Hearts of Oak
Every time I'm inclined to read any singularity or uniqueness to the current noise-some dogmatic populism on the right these days I have only to reflect on Acorn (
Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now - Wikipedia ) to keep it in perspective. The Tea-baggers are out there in their very own wild blue yonder, a high styled paranoiac thrill ride. I'll take nothing off the top of that. They might notice the major policies of this country haven't changed much and won't because the President is pragmatically inclined and moderate in his sensibilities. That is if they weren't running around asking each other: "Now what part of White-House don't that boy understand."
Acorn made themselves a target of the right and shouldn't wonder really at the arrows lodged in their back
Conservatives Draw Blood From Acorn - NYTimes.com. They are there for their many years of community activism. Their work on housing discrimination, and voter registration drives. They've spent years putting African and Hispanic Americans on the voting rolls - that made them a target first of all. Second for was their diffuse seemingly chaotic organization, and particularly their thin veneer of somewhat inept leadership. They knew they were under close examination for more than a year now, and at no point did they seem to tighten up procedures or undertake any sort of policy review. This last forms a third way they made themselves a target. The sense of self-justification they had about their work. The idea that if you were "fighting the man" it was all good, it was all covered.
There are sectors of the left, among the progressives I recall from my college days, and others, where this feeling runs very deep. It does not admit to the validity of other viewpoints. It does not even genuinely allow the complete corporal existence of those who might hold these opinions. This last ought to evoke echos of familiarity with the rhetoric of the Birther or Tea-bag movements. This is the partisan error: desiring to rule as though those holding other views were secondary, illegitimate, vacant. Acorn did not review their way of operating because their sense of righteousness did not request it of them. Those that opposed them were just so many ghosts.
If Acorn wants to protect remaining any remaining value to their brand they need to recognize they are engaged in a PR battle, not a street fight, not a legal fight, or even really a straight forward policy fight. The Metafilter troll in the thread
ACORN under fire | MetaFilter was correct: the web site Big Government's tapes were well executed text-book long form gorilla journalism. That this site is carrying an air of more and deeper organizational structure behind it is unmistakable, but what of it? Acorn needs to determine and protect core enterprises. They need to resist the impulse to sue, particularly on grounds of clandestine recording and entrapment. This is weak legally and PR poison beyond that. Resist all temptation to engage in escalating counter-rhetoric. Or continue their "a few bad apples" defense against a well prepared and well layered attack. The Big Government "journalists" were able to repeat this exercise in a number of different and unrelated localities. Across the board they need to admit that what these tapes captured is utterly indefensible, even criminal. No public organization can operate this way. Acorn's apologists should cease trying to offer Acorn's attackers guile and hostility as a defense of their own conduct. Other's behavior speaks for itself as much as it needs to.
Acorn should be prepared to make a quick and radical move towards a significantly tighter and more professional organization. To bring in new leadership, move part-time volunteers to a supervised and vetted exterior tier. Hire or gain volunteer professional lobbyists to stabilize their reputation. Only at this point will Acorn have given their political friends enough cover to come forward in their defense
House Votes To Strip ACORN Of All Federal Funds | TPMMuckraker. If Acorn is unable to collapse to a core of good work and demonstrate their worth, then what good they do and good people they have need to migrate to other organizations and continue their work there.
Yes, this post's title is a Ted Leo song.
Also this post written on 16 and 17 Sep 09 is landing in a slot dated 10 Sep 09 because the yet uncompleted post that was there, agreed to swap places with it.
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