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Rush Limbaugh was 15 minutes early to the stage, but no one was complaining Saturday evening in Washington, D.C., at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
Quite the contrary. On the conference's third and final day, the conservative talk radio host was the headliner, and the crowd greeted him with an immense ovation.
"Ladies and gentleman, this is my first ever address to the nation," Limbaugh joked, noting that FOX News and C-SPAN were broadcasting the speech live.
Limbaugh then spent his first 15 minutes giving an impassioned summary of what it means to be a conservative before turning the focus to the movement's recent electoral record.
"We can take this country back. All we need is to nominate the right candidate," he said.
The speech was the culmination of an event that featured often fiery speeches by some of top names of the conservative movement and the Republican party, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and conservative commendator Ann Coulter.
Where did you come up with this? why did you reveal this? How do you know Obama knows this?Obama is so familiar with Alinsky's rules for radicals he taught workshops on their use. Number twelve is the one at play against Rush.
Some of these rules are ruthless, but they work. Here are the rules to be aware of:
RULE 1: "Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have." Power is derived from 2 main sources - money and people. "Have-Nots" must build power from flesh and blood. (These are two things of which there is a plentiful supply. Government and corporations always have a difficult time appealing to people, and usually do so almost exclusively with economic arguments.)
RULE 2: "Never go outside the expertise of your people." It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone. (Organizations under attack wonder why radicals don't address the "real" issues. This is why. They avoid things with which they have no knowledge.)
RULE 3: "Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy." Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty. (This happens all the time. Watch how many organizations under attack are blind-sided by seemingly irrelevant arguments that they are then forced to address.)
RULE 4: "Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules." If the rule is that every letter gets a reply, send 30,000 letters. You can kill them with this because no one can possibly obey all of their own rules. (This is a serious rule. The besieged entity's very credibility and reputation is at stake, because if activists catch it lying or not living up to its commitments, they can continue to chip away at the damage.)
RULE 5: "Ridicule is man's most potent weapon." There is no defense. It's irrational. It's infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions. (Pretty crude, rude and mean, huh? They want to create anger and fear.)
RULE 6: "A good tactic is one your people enjoy." They'll keep doing it without urging and come back to do more. They're doing their thing, and will even suggest better ones. (Radical activists, in this sense, are no different that any other human being. We all avoid "un-fun" activities, and but we revel at and enjoy the ones that work and bring results.)
RULE 7: "A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag." Don't become old news. (Even radical activists get bored. So to keep them excited and involved, organizers are constantly coming up with new tactics.)
RULE 8: "Keep the pressure on. Never let up." Keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, hit them from the flank with something new. (Attack, attack, attack from all sides, never giving the reeling organization a chance to rest, regroup, recover and re-strategize.)
RULE 9: "The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself." Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist. (Perception is reality. Large organizations always prepare a worst-case scenario, something that may be furthest from the activists' minds. The upshot is that the organization will expend enormous time and energy, creating in its own collective mind the direst of conclusions. The possibilities can easily poison the mind and result in demoralization.)
RULE 10: "If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive." Violence from the other side can win the public to your side because the public sympathizes with the underdog. (Unions used this tactic. Peaceful [albeit loud] demonstrations during the heyday of unions in the early to mid-20th Century incurred management's wrath, often in the form of violence that eventually brought public sympathy to their side.)
RULE 11: "The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative." Never let the enemy score points because you're caught without a solution to the problem. (Old saw: If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. Activist organizations have an agenda, and their strategy is to hold a place at the table, to be given a forum to wield their power. So, they have to have a compromise solution.)
RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)
These same rules have served Hillary very well...that is up until they were wielded against her.
Where did you come up with this? why did you reveal this? How do you know Obama knows this?
Where did you come up with this? why did you reveal this? How do you know Obama knows this?
Where did you come up with this? why did you reveal this? How do you know Obama knows this?
I believe that's a copy of Alinsky's rules, I bet ya I'm right... and any good Community Organizer knows them by heart.. I think they get a merit badge for reciting them...
OP, do you take Rush Limbaugh serious enough to warrant a thread in "Breaking News?" Or is it a really, really, really, slow news day?
It's unfortunate that so many Repubs rely on Rush for leadership.
I can't help but laugh at the irony of conservatives rallying around a draft dodger. Oh what a tangled web we weave.
Good god man, you guys are implementing New Deal II right now, don't lecture us on old ways. We lost because we didn't listen to Limbaugh for 8 years and spent money like drunken liberals. Please go back to your side of the aisle, we don't need you.Limbaugh is Obama's best friend. So long as the right is marginalized by being tied to an extremist like him, the middle will be scared to death to ever vote for them.
If Republicans want to win again they are going to have to start appealing to moderate voters again. They can't do that if they are beholden to the far right. So long as Limbaugh and his clones have such a strong voice in the conservative movement, the movement will be marginalized more and more. I have said it before and I will again, what the conservative movement does not seem to get is that half the supposed "Reagan Coalition" they keep trying to revive is dead by now. Trying to run as hard core conservatives makes as much sense as a Democrat in 1975 trying to revive the New Deal coalition.
I see you nothing intelligent to add from liberal Canada.OP, do you take Rush Limbaugh serious enough to warrant a thread in "Breaking News?" Or is it a really, really, really, slow news day?
It's unfortunate that so many Repubs rely on Rush for leadership.
Cept... Bush didn't dodge the draft so...
Cept... Bush didn't dodge the draft so...
America finally elected a Black President, only to willingly allow this man to enslave them to the Government.
THAT is irony my friend.
You're right. Rush did. But ummm keep up?
He just got a sweat heart deal in the Texas National Guard.
And that's a safe thing... flying fighters... He DID request to go over.. just didn't happen.
And that's a safe thing... flying fighters... He DID request to go over.. just didn't happen.
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