In September 2009 Matthew Vadum introduced me to Marcel Reid, former national ACORN board member and president of DC ACORN. I only got to talk with her a few minutes but she changed my view of ACORN and the Left forever because she told me that ACORN fired her for believing its stated goals and trying to put them into action to empower poor black people in Washington, D.C., to get out of poverty. She was bounced for not perceiving and embracing the duplicity of ACORN — that it talks empowerment but the reality is that it deliberately sinks people, especially blacks, ever deeper into helplessness and victimhood, while “rubbing raw” their grievances as Saul Alinsky advised so they can be used as weapons against capitalism.
What changed me in that conversation was the mental picture I got of Ms. Reid’s superiors in ACORN realizing that she had believed their lies rather than noticing that what ACORN promised was not what ACORN delivered — she didn’t see the bait-and-switch. Ms. Reid worked to figure out how to keep the promises ACORN makes. So they fired her ass.
I feel like that was me when I was a liberal and proud of it.
Now that the Internet and blogosphere have broken the grip of the mainstream media gatekeepers of the marketplace of ideas, I am horrified at the degree to which the liberal media claimed to be fair while operating like the propaganda department of a totalitarian state.
This came to mind today after I read a piece at Hot Air by another ex-ACORN worker, Anita MonCrief — “Obama, ACORN and Stealth Socialism.” Moncrief explains the mechanics of ACORN’s process for drawing its workers deeper and deeper into socialism, while weeding out those like Ms. Reid. Her piece is well worth reading. But I was struck the following passage (boldfacing mine):
The “Liberals” who elected Obama President may have a “tower of Babel” moment as gay rights, civil rights, immigration rights, environmental extremists, pro-choicers and all the other special interests that supported the Obama presidential campaign strive to push America further to the left and shed all inhibitions. As with ACORN itself, it seems impossible that the coalition that put Obama in the White House and gave Democrats huge majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives will continue to work smoothly together now that Obama and the Congressional Democrats are in control and America is learning what Obama really meant by the seductive-sounding “hope and change.” ACORN needed the cloak of stealth socialism to maintain its hold on the poor. ACORN’s image is synonymous with blacks and other minorities and the race card has become the last bastion of its “hope.”
What clicked for me is how out-of-place “gay rights” is in the list of groups pushing America to the left. No, no, no, no, no! The only reason gays are on the left is that social conservatives demonize us so comprehensively that Leftists saw their chance to, well, bait-and-switch — to get a prosperous, entrepreneurial, resourceful and hard-working group of people who could be exploited forever.
But think for a moment. Lesbians and gays are predominantly capitalists. Their real interests are served by fiscal conservatism. Lesbians and gays belong on the Right.
And a quote from a recent piece on ACORN’s president, Bertha Lewis, by Ron Radosh glaringly leaves gays and lesbians out of its list of identity groups (boldfacing mine):
Then, Lewis raises the bogeyman of racism. Again, no matter that a popular African-American political figure is president of the United States. The Tea Party movement proves that the racists are on the march. Her goal, however, is an America filled “with more black people than white people,” which will then have the majority necessary to lead the country to real socialism. This, of course, is a new version of the 60’s theory of the black underclass as the new proletariat that would fulfill Marx’s prophecy of a class that would be the agent of change for revolution.
As Lewis put it:
The future of our country is people of color. And how that’s going to change our psyche and our economics, this is why folks are grabbing so hard to change the economic paradigm, because we gettin’ ready to have a majority country of people of color. And the fear of a black planet is real.
What has to be done, she admonishes, is for the young socialists to join the Hispanics and blacks together in a new coalition for socialism. She ends her remarks with: “That will be the battle for the kind of government that we have. That will be an economic battle of epic proportions. Immigration, self-sufficiency, and the people united.”
Where are gays, lesbians, women and Jews in the new world order of ACORN and the Left? Gone with the wind?
By the way, Moncrief notes that Bertha Lewis was installed as ACORN’s president to create the impression of black leadership, even though ACORN’s other leaders are all white and her predecessor was white — Moncrief even provides a photo.
The demographics are so heavily stacked against gays and lesbians (not to mention women and Jews) that it’s rising, even now, like a tsunami.
Democrats are courting groups that HATE gays and Jews — and aren’t too crazy about women, either. There is no way they can continue to give us any sort of priority at all. At best, they’ll fall deafeningly silent about our interests. At worst, they’ll throw us overboard.
All the Dems have shown they care about is power, power and more power. They intend to get that without us. They will probably get it at our expense.
I keep trying to warn my loyal lefty friends about this, but they don’t see that big wave coming. I can only hope they do before it swamps them.
The devastation it will cause us, if we keep on trusting in the Democrats, will make Katrina look like a summer sprinkle.