SK: This was all the strategy of a fellow named Greg Galluzzo, who was very much following Alinsky’s theory of community organizing. He was a mentor to Obama. He was the founder of this radical group, UNO of Chicago. Obama’s own community organization, the Developing Communities Project, was an offshoot of UNO of Chicago. Galluzzo’s idea was: If you could trap a public official into an immediate yes or no answer, you would win either way. If you’re asking this person for money, which is what they usually were doing, if he says “yes,” you get the money. But if he says “no” – a distinct “no” instead of “maybe,” or “let’s look into this” – then you can infuriate the organization.
GB: They become, in their words, “an enemy.” It’s much easier to say, “This is an enemy of the community.” Any opportunity for subtlety or a nuanced answer that went beyond one word, they would do everything that they could to avoid that…because that sort of answer makes it more difficult to agitate over.
SK: That’s right. These tactics were intentionally polarizing. Think about that word, enemy, and what Barack Obama just recently said so controversially to a mostly Hispanic audience about “punishing their enemies.” That was a slip, revealing what Obama had been taught for years. That was not some one-off coincidental word that he happened to be using. Galluzzo’s and Alinsky’s whole idea was that you identify targets or enemies…And what Galluzzo also said was, “Present yourself as a pragmatist. Present yourself as someone who is beyond ideology, but then use polarizing tactics”…When you really know what Galluzzo is all about, you can get the real story on what Obama did back then.
2 thoughts on “The President’s Comment About “Punishing Their Enemies””
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Maybe this is a kind of oversimplification of military history, but the Blitzkreig worked against forces that folded when one broke through their front lines — against forces that formed pockets of resistance, such as American forces in the Battle of the Bulge, not so much. Or maybe it worked until the weather cleared and the fighter-bombers were back in the air when one had lost air superiority a couple years ago. Maybe there is an analogy in that too.
Consider Chris Christie. When you have a “target” willing to stand their ground, the Alinkskreig runs out of steam.
Or consider Scott Walker in Wisconsin. The guy is already standing his ground and he isn’t even inaugurated yet. The first thing he went after is the Milwaukee-Madison train. The local train advocacy group is in full community-organizer mode, handing batches of letters to the (lame duck) legislature, holding rallies, holding their breath.
Yeah, there are some people who will regard him as an “enemy” for rolling back the train (a 810 million dollar “stimulus” project), but he is out there saying he campaigned on stopping the train and he keeps his campaign promises.
Everyone, myself included, thought the train opposition was a campaign tactic, once elected he would scuff is feet and say that his predecessor stuck him with the train and doncha know, the 810 million is already allocated. No, he made sending back this Federal gift front and center of his transition.
I think he is trying to establish “street cred”, that if he is the “enemy” of right-thinking people (mainly in Madison), he is going to be the meanest, toughest baddest political villian who is going to take no stuff from no body.
I am thinking when people know only one tactic, this community organizer bit, you run into situations where people get wise to it.
I hope Scott Walker stands his ground on this boondoggle. Maybe a miracle of political evolution is taking place right before our eyes – Republicans are growing a spine! I’m tired of invertebrate conservatives (AKA RINOS).
I am thinking when people know only one tactic, this community organizer bit, you run into situations where people get wise to it.
Punch back twice as hard and three times as often.