The uneven playing field of American politics has been well documented in countless books and articles throughout the years; the mass mainstream media traditionally sides with the Left, and it is up to those on the Right to get their message out, unfiltered, in less conventional ways. It was always looked upon as the cost of doing business for the Republicans on the right and they maneuvered their way around the media obstacles in the 1980s and the 1994 mid-term elections.
Beginning with the election of the Clintons however, the playing field drastically changed, becoming more of a bloody battlefield with Republican bodies strewn from end to end. This was the dawn of the Alinsky era. Mrs. Clinton was a student of the radical teachings of the original “community organizer”Saul Alinsky. Although Alinsky died in 1972, his methods survived through his protégés and his books, one being Rules for Radicals, which he essentially dedicated to Satan.
Barak Obama is now the most famous “graduate” of the Alinsky school of agitation and provocation. Mike Kruglik, a “direct descendant” of Alinsky, who was Obama’s Chicago instructor in Alinsky’s teachings, said Obama was the best student of Alinsky tactics he had ever had. Kruglik went on to say Obama was “an undisputed master of agitation” who “could engage a room full of recruiting targets in a rapid fire Socratic dialogue…” Obama himself described the four years he spent learning the science of Alinsky’s community organizing as “the best education of his life.” This is a telling statement from a man who studied at Columbia and Harvard. The underlying tenet in the Alinsky method is no different than the Communist rationalization; the ends justify the means. An end that is achi...
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... of the community for his state senate and eventual U.S. senate runs.
Saul Alinsky is a God-like figure to Liberals, and his rules/tactics have served them well over the last fifty or so years. If the Republican Party does not want to fall deeper into obscurity, they should employ similar tactics. If the GOP does not want to be supplanted by a conservative third party, it should drop the gloves and the dogma, and fight fire with fire. Should the political left have a monopoly on underhanded tactics? Not if they are to be defeated.
America has become tantamount to a Jerry Springer show. We want to see a knockdown, drag out fight, with lots of jabs “below the belt”. Oh, and make it quick because our attention span is now measured in milliseconds, and we will probably not even remember yesterday’s show. This is what we learned from the Obama campaign.
In this article “Culture War”, Morris Fiorina addresses the issue of the cultural divide between Democrats and Republicans in the political world we live in today, as the Republicans are discussed as the “red” states and Democrats are the “blue” states. The Culture War that Fiorina alludes to refer to a movement of standard economic struggles that have spiked up twentieth century politics. Fiorina will debunk the myth of polarized America by addressing each side of the red and blue states. “When George W. Bush took office, half the country cheered and the other half seethed.” This quotation reflects the so-called myth of the deep division of demographics within the red and the blue states. The main argument I will address and the argument that Fiorina is trying to get across is that America is not divided almost in half by blue and red states, but the typical American is in the
Everyone that has been through the American school system within the past 20 years knows exactly who Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is, and exactly what he did to help shape the United States to what it is today. In the beginning of the book, Martin Luther King Jr. Apostle of Militant Nonviolence, by James A. Colaiaco, he states that “this book is not a biography of King, [but] a study of King’s contribution to the black freedom struggle through an analysis and assessment of his nonviolent protest campaigns” (2). Colaiaco discusses the successful protests, rallies, and marches that King put together. . Many students generally only learn of Dr. King’s success, and rarely ever of his failures, but Colaiaco shows of the failures of Dr. King once he started moving farther North.
Media concentration allows news reporters to fall victim to source bias, commercial impulse, and pack journalism. Together, all three of the aforementioned factors become known as horse race journalism, a cause for great concern in campaign media. In complying with horse race journalism, media outlets exclude third party candidates, reinforce the idea that politics is merely a game, and dismiss issues that directly affect voters and their day to day lives. Through horse race journalism, the media is mobilized in impeding an active form of the democratic debate in American politics. Even across the wide range of human values and beliefs, it is easy to see that campaign media coverage must be changed, if not for us, then for our children. It is imperative that we discern the flaws of the media and follow our civic duty to demand better media
In the examination of the roots of the Party she emphasizes the importance that the Southern migrants had on the future movement; though they did not play as large a role in the Party as the youth did, the ideals and social structures of the old generation greatly inspired the Party and its rise to prominence. Murch uses this to approach why the Party was successful in maintaining itself on the local level but often failed on the national level. One can not argue that the Black Panther Party wasn’t a socially driven movement but Murch argues that the movement itself was driven by the social structures of the Bay Area African American community. Murch approaches the success of the Black Panther Party at an angle that examines how the Party’s positions and it’s course was driven by the public it was centered within. Murch details that the African American community of Oakland was deeply rooted in family values as well as social organizations, such as churches. The Black Panther Party’s initial success came about without having to address these roots but, as the Party expanded and wished to move ahead, the Party’s shifts in policy can be directly attributed to the wishes and needs of the community. Murch profiles the Oakland Community School and the People’s Free Food Program, which were social institutions created by the Black Panther Party to address the needs
Jones began his group in San Francisco and was once a respected community leader. He started programs to help the elderly and poor. His circle of friends once included leading politicians, who once defended him against allegations of abuse.
