The Liberal Mind - Go See for Yourself

George Rebane

The validation of the far left’s violent rage and call for revolution that we have seen with the advent of Wisconsin’s public employee labor unions (PELUs) is everywhere you look today.  While attacking by name those who don’t agree with their ideas about America or its future, these progressives cum communists take what they themselves do and, with great effect, turn it 180 on the conservatives.  I have labeled this response the (Saul) Alinsky Alternative, since it is one of the main tactics he teaches his hard left acolytes in Rules for Radicals.  It is among the progressives’ best practices rejoinder when they can’t handle the public debate on the issue itself.

(The only accurate response that I have seen at the demonstrations in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio is that Governor Scott Walker’s bill, now signed into law, is “an assault on the unions”.  Belated and focused too narrowly on the PELUs, I would fully agree that it is.  The socialists consider such an assault charge to be their penultimate charge that points to the evils of free market capitalists, even if in this case their actual target is the American taxpayer.  The rest of us should consider it to be a wake-up call from Wisconsin.)

Today the Alinsky Alternative is applied at all levels of the right-left debate that Obama’s presidency has brought into the forefront and focus across the land.  Locally here in Nevada County we have our very own version of the debate to which I have done my best to contribute in these pages, on the air, and in our newspaper.  The latest local attack from the far left is now focusing on the Nevada County Tea Party Patriots of which I am a member.  It is instructive to study the intellectual depth of their view of the overall tea party movement and, especially, that of our own NCTPP.

I don’t want to repeat here the evidence that is readily available on other local blogs, but I do recommend that you visit the recent posts by Russ Steele (NC Media Watch) and Todd Juvinall (Sierra Dragon’s Breath) about ‘The Black Man: Progressives’ Trojan Horse’ posted on the NCTPP website.  As you will witness, in their own forums the left’s response to this and my recent pieces on ‘community partnership banking’ (here and here) are simply iconic.

Comments

[Greg Goodknight]

George, I think it's more Schopenhauer than Alinsky.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/207459/38-Ways-To-Win-An-Argument

Jeffie usually just goes for #38, the lazy man's way:"Become personal, insulting and rude as soon as you perceive that your opponent has the upper hand. In becoming personal you leave the subject altogether, and turn your attack on the person by remarks of an offensive and spiteful character. This is a very popular technique, because it takes so little skill to put it into effect."

This time it's #35: "Instead of working on an opponent's intellect or the rigor of his arguments, work on his motive"

As Jeff was a "Rhetoric" major, I expect this was in his Bullpucky 101 required course.

[Todd Juvinall]

Good synopsis George. Pelline is a journalistic lazy butt. By not reading the article he stepped right in his own doo-doo. Now that we are here to keep the truth flowing these attempts by the liberals can't survive. I have always said, "turn over the rock" and give the truth the light. Pelline is under the rock and we are turning it over.

Greg, I am unfamiliar with the Schopenhauer fellow so I cannot opine. I do know through practical experience that what you have described is absolutely right about the liberal tactics. I once debated a very famous leftwing attorney and he hammered the podium that I was a terrible person for being a "developer" and making new subdivisions in the county. I said to him, on the air of KVMR no less, that I never created a lot in my life nor developed any subdivision(still true today). He was flapping his jaws in a stuttering manner and then I asked him how many he created. I knew he had. Anyway, rather than answer, he attacked me from a different angle, something like "well, you have been married more than once"! What a day that was.

[Greg Goodknight]

One should be clear... it isn't an attack on unions in general, it's a rollback of powers granted by statute to Wisconsin public employee unions. Period. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think unionized Wisconsin public employee unions are now about on par with unions of Federal employees as far as bargaining goes. Maybe even a bit more for Wis.

[George Rebane]

Greg, I cite Saul Alinsky because that communist inspired and instructed the contemporary generation of Obama administration minions. It was Alinsky who published the cited work as a handbook for leftwing radicals to agitate, create the collective, and bring down capitalism. It is the applied workbook of today's progressives as witnessed by their own recorded and published statements.

Also, Schopenhauer's philosophy was markedly different from Alinsky's. For example, Schopenhauer believed that the a minimal government should let the individual work out his own salvation. Alinsky, as again witnessed by Obama's own words, taught that an individual's salvation is dependent on the salvation of the collective to which he organically adheres.

[Greg Goodknight]

Understood George, but in general, the simplest explanations are the best.

I don't think Pelline's forte is his knowledge of various philosophies, nor is he motivated to be part of an underground... he just has the knowledge of how to string words together for the desired effect. Rhetoric; it's what he studied, it's who he is. This isn't about the philosophy of Schopenhauer vs that held by Alinsky, it's just tactics, and Schopenhauer's rules for winning arguments are as compact as any I'm aware of.

He's moved away from Baghdad by the Bay and wants this Podunk to be Baghdad in the Boonies. He perceives you, Russ and the other local yokel vocal conservatives as being in the way.

[George Rebane]

Greg, you may be on target here. In the years I have followed that gentleman, I have not been able to discover his area(s) of expertise. So perhaps, as you suggest, appealing to Occam is the best assessment.

[Greg Goodknight]

I'd looked up Jeffie's bio page on a popular professional networking website. On those pages, and a couple other spots, he mentioned his master's subject(Journalism) but not his baccalaureate, despite it being at Cal of which he seems quite proud of, and active in the Alumni Ass'n.

It took an inordinate amount of baiting him, suggesting he was ashamed of his field of study, before he finally announced his major at Berkeley was Rhetoric. Fits, doesn't it?

[George Rebane]

I didn't know rhetoric was an allowed major, since it is only a methodology for linguistic delivery. In the olden days when one's degree was in some acceptable domain of human knowledge that needed to be communicated, then one took rhetoric to help facilitate that function. Otherwise, it seems to me that majoring in rhetoric is like getting a gun without ammo - nothing to shoot. But undoubtedly that is a dated view.

[Greg Goodknight]

It was a new one on me, too, and with the same thoughts. I understand they work the kids hard, as if they are all pre-Law and will eventually have something real to argue about.

[John Galt]

It's nice that the big "purple" man and his ilk are willing to publicly demonstrate their true colors.

[Todd Juvinall]

In "Blazing Saddles" one of the funniest movies every made, the town drunk is shouting RHETORIC as the town mayor is making a speech. It still cracks me up.

[Dixon Cruickshank]

They act like collective bargining for PEU's has been around since the turn of the century or something. In fact its only been since 1959 in WI and a much shorter period for most states incl. CA. So it has only taken a very short period of time to destroy the states themselves - 30/40yrs total. This has been an ongoing problem for years but the chit finally hit the fan everywhere so an exact date is not possible.
I would also guess, that states that had become controlled by the Democratic Party in certain years would corrolate to the explosion of PEU expenses as well, the longer it was the worse they are.

Most of the people there after the first few days, didn't really look like they had a job in any case, or were employable. I screamed for reporters to ask the people exactly what is your job for the state? I bet none even worked period, let alone for the State of WI, so why are you here?????

[Dixon Cruickshank]

didn't know rhetoric was an allowed major, since it is only a methodology for linguistic delivery. In the olden days when one's degree was in some acceptable domain of human knowledge that needed to be communicated, then one took rhetoric to help facilitate that function. Otherwise, it seems to me that majoring in rhetoric is like getting a gun without ammo - nothing to shoot. But undoubtedly that is a dated view.

Good point - here we go again - it doesn't make any sense to me either - a major???