Who is Saul Alinsky, and why is Newt Gingrich so obsessed with him?
Newt Gingrich keeps likening President Obama to radical community organizer Saul Alinsky. But Gingrich seems to have adopted Alinsky's tactics himself, as has the tea party. Mainstream Republicans aren't happy.
Newt Gingrich keeps likening President Obama to radical community organizer Saul Alinsky. But Gingrich seems to have adopted Alinsky's tactics himself, as has the tea party. Mainstream Republicans aren't happy.
Wherever Newt Gingrich goes these days 鈥� stumping in Florida, arguing on televised debates with fellow Republican presidential hopefuls, jotting down notes for his umpteenth book 鈥� he carries with him a scary but useful ghost: Saul Alinsky.
The radical community organizer (gone now these 40 years) is the specter on which Barack Obama has modeled his life, Mr. Gingrich warns. It鈥檚 no coincidence, he says, that both Alinsky and Mr. Obama were from Chicago or that the president passed up far more lucrative possibilities to become 鈥� a community organizer.
鈥淭he centerpiece of this campaign, I believe, is American exceptionalism versus the radicalism of Saul Alinsky,鈥� Gingrich said in his South Carolina primary victory speech, a charge he finds many ways to repeat. "Saul Alinsky radicalism is at the heart of Obama,鈥� he said on CNN.
Election 101: Ten questions about Newt Gingrich as a presidential candidate
So who was Saul Alinsky?
Born in Chicago in 1909 to Russian immigrant parents, Alinsky worked his way through the University of Chicago, then dropped out of grad school to organize the poor in the city鈥檚 slums, demanding better working and living conditions. He went on to do the same thing in other US cities.
Published the year before he died in 1972, Alinsky鈥檚 鈥淩ules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals鈥� has been compared with the writing of Thomas Paine, and it inspired many young idealists (including, apparently, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who wrote her Wellesley College senior thesis on Alinsky).
"What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be,鈥� Alinsky begins his book.聽鈥淭he Prince聽was written by聽Machiavelli聽for the Haves on how to hold power.聽Rules for Radicals聽is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away."
Some compare Alinsky鈥檚 activities and goals with a more recent American political insurgency.
鈥淭he Tea Party comes from the same sense of outrage that the elites, as Gingrich calls them, are running the country,鈥� Dick Simpson, a聽University of Illinois聽at Chicago political scientist and former Chicago alderman, told Bloomberg News. 鈥淭he Tea Party has understood how to mobilize their anger and turn it to political results, which is the underlying motif of Alinsky.鈥�
Alinsky, Mr. Simpson says, was 鈥渁 master community organizer who attempted to organize people without power, people that today we鈥檇 call the 99 percent, by using the strength of numbers to overcome clout and wealth.鈥�
FreedomWorks, the tea party group headed by former Republican House leader Dick Armey, gives copies of 鈥淩ules for Radicals鈥� to its leaders. 鈥淗is tactics when it comes to grass-roots organizing are incredibly effective,鈥� FreedomWorks spokesman Adam Brandon told The Wall Street Journal. Tea partyers aggressively confronting lawmakers at town hall meetings is straight from Alinsky鈥檚 playbook.
Conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr. called the Chicago radical "very close to being an organizational genius."
As a former history professor, Gingrich not only understands Alinsky鈥檚 motif, he鈥檚 made it a key part of his campaign.
鈥淕ingrich's clashes against the establishment are classic Alinsky,鈥� writes Philip Klein, senior editorial writer for the conservative Washington Examiner.
Democrats may rankle at Gingrich鈥檚 painting Obama as an Alinsky acolyte 鈥� a sort of red-baiting, although Alinsky never joined any organization, communist or otherwise. But some Republicans say the former House speaker himself is destructively channeling Alinsky when, for example, he goes after Mitt Romney鈥檚 wealth.
鈥淲hat the hell are you doing, Newt?鈥� asked an incredulous Rudolph Giuliani, former New York mayor and one-time presidential candidate, on Fox News.
鈥淚 expect this from Saul Alinsky. This is what Saul Alinsky taught Barack Obama, and what you鈥檙e saying is part of the reason we鈥檙e in so much trouble right now,鈥� Mr. Giuliani said.
All of which makes for a very interesting development within conservative American politics, including the Republican Party.
鈥淕OP nomination fights are often described as battles between Rockefeller Republicans and Goldwater Republicans,鈥� writes Mr. Klein. 鈥淚n 2012, Gingrich has brought us the Alinsky Republican.鈥�
Election 101: Ten questions about Newt Gingrich as a presidential candidate