PrintApril 19, 2010
San Francisco Tea Party Out-Alinskys the Left
Although nearly 1,000 people filled San Francisco's Union Square for a Tax Day Tea Party, their voices reverberating off the canyon of skyscrapers, San Francisco's media elite was MIA. No surprise, San Francisco Chronicle blogger Harmon Leon was unable to shed his uber-left bias to do any objective reporting about the 2nd annual Tea Party organized by the Bay Area Patriots, "the original San Francisco Tea Party" group, in his City Brights blog. For example, if Mr. Leon bothered to do real research -- that is, talk to the tea partiers -- he might have learned that conservatives are devouring pocket-sized copies of "Barack Obama's Rules for Revolution: The Alinsky Model" by David Horowitz.
Mr. Leon would have discovered that conservatives are getting dialed in to the philosophy and tactics of Saul Alinsky and the left ... including its usual tricks of deception (tea partiers are racist homophobes), ridicule (Mr. Leon repeatedly called tea partiers "Tea Baggers") and demonization (blah, blah, blah). While it's common knowledge that Barack Obama was a disciple of Alinsky and even taught Alinsky's methods in Chicago, what's not so readily apparent is Alinsky's radicals' end goal: destruction of society from the inside out. Horowitz's book lays out the game plan in simple, concise terms and has become required reading for all conservatives and tea partiers.
Mr. Leon would have discovered that conservatives are getting dialed in to the philosophy and tactics of Saul Alinsky and the left ... including its usual tricks of deception (tea partiers are racist homophobes), ridicule (Mr. Leon repeatedly called tea partiers "Tea Baggers") and demonization (blah, blah, blah). While it's common knowledge that Barack Obama was a disciple of Alinsky and even taught Alinsky's methods in Chicago, what's not so readily apparent is Alinsky's radicals' end goal: destruction of society from the inside out. Horowitz's book lays out the game plan in simple, concise terms and has become required reading for all conservatives and tea partiers.
In addition, if Mr. Leon had used his powers of observation, he would have noticed the creative ways Bay Area Patriots make their political points. For instance, at every Bay Area Patriots event, we do something unique: We invite veterans and immigrants and everyday people to come on stage and speak out, standing on a 6' x 6' piece of Astroturf -- a poke at Nancy Pelosi and David Axelrod's assertion that any opposition to President Obama is somehow artificial, manufactured, or "Astroturf." (Axelrod himself invented Astroturf politics in Chicago, creating political causes and campaigns out of thin air based on manufactured outrage.)
To dramatize the enormity of our debt, the Bay Area Patriots presented a group of young singers against the backdrop of America's Budget Deficettes--a chorus line of top-hatted women holding two-foot-tall cards enumerating $13,000,000,000,000. (Does Congress know there are 12 zeroes in a trillion?) There was a poignant Moment of Being Silenced, when tea partiers stood eerily quiet, their mouths taped shut with a swath of blue tape, vividly demonstrating how this administration and Democrat-controlled Congress has tried to shut up the opposition and shut down dissent. We fleshed out the itinerary with political satirist Eric Golub, an appearance by Melanie Morgan, local candidates, and musical interludes, including a blistering parody of "American Pie," written and led by Bay Area Patriots' founder/organizer Sally Zelikovsky.
For the finale, we used a 70-foot-long foam chain, accompanied by Pink Floyd's "The Wall," to show how big government and radical far-left policies shackle us and limit opportunity, freedom, and prosperity. Even Mr. Leon was flummoxed by the Bay Area Patriots' finale: "Claiming that the government is ‘Big Brother' has always been a liberal thing--that's a staple in our bag of tricks. How dare the right wing take away our beloved government/Big Brother comparison!"
Lastly, we were prepared for the loony left's plants, and used bright pink "Infiltraitor" signs with arrows to smoke out the tea party crashers. Again, in print, Leon admitted we beat the left at its own game: "The Tea Baggers even used the opportunity to squash any attempt at ‘funny' with their counter-counter-protest signs."
From Mr. Leon's comments, it appears the left isn't used to conservatives fighting back. But the Bay Area Patriots who packed Union Square last week proved they could and would protest the administration's far left agenda, and do it peacefully, intelligently, creatively, and with a sense of FUN. And they could and would do it on the left's "home turf" of San Francisco. Get used to it, Mr. Leon: The Tea Party movement is here to stay, whether the left likes it or not.
Misled by a liberal media and Obama's slick, manufactured "Change you can believe in" campaign, even life-long Dems are waking up. The agenda of this regime looks more like "Chains you won't believe."
Conservatives understand this is a historical moment in our country. People who have never been politically engaged are attending protests, forming conservative groups, getting involved in the electoral process, and studying the Constitution. We're also studying the Alinsky tactics of the left, and paying close attention to the radicals' most important weapon, deception. As David Horowitz says in "Rules for the Revolution":
The Founders devised a system of checks and balances to temper the passions of the people and prevent factions from going to war. It is because this is the reality of American democracy that revolutionary warfare, which is not about compromise, must be conducted through deception. Thus the rules for the organizers of revolutions, laid down by Alinsky, are rules for deception.
Instead of deception, conservatives will rely on other tools to win the war. Tools like the Constitution, faith, integrity, and a sense of humor. Game on.
Gini Wolters lives in Marin County and has helped Bay Area Patriots plan several events in Marin and San Francisco, including this year's Tax Day Tea Party at Union Square. She sheepishly admits she was a Democrat for 33 years.
