Nothing to see here, Just Obama’s Buddy Michael Moore Using the Alinsky-Rules

posted at 2:33 pm on September 29, 2009 by Michael van der Galien
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Politico reports that leftist documentary filmmaker Michael Moore has warned Blue Dog Democrats not to oppose President Obama’s health care plan. “To the Democrats in Congress who don’t quite get it: I want to offer a personal pledge. I – and a lot of other people – have every intention of removing you from Congress in the next election if you stand in the way of health care legislation that the people want,” Moore said.

“That is not a hollow or idle threat. We will come to your district and we will work against you, first in the primary and, if we have to, in the general election.”

He singled out Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and an opponent of the so-called public option:

“You’ve made a serious mistake,” he warned Baucus.

Moore also called out Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), who supports the public option, but whose role in financial regulation as chairman of the Senate banking committee comes in for criticism in “Capitalism.” Speaking to Public Citizen, Moore said, “we’re going to lose this seat unless we run another Democrat” and said he’d “already received a phone call from a well known Democrat to tell me to back off Sen. Dodd.”

It’s typical Moore, typical leftist, typical Democrat and, dare I say, typical Alinsky. Here’s rule number nine of Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals:

“The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.” Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist. (Perception is reality. Large organizations always prepare a worst-case scenario, something that may be furthest from the activists’ minds. The upshot is that the organization will expend enormous time and energy, creating in its own collective mind the direst of conclusions. The possibilities can easily poison the mind and result in demoralization.)

It seems to me that there’s also a bit of rule eight in there (“work against you, first in the primary then in the general” – in other words, constantly and from all sides):

“Keep the pressure on. Never let up.” Keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, hit them from the flank with something new. (Attack, attack, attack from all sides, never giving the reeling organization a chance to rest, regroup, recover and re-strategize.)

And, of course, rule number one, the appearance of power:

RULE 1: “Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.” Power is derived from 2 main sources – money and people. “Have-Nots” must build power from flesh and blood. (These are two things of which there is a plentiful supply. Government and corporations always have a difficult time appealing to people, and usually do so almost exclusively with economic arguments.)

Michael Moore: Just another friend of Obama using Alinsky’s tactics against all those who dare disagree with the far-left’s radical agenda for America.

Also read this post. Money-quote:

Geist and Hazlett forgot to mention that while Moore may blame “the rich” for all of society’s ills, he is actually a multi-millionaire himself. Yes, he dresses like a hobo, but Moore became extraordinarily rich by “picking the target [i.e. 'the rich,' conservatives, etc.], freezing it, personalizing it, and polarizing it” — precisely in the manner outlined by the famed radical “community organizer” Saul Alinsky.

The documentary filmmaker may publicly advocate abolishing the capitalist system and replacing it with “democracy,” as Hazlett says, but without capitalism he would have been a nobody living in a tent, rather than an immensely wealthy individual residing in a big, comfortable house.

Exit question: He’s an Alinsky-ite and a hypocrite – does that make him the average lefty?

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