By adding social issues to the conservative agenda, the New Right weakened the establishment’s movement, contradicting and discrediting its fundamental principles. The new social agenda contradicted Old Right’s belief in limited government and individual rights. Today, the New Right continues to grow and the Christian Right continues to gain political power. Republican candidates are considered politically dead unless they secure the support of the Christian Coalition. Before the New Right comes to embody “conservativism” within American political discourse, Old Right conservatives must discard the dissenter’s social initiatives and reclaim the establishment’s conservative agenda: remove the New Right’s social agenda, return to establishment’s conservative ideals, and develop policies based on limited government, free market, and individual liberty.
Jeremy Bentham, one of the founders of Utilitarianism, believed his philosophy could provide for the “greatest happiness of the greatest number of people”. However benign it may sound, at the heart of Utilitarianism is a cold, teleological process which reduces happiness to a mere commodity. It is even worse that Saul Alinsky would extend this philosophy to a point where the truth becomes relative, justice becomes a tool of those powerful enough to wield it, and any means are justified to reach one’s desired ends.
In Mississippi, a man named Robert Moses was responsible for helping turn the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee into an organization of activists that dedicated their time to building community based polit...
...n p.236) “ The result is a lack of communication about real problems and virtually no discussion of the real divide in American political life.” (Lakoff p.177)
Recently you have received a letter from Martin Luther King Jr. entitled “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” In Dr. King’s letter he illustrates the motives and reasoning for the extremist action of the Civil Rights movement throughout the 1960’s. In the course of Dr. King’s letter to you, he uses rhetorical questioning and logistical reasoning, imagery and metaphors, and many other rhetorical devices to broaden your perspectives. I am writing this analysis in hopes you might reconsider the current stance you have taken up regarding the issues at hand.
Gerber Hansuli John, “The Road to Nonviolence”. www.amaricamagazine.org October 18, 2010. Web December 26, 2010.
Barack Obama has made no secret that over the past three decades Nelson Mandela has been the greatest influence in his life. Coming from an African ancestry, Obama drew inspiration from Mandela’s life and influenced Obama to take himself upon a journey of self-discovery and find his own voice (Obama, 2004). The repercussions of Mandela’s inspirational work caused Obama to become a part of an anti-apartheid divestment movement in college and to shift to focusing on law and politics (Epstein, 2013). Now that Barack Obama has become President of the United States of America, he has consistently quoted Mandela in all his keynote speeches speaking of freedom and equality and his actions and words are inspired by the desire to emulate Mandela’s powerful actions and movements and the examples that he set, in the 21st century (Killough, 2013). Even within the tribute to Mandela, Obama (2013) says “You can make his life’s work your own…It stirred something ...
The Hidden Relationship Between Government and Media Rather than being a neutral conduit for the communication of information, the U.S. media plays an intricate role in shaping and controlling political opinions. Media is extremely powerful in the sense that without an adequate functioning media, it is virtually impossible for a sophisticated social structure like the U.S. Government to exist. Henceforth, all known sophisticated social structures, have always been dependent upon the media’s ability to socialize. The U.S. government generally exploits the media, often times manipulating the enormous power of the printed word. Ultimately empowering the U.S. government, strengthening it with the ability to determine and control the popular perception of reality.
In the US, mass media plays a significant role in politics. One of the key roles mass media plays in politics includes the airing of the platforms of various politicians. The media influences the view of people on politics and politicians. As the opinion of individuals is affected, the results of the votes are consequently changed (Holden, 2016).
As Americans we take pride in our liberating government. But, it is essential to ask how much we, the general public, know about our democracy. Because of the representative structure of our government, it is in our best interest to remain as knowledgeable as possible about political affairs so that we can play an active role in our democracy by voting for candidates and issues. The media, which includes print, television, and the internet, is our primary link to political events and issues. (For the purposes of this essay only print and television will be considered.) Therefore, in order to assess the success of our democracy it is necessary to assess the soundness of our media. We are lucky enough to have a media, in theory, free from government influences because of our rights to freedom of press and freedom of speech, but we are still subject to the media’s interpretation and presentation of politics, as is the danger when depending on any source for information. So, we must address how the media informs us; how successful it is at doing so; and how we should respond to it.