Saul Alinsky was a radical organizer who rose to prominence in the 1960s through his relentless "activism" on behalf of what he called "powerless people."  A Playboy magazine interviewer, in an interview published right before his death in 1972, laughably called him "one of the great American leaders of the non-socialist left."  That's really funny, because Alinsky was definitely a socialist.  He has, in fact, been called neo-Marxist by more credible journalists.

Alinsky, an experienced agitator, published a book called "Rules for Radicals," in which he outlined the tactics he had successfully employed over the years to extort money from corporations on behalf of his clients.  The gist of Alinsky's rules was to make his "enemies" capitulate with a mix personal attacks using half-truths and outright lies to demonize them.  He would combine these with institutional attacks on their organizations taking advantage of their need to interact with the public by misusing their  own rules to trip them up with contradictions and make them look bad.  "Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules" was Alinsky's motto, believing that no organization could have a contradiction-free set of regulations and that making them try to enforce all their rules would make them look like deceivers.  Actually, use of this tactic marked Alinsky as a professional liar, but he'd say the ends justify the means, just like his mentors, Marx and Lenin.

Alinsky's other main tactic was to exhort his followers to "infiltrate the system from within," having them cut their hair and don business suits to look respectable, all the while plotting to overthrow the American capitalist system.  Alinsky has several prominent disciples who have followed this particular advice very well, rising to positions of great responsibility in the U.S. government.  Most notable among these are Secretary of State and former Senator Hillary Clinton, who's senior thesis at Wellesley College extolled the virtues of Alinskyism, and, of course, President Barack Obama, who learned "community organizing" in Alinsky's own home town of Chicago in the mid-1980s and later put those lessons into practice.

So Saul Alinsky is dead, but his legacy lives on.  One organization in particular, however, epitomizes Alinskyism today in that they use whatever tactics necessary to aid their "powerless" clients in ripping off taxpayer dollars from the government.  That would be the so-called Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (better known in the news as ACORN.)  ACORN has for years engaged in a no-holds barred effort to obtain mortgages for people who were a bad risk to pay them back, which, of course, was a key component of the financial market failure one year ago.  In the past, ACORN has been known to engage in such despicable tactics of tailing the children of offending bank executives, haranguing them about their parents' "crimes" against the poor, which is activity bordering on the criminal in itself.  This time, however, ACORN has been caught suborning actual criminal activity.

A recently released video shot at the ACORN office by two undercover journalists posing as a "procurer" and prostitute in Baltimore  reveals that ACORN representatives are perfectly willing to abet criminal activities in the name of activism. An ACORN person advised the two journalists about how to purchase a house with taxpayer money while lying on tax forms about the source of the couple's income.  This film is apparently only one of several shot by various undercover journalists in different parts of the country revealing similar behavior.  Saul Alinsky would be proud, but the Senate has now voted 83-7 to deny future funding to ACORN.  It appears that even most Democrats can be shamed.

So ACORN's days may be numbered, at least as far as the taxpayer funding their chicanery goes, but Alinsky's legacy still lives on like a virus infecting our free society.  ACORN's demise won't stop Alinskyites from continuing their mischief.  To the contrary, they'll scatter likes rats deserting a sinking ship and form new organizations devoted to the same ends.  And just remember, they have some powerful allies, such as the ones in the White House and State Department, so let's deprive their high-government allies of their power, starting in 2010 and continuing in 2012.  Our freedom depends on it.