATION amongst the SEIU, ACORN, Soros, the Midwest Academy and the Tides Foundation (to name a few) have been apparent to anyone paying attention. David Horowitz has been on top of it (and now Glenn Beck is exposing national audiences to this, THANK GOD). Just the presence of SEIU people across several organizations (which is what first caught my attention) was a telltale.
Geez, Hillary wrote her college thesis on Alinsky, and Obama studied his methods (and was trained at Alinsky's Industrial Areas Foundation?) and trained ACORN people. AND THE GOP IS JUST RECOGNIZING THAT THE DEMOCRATS HAVE BEEN FOLLOWING ALINSKY"S PLAYBOOK????
Memo to the RNC: We have the Naval War College in Newport. What is the curriculum there? Not just studying past battles, but also the strategies and techniques and underlying assumptions driving present and potential adversaries. Guess what: there's a war for the very heart and soul of this country - those of us who believe in the letter and spirit of the Constitution and the statists who want to transform this into a "democratic socialist" state.
At a minimum the GOP needs to study their playbook and be ready to counter their tactics, and perhaps in part emulate them in order to neutralize them.
Unfortunately it appears that the RNC is unduly influenced by, if not controlled by the "big tent" RINO faction (which is why I guess we should not be surprised that they are surprised by Alinsky) and so will prove inadequate to the task of stopping the red tide that is the modern Democrat Party.
That is going to fall to the non-party grassroots, such as the Tea Party movement.
Posted by: Tom W at August 22, 2009 10:05 PM