Letter to the Editor: Right uses Alinsky rules, too

Right uses Alinsky rules, too

To the Editor:

Saul Alinsky was a successful community organizer and a teacher of other organizers in the sixties. His work involved helping the poor and disadvantaged to gain fairness and equality with corporations, employment, and in solving social problems.

In 1971, Saul Alinsky wrote Rules for Radicals, which was based on his organizing experiences, and listed the rules he used to help achieve goals. Alinsky was neither a Socialist nor a Communist; instead, he considered himself to be a patriotic American.

Barack Obama was only 11 years old when Alinsky died in 1972, one year after he wrote Rules for Radicals; therefore, Obama was not a personal friend of Alinsky. Barack Obama did work as a community organizer in Chicago for three years before he became a law professor at the University of Chicago.

Several years later, Obama won an Illinois state senate seat that started his historical career in politics. He will end his presidency in January with over a 50 percent approval rating, despite all of the obstacles.

The left, or the liberals as the right insists on calling all Democrats, are not the only party to utilize Alinsky’s rules. In 2009, it was the Tea Party Republicans and people like Glenn Beck who recommended Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals for training the mass of right wing Republicans. It must be noted that Rules for Radicals is also featured in political courses in colleges and universities all over this country.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is relying on at least three of Alinksy’s rules for radicals in his campaign strategies:

Rule #1: Present yourself to people as they perceive you to be.

Rule #5: Ridicule others as ridicule is hard to counter-attack.

Rule #8: Keep the pressure on opponents. To make America great again, we must keep Donald Trump out of the White House. Most of the world is watching this election.

Ruth Marsh, Stanton