Note: This column first appeared in Citizen magazine.
Soon after I joined Focus on the Family in 1987, Dr. James Dobson asked me to begin raising up state-level public policy organizations to defend the family against assaults by state governments.
One of the first books I picked up for some background reading on local organizing was one by a man who had made a reputation for himself in the field of community organizing in Chicago’s impoverished neighborhoods. His name was Saul Alinsky, and, frankly, the book wasn’t much help. He turned out to be a Left-wing radical, and, in fact, his book was titled Rules for Radicals. My overall impression of the man was that he dealt in class warfare by appealing to people’s resentments. Not our cup of tea at Focus.
Not only that, but Alinsky dedicated his book to a highly unusual figure. Here is the dedication:
Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins — and which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom — Lucifer.
I’d forgotten all about Alinsky, and hadn’t even recalled that his book was dedicated to the devil, until I read a new book written by a reporter named David Freddoso, who summarized Alinsky’s principles this way:
• “In war, the ends justify almost any means.”
• “In action, one does not always enjoy the luxury of a decision that is consistent with one’s individual conscience and the good of mankind.”
• “(Morality is merely) a rhetorical rationale for expedient action and self-interest.”
The quotations are directly from Alinsky’s book, and what makes the topic pertinent today is that one notable student of Alinsky’s principles is Barack Obama. Obama regularly cites the several years he spent as a community organizer in Chicago, and Alinsky’s book served as Obama’s roadmap, according to Freddoso’s own well-researched and meticulously footnoted book, The Case Against Barack Obama.
Freddoso writes that Obama “was a master of Alinsky’s tactics and understood his philosophy well.” I am sure that if asked, Obama would deny that he ever employed devious and immoral tactics, but the fact is that I don’t believe reporters have asked him much about Alinsky, so who knows?
It seems evident that Alinsky made an impact on Obama. In his book, Alinsky described a group of lower middle-class individuals who he said were “hurt, bitter, suspicious, feeling rejected and at bay. … Their fears and frustrations … are mounting to a point of political paranoia.”
Freddoso notes this is similar to Obama’s own recent statement about voters in Pennsylvania: “It’s not surprising then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them.”
That Obama would point proudly to his years as an Alinsky-style organizer in Chicago is surprising for another reason — it wasn’t terribly successful, according to Freddoso. The South Side neighborhoods he was trying to save continued to decay despite his efforts to bring job-training and government subsidies to the people. When Obama left for Harvard and then returned to those neighborhoods, he noticed the marked decline of the neighborhoods, and wrote about it in his own book Dreams from My Father.
People wanting to understand the influences on Barack Obama would do well to get Freddoso’s book, because in the mainstream media’s adulation of Obama, it has left much information about him unreported, including the questionable influence of Saul Alinsky.
Tom Minnery is senior vice president of government and public policy for Focus on the Family Action and author of Why You Can’t Stay Silent: A Biblical Mandate to Shape Our Culture.
(NOTE: Referral to Web sites not produced by Focus on the Family is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily constitute an endorsement of the sites' content.)
