President Barack Obama is a dedicated disciple of Saul Alinsky and is skilled in the tactics of Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals.
Let us not forget that Alinsky dedicated his book of rules to Lucifer, “the first radical known to man.” The book describes Obama’s purpose and tactics. This is Obama. The words to follow are those of Alinsky.
In this book we are concerned with how to create mass organizations to seize power and give it to the people; to realize the democratic dream of equality, justice, peace... “Better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.” This means revolution. P.3
Radicals must be resilient, adaptable to shifting political circumstances, and sensitive enough to the process of action and reaction to avoid being trapped by their own tactics and forced to travel a road not of their choosing. p.6
A Marxist begins with his prime truth that all evils are caused by the exploitation of the proletariat by the capitalists. From this he logically proceeds to the revolution to end capitalism, then into the third stage of reorganization into a new social order of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and finally the last stage …the political paradise of communism. p.10
An organizer working in and for an open society is in an ideological dilemma to begin with, he does not have a fixed truth – truth to him is relative and changing. Everything to him is relative and changing. To the extent that he is free from the shackles of dogma, he can respond to the realities of the widely different situations. pp. 10-11
The end is what you want; the means is how you get it. Whenever we think about social change, the question of means and ends arise. The man of action views the issue of means and ends in pragmatic and strategic terms. He has no other problem; he thinks only of his actual resources and the possibilities of various choices of action. He asks of ends only whether they are achievable and worth the cost; of means, only whether they will work… The real arena is corrupt and bloody. p.24
The most unethical of all means is the non-use of any means… The standards of judgment must be rooted in the whys and wherefores of life as it is lived, the world as it is, not our wished for fantasy of the world as it should be. pp. .25-26
The third rule of ethics of means and ends is that in war the end justifies almost any means. p.29
The tenth rule is you do what you can with what you have and clothe it with moral garments… It involves sifting the multiple factors which combine in creating the circumstances at any given time … Who, and how many will support the action?… If weapons are needed, then are appropriated weapons available? Availability of means determines whether you will be underground or above ground; Whether you will move quickly or slowly. p.36
To the organizer, imagination … is the dynamism that starts and sustains him in his whole life of action as an organizer. It ignites and feeds the force that drives him to organize for change… The organizer knows that the real action is in the reaction to the opposition. To realistically appraise and anticipate the probable reactions of the enemy, he must be able to identify with them, too, in his imagination, and foresee their reactions to their actions. The organizers searching with a free and open mind void of certainty, hating dogma finds laughter not just a way to maintain his sanity but also a key to understanding life. pp.74-75
From the moment the organizer enters a community he lives, dreams… only one thing and that is to build the mass power base of what he calls the army. Until he has developed that mass power base, he confronts no major issues. Until he has those means and power instruments, his tactics are very different from power tactics. Therefore, every move revolves around one central point: how many recruits will this bring into the organization, whether by means of local organizations, churches, service groups, labor unions, corner gangs, or as individuals. Change comes from Power and power comes from organization. p.113
All change comes from disorganization of the old and organization of the new. p.116
The organizer must stir up dissatisfaction and discontent. He must create a mechanism that can drain off the underlying guilt for having accepted the previous situation for so long. Out of this mechanism, a new community organization arises. p.117