NRO's The Corner: Rolling Bile, Spit, and Gnash Thread

Love this guy. Obama drinks beer? Of course – Alinksyites don't drink beer. Obama hates asparagus. Naturally – Alinskyites think eating meat is radical.

Obama: Still the Alinksyite

August 3, 2011 1:16 P.M.
By Stanley Kurtz

Here’s my take on the puzzle of Obama’s leadership style. Obama is still every inch the Alinskyite organizer. He talks about uniting, even as he deliberately polarizes. He moves incrementally toward radical left goals, but never owns up to his ideology. Instead, he tries to work indirectly, by way of the constituencies he seeks to manipulate.

“Leading from behind” is classic Alinskyite strategy. The idea is for the organizer to find out what the people he’s organizing want, give them enough of that to gain authority and control, then slowly and quietly push the group in his ideological direction, all the while making it seem as though the plan is what the people themselves have asked for. Obama used to literally lead from behind, by stage-managing his group’s protests from the back of the room, while the ostensible leaders took charge on stage. That is what Alinskyite organizers do.

Alinskyite organizers are tough when facing down the “enemy” (their word), but subtle, stealthy, and incremental when dealing with the members of their own group. Above all, they are never openly ideological. Everything is portrayed as pragmatism.

The trouble with Obama’s Alinskyite leadership style is that he’s trying to adapt it to the presidency, a role it was never designed for. When he tries classic Alinskyite polarization, he’s treating people he’s supposed to be leading as his enemies. When he tries to bring about leftist results under the guise of a neutral pragmatism, he disappoints his base, which desperately wants him to turn his eloquence to the task of persuading the country of their principles.

Obama is a bad negotiator because Alinskyite’s don’t negotiate, they intentionally polarize. As for their own groups, here they try to placate all factions and hide their own goals. That about describes Obama’s performance on the debt deal, which included a dollop of both of these stances.

forget about blogging and publishing books - Kurtz should handwrite this stuff on placards and work the street corners if he wants to reach his real audience

i think how difficult it is to repeatedly focus on + read the word 'alinskyite' is testament to how unsuitable it is to shape some dumbass hypothesis around it

http://www.nationalreview.com/exchequer/273486/back-envelope-balanced-budget

what a delightful thought experiment

I love how he offers reasons for most, but then just says "cut food stamps" with no reason offered. It's just a given for their readers unlike getting rid of the mortgage tax deduction which he offers his quick explanation for .

I love how he offers reasons for most, but then just says "cut food stamps" with no reason offered. It's just a given for their readers unlike getting rid of the mortgage tax deduction which he offers his quick explanation for .

I love how he offers reasons for most, but then just says "cut food stamps" with no reason offered. It's just a given for their readers unlike getting rid of the mortgage tax deduction which he offers his quick explanation for .

I love how he offers reasons for most, but then just says "cut food stamps" with no reason offered. It's just a given for their readers unlike getting rid of the mortgage tax deduction which he offers his quick explanation for .

dude we get it

lol

kathrynlopez Kathryn Jean Lopez by pareene

word spellcheck wants "sharia" to be "sharpie"

Reminds me of that Gene Hackman moment in The Birdcage: "In the fourth paragraph, that's 'pronto,' not 'porno.'"

x-post - my wardrobe (or computer) malfunction

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/273853/enter-iron-lady-peter-robinson#

dude gross

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/274070/let-britain-burn-john-derbyshire

Fred
08/09/11 12:04
Link
"...Because it is the government of a modern Western nation, sunk like the rest of us in trembling, whimpering guilt over class and race..."

Speak for yourself when it comes to being sunk in trembling whimpering guilt.

My advice would be to get out of the Northeast and spend a little more time listening to Rush Limbaugh.

loooove Derbyshire

"sick, weak, deracinated moral universalism — the rotten fruit of a debased, sentimentalized Christianity"

he is onto something here

If Britain had more Derbyshires and fewer rioting socialist thugs, Britian would be much better off, morally, financially, and politically.

guys, Robinson's Thatcher porn thing is hilarious! I especially love how Peter Robinson can barely contain his lust. "The stage was set for the arrival of the Iron Lady."

Seriously do liberals slobber over their icons like NRO guys do? "The plank was lowered and set, awaiting FDR's wheelchair."

oh i just read the title literally

let-britain-burn-john-derbyshire

*agrees*

oh lord, this man

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/274103/paralytic-western-society-victor-davis-hanson

I wondered where VDH was. Socialists, poor people, Iron Lady, decline, empire – this stuff is Viagra to him.

and the degenerate rap music! if the riots gave him an opportunity to mention Nicholson Baker's Bush-assassination novel too VDH would be ecstatically shouting names from classical antiquity already

hahaha

It doesn't hurt their numbers or their cause that there is now a new periodical published in Vancouver, BC, Canada that encourages this brute violence on our streets. I found it in Barnes & Noble, and I was actually stunned to look at it. It's called ADBUSTERS.

Add the proverbial suffix preceded by a period, and see for yourself what they advocate.

wait what

"the proverbial suffix"?

what is the proverbial suffix?

he means ".com"

I have no idea why he called it "the proverbial suffix" unless he was short on word count

It's what you get from proverbial illiteracy.

adbusters.com goes to privacy.net so i still dgi

so maybe he means ".org"? basically he is cryptically describing their URL

tbh i think vdh and adbusters might agree on a lot of stuff

don't worry guys, i'm getting to the bottom of this proverbial suffix stuff.

Mordy, don't you have pull?

i'm pulling!

I found it in Barnes & Noble, and I was actually stunned to look at it. It's called ADBUSTERS

http://theotherdayatportrait.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/fainting_woman.jpg

actual lol brownie, ty

now a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodicalnow a new periodical

it all fits together don't you see

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/274074/la-riots-blast-obamas-past-stanley-kurtz

otm:

[Approved commenter] Ostap

08/09/11 11:04

You forgot to plug your book.

is that a euphemism for "shut your trap"?

I was going to lol at an excerpt from that but I made the mistake of reading the comments; the dude talking about Rodney King basically makes me fear for my life.

that's no exaggeration, dan. i read those comments chuckling at kurtz getting his comeuppance until that rodney king rant. sickening. moderating would be too moderate, i guess.

Fantastic discussion going on as I type between Andy McCarthy and Stanley Kurtz about the degree to which Obama's Alinskyite past prepared him for street protests and looting.

this is not surprising at all but worth noting

john derbyshire likes enoch powell!

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/274226/epitaph-britain-john-derbyshire

otm:

Che in Our Faces

By Jay Nordlinger

For many years now, I’ve been a Che Guevara bore — and I’m not getting any less boring.

I would give Jay so many points if that was the entirety of his message

i straight up trolled this thread a couple minutes ago, and the responses are already something to treasure

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/274338/todays-questions-president-peter-kirsanow