Colonel Paul Linebarger's Psychological Warfare may well be the most authoritative publication on this subject.  It includes the recurring common sense theme that the best way to defeat an organization is to prove to an organization's followers that their leaders are serving themselves at the followers' expense.  The instant you can prove to the followers that their leaders have been less than honest with them, it is all over for that organization.  

This article will show how the principle works and then apply it to Barack Obama's Organizing For America (OFA).

The anti-Second Amendment Million Mom March claimed in 2000 to be an educational nonprofit group whose purpose was to "promote gun safety"." It even had 501(c)(3) tax exempt status for this purpose, along with the support of numerous members of Congress such as Carl Levin, Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Mikulski, Carolyn McCarthy, and Jerrold Nadler along with Hillary Clinton and Tipper Gore.

Then we provided columnist J.R. Labbe proof that the MMM was touting House candidates on its Apple Pie Award page while denouncing another on its Time Out page. Her column of May 10 2000 said in part:

The Million Mom March is violating federal law.

At least that's the view from here. Hardly a soul can question the organization's political nature. Just check out its Web site, with the "Time Out Chair," which threatens to unseat politicians who don't vote the way MMM wants

...MMM has every right to champion politicians who support its cause and torment those who don't. It can even lobby Congress for more gun control. But not as a nonprofit organization that receives preferential tax-exempt status.

This simple statement was the end of the world for the Million Mom March, which exhibited visibly panicked damage control efforts in the ensuing weeks and soon became incapable of functioning effectively.  We went even further by revealing on the Internet how the MMM solicited donations under additional false pretenses, specifically the "fact" that handgun violence kills 12 or 13 children a day.  This is true only if one includes "children" who are old enough to vote, sign contracts, marry, and enlist in the Armed Forces without parental consent.

Today's Million Mom March is an entirely different corporate entity because the one we dealt with in 2000 liquidated in 2001.  In other words, it was actually destroyed as an organization as was our objective. The key lesson is that this was achieved not through a debate over gun control (and the group had a no-debate policy) but rather by proving to the followers that the leaders were not trustworthy, and we will now apply the same principle to Organizing for America (OFA).

We recently received an E-mail from OFA finance director Rufus Gifford that contains a blatantly false statement that can similarly be used to separate Barack Obama from his own rank and file:

From the beginning, we've refused to take money from D.C. lobbyists and corporate special interests.  Our operation is fueled by people inspiring each other to take ownership of this campaign.

This is an easily disprovable statement, which underscores the contempt in which Mr. Obama and his cohorts hold their base; they will not even do their rank and file the courtesy of prevaricating intelligently.  The $1.7 million in bundled contributions from corporate special interests Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Chase deserve particular attention because Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) named these firms as explicit beneficiaries of Mr. Obama's cap and trade agenda.

An infrastructure is already beginning to form, as entities like the New York Stock Exchange, J.P. Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and the new Green Exchange are developing carbon trading platforms or expanding their environmental trading desks.

A download of the complete CSV file from OpenSecrets.org is even more instructive. Significant bundled contributions include the following prospective beneficiaries of cap and trade legislation or similar so-called climate legislation. Figures are rounded to the nearest thousand dollars.

• General Electric, $458K
• Lehman Brothers, $429K
• Exelon Corporation, $314K

The issue here is not bundled contributions that most candidates from both parties accept, but the outright falsehood about them that OFA told prospective donors.  This proven lie may not be enough to get the left wing of the Democratic Party to vote Republican, but it is enough if numbers of them stay home or abstain on the Presidential line in disgust.

The proposition that 2012 is the end of the world for not only the Mayans but also the Obama wing of the Democratic Party is reinforced further by Mr. Gifford's E-mail: "If you're able to, will you chip in just $3 today?" Politico adds a similar appeal from Mrs. Obama: "Will you donate $3 or more today and be entered to have dinner with Barack?"

The suggested donation to enter the "Dinner with Barack" promotion was previously $5, although the campaign added a small print disclaimer that no purchase or payment is necessary to enter after Minnesota law enforcement proclaimed the original version an illegal Internet gambling operation.  The drop in the suggested donation is very informative to those who know how to "read" an opposing organization from a psychological warfare perspective.  It tells us that Democrats are walking away from Obama in droves because they realize he is not on the side of the working American who will have to pay more for energy and everything related to energy (like food) under cap and trade.  Obama's real constituents are special interest climate profiteers who can donate real money (as in multiples of Grover Cleveland and not George Washington) to his campaign.

Republicans are not the only ones who should sense blood in the water, though.  Democrats should realize by this time that the only way Obama might still be reelected would be for the Republican candidate to pose arm in arm with a Ku Klux Klansman in full sheet and hood regalia.  Even then it would merely be six bigots of one and half a dozen of the other, noting that Mr. Obama has posed on more than one occasion with the prominent racist and anti-Semite Al Sharpton and also attended a racist church for twenty years.  This is a perfect opportunity for somebody like Second Amendment supporter and cap and trade opponent Joe Manchin (D-WV) to step in to take Mr. Obama's job from him in the Democratic primary.

William A. Levinson, P.E. is the author of several books on business management including content on organizational psychology, as well as manufacturing productivity and quality.