John J. Pitney Jr.

Radical activist Saul Alinsky has had quite a season, especially for somebody who has been dead for 36 years. The two Democratic finalists had Alinsky links. Hillary Clinton wrote her 1969 senior thesis on his work, and she impressed him so much that he offered her a job. (She declined.) Obama spent his early Chicago years working for Alinsky disciples.

But the candidates who have most effectively applied Alinsky principles are John McCain and Sarah Palin. In Rules for Radicals (1971), Alinsky offered specific ideas for political and social action. Several seem to underlie the GOP campaign plan.

Never go outside the experience of your people. Grassroots Republicans love Palin. They see her as a more gifted version of people they know from PTA meetings, small-group Bible studies, Communion breakfasts, and yes, hockey games. Her perspective is different from that of other national politicians. For Barack Obama, Wal-Mart is a symbol of worker exploitation. For Hillary Clinton, it’s a former source of corporate-director fees. For Sarah Palin, it’s a place where you buy stuff.

Wherever possible, go outside of the experience of the enemy. During his political career, Obama has never had a serious Republican opponent, and Biden hasn’t had a tough general election since 1972. Effective attacks from the right are new to them.

On this point, conservatives and Republicans also have a structural advantage. As David Brooks wrote after the 1994 election, conservatives know about liberalism from popular culture and the mainstream media. “But many liberals, it transpires, have only the haziest phantasms about conservatism, having only read each other’s descriptions of it.” That observation remains true, even after a GOP Congress and presidency. Recall liberal befuddlement when Bristol Palin’s pregnancy didn’t cause Republicans to burn her mother at the stake.

In the past few years, many Democratic strategists have studied George Lakoff’s laughable analysis of political thought, Don’t Think of An Elephant! According to Lakoff, at the core of Republican philosophy is the template of the “stern father.”

What will they do with the “stern father” theory now that the GOP’s most exciting leader is a cheerful mother?

….Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage. During the summer, the McCain campaign rattled Obama with YouTube videos mocking him as a celebrity and “The One.” The barbs in Palin’s acceptance speech left Obama supporters sputtering.

Obama has reacted by adopting even harsher rhetoric, thereby undercutting his promise of a “new tone.” His campaign has also proved that it is clumsy with humor,” running an ad saying that McCain “can’t send an e-mail.” It turns out that McCain has difficulty using a keyboard because of the injuries he sustained as a Vietnam POW. So with a lame joke, the Obama campaign renewed attention to McCain’s heroism.

“A good tactic is one that your people enjoy,” said Alinsky, and Republicans have been having a great time lately. But they must beware irrational exuberance. With a shaky economy, protracted war, and unpopular president, the GOP still faces a tough slog. And although Alinsky’s tactics may be energizing, Republicans should remember that he did not always win. As he taught in Rules for Radicals, the targets often find ways of adapting and fighting back.

But for the moment, at least, Republicans can revel in an irony: their ticket has gained ground by following advice from the ultimate community organizer.”

— John J. Pitney Jr. is the Roy P. Crocker Professor of American politics at Claremont McKenna College.

“You may think of David Zucker as one of those uproarious Zucker brothers who made the “Airplane!” and “Naked Gun” movies. But Hollywood conservatives look upon Zucker as their Paul Revere, their Gen. George Patton, their Oliver North … any uncompromising, right-thinking warrior type will do. In recent years, Zucker has become one of the most outspoken voices in showbiz conservative circles who believes that Hollywood is in “a new McCarthy era” because of its hostility to conservative views. He’s also convinced that Democrats are weak, foreign-policy appeaseniks. As for Barack Obama, Zucker says: “Obama is not qualified to be president, and it’ll be a disaster.”

Having already made a series of agitprop videos mocking Madeleine Albright, pro-tax congressional Democrats and the Iraq Study Group, he’s now graduated to a feature film spoofing liberals of all stripes and sizes. Called “An American Carol,” it will hit theaters in October, released by Vivendi Entertainment’s new feature film division. I tried to talk to Zucker myself via his PR people, but didn’t get anywhere. However, the new issue of the right-leaning Weekly Standard has a fascinating profile of Zucker, examining his odyssey from ardent Barbara Boxer liberal to flame-throwing Dick Cheney conservative.

The story also offers a treasure trove of excerpts from the film, which lampoons a host of prominent liberals and showbiz types, from Michael Moore to Rosie O’Donnell, with even a couple of jabs directed at Obama. It also features a host of notable Hollywood conservative