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Conservatives' Favorite New Intellectual

Puppycow

Penultimate Amazing
Puppycow
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Jan 9, 2003
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Not exactly new, but newly popular among conservatives.

Has anyone else noticed this recent trend among conservatives promoting radical leftist Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals to fellow conservatives?

One example:
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/34417_Creationists_Given_Academic_Credit_for_Trolling


Search Google News for Alinsky or Rules for Radicals.

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/08/conservatives_learn_the_rules_for_radicals.php

http://washingtonindependent.com/54554/conservatives-find-town-hall-strategy-in-leftist-text
 
It is old news, but I noticed the meme propigating during the primaries in '08 and being applied to anyone who they considered "Leftist". Mhaze has brought RfR up numerous times in the AGW threads and not only had most of the folks he was accusing had not read it, but they hadn't even heard of Alinsky.
 
UnrepentantSinner said:
It is old news, but I noticed the meme propigating during the primaries in '08 and being applied to anyone who they considered "Leftist". Mhaze has brought RfR up numerous times in the AGW threads and not only had most of the folks he was accusing had not read it, but they hadn't even heard of Alinsky.
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This is different, not smearing liberals with the idea that if they use his tactics then they embrace his ends but using Alinsky's tactics in support of Conservative ends.

The three articles are very interesting.
 
gtc said:
This is different, not smearing liberals with the idea that if they use his tactics then they embrace his ends but using Alinsky's tactics in support of Conservative ends.

The three articles are very interesting.
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Right. Last year he was basically a bogeyman for conservatives. Now he's the model for their new conservative activism.
 
gtc said:
This is different, not smearing liberals with the idea that if they use his tactics then they embrace his ends but using Alinsky's tactics in support of Conservative ends.

The three articles are very interesting.
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Oooo! That is an interesting twist. I have to read the articles when I get home.
 
I've never heard the words "conservative" and "intellectual" in the same sentence before...




.....seriously though, I thought this was going to be about Jonathan Krohn
 
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Puppycow said:
Right. Last year he was basically a bogeyman for conservatives. Now he's the model for their new conservative activism.
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Right, and liberals aren't allowed to complain, because Hillary Clinton wrote a paper about him umpty years ago. Brilliant.
 
maxpower1227 said:
I've never heard the words "conservative" and "intellectual" in the same sentence before...
.....seriously though, I thought this was going to be about Jonathan Krohn
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Educate yourself:
William F Buckley
Edmund Burke

for starters.
 
linusrichard said:
Right, and liberals aren't allowed to complain, because Hillary Clinton wrote a paper about him umpty years ago. Brilliant.
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The second link talks about the impact of his writings on Obama too.

I remember reading about how the Republicans mastered direct marketing based on the widespread deployment of computers in the 1980s at the expense of the Democrats. I don't know how true that was but it sounds like maybe the Democrats have a lead in this new technique.
 
Every political party after suffering a stinging defeat will cast about for reasons for that defeat and ways to avoid it again in the future. They will find especially appealing the notion that what they have to do is adopt the opposition's tactics (but not their positions). Remember how the liberals after 2004 embraced Lakoff's book about "framing" the issues properly? Why did they endorse his book? Because it offered them all gain, no pain.

I suspect that the same thing is happening here; an effort to avoid making painful decisions about which parts of conservative dogma are hurting the GOP at the polls (hint: stem cells), in favor of the notion that all they have to do is adopt the tactics used by the Democrats.
 
Brainster said:
Every political party after suffering a stinging defeat will cast about for reasons for that defeat and ways to avoid it again in the future. They will find especially appealing the notion that what they have to do is adopt the opposition's tactics (but not their positions). Remember how the liberals after 2004 embraced Lakoff's book about "framing" the issues properly? Why did they endorse his book? Because it offered them all gain, no pain.

I suspect that the same thing is happening here; an effort to avoid making painful decisions about which parts of conservative dogma are hurting the GOP at the polls (hint: stem cells), in favor of the notion that all they have to do is adopt the tactics used by the Democrats.
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In a nutshell: the old "form over substance" policy.
 
Brainster said:
I suspect that the same thing is happening here; an effort to avoid making painful decisions about which parts of conservative dogma are hurting the GOP at the polls (hint: stem cells) ...
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Data?

Stem cells? Really? Even I'd put that way down my list of things to bitch about. Do the polls say that that's what's hurting them at the polls?
 
Dr Adequate said:
Data?

Stem cells? Really? Even I'd put that way down my list of things to bitch about. Do the polls say that that's what's hurting them at the polls?
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I'm not saying it's the only issue where the GOP is out of touch with the mainstream, but it's a major one, and it plays into the perception that the GOP is anti-science, anti-progress.

In searching through polls this morning to try to find out whether embryonic research is, as many suggest, widely popular among the American public, it seems this Gallup study provides the best long view of how public opinion on the research has changed. Gallup reports that, between 2002 and 2007, more and more people found embryonic stem cell research "morally acceptable," while fewer found it "morally wrong." The divergence went from 52/39 (in favor of embryonic research's morality) to 64/30. Gallup's graph and more polls after the jump.
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Brainster said:
I'm not saying it's the only issue where the GOP is out of touch with the mainstream, but it's a major one ...
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Hmph. That's not what I asked.

The issue is, not just who thinks what, but how much does anyone care? If the GOP reversed its position on this, how much would that swing the vote? It isn't a "major issue" just because a lot of people favor the "liberal" point of view, it would only be a major issue if a lot of people had it high on their lists of reasons why they should vote one way or the other.

This is way off topic, and now I think about it I don't want to advise Republicans on how to win elections.
 
Darth Rotor said:
Educate yourself:
William F Buckley
Edmund Burke

for starters.
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It was a facetious cheap shot, not meant to be completely serious. I'm familiar with Buckley, and do consider him to be worthwhile (of course, I say the same about George Will, but have recently been disappointed to find out that he propagates climate change denialism).
 
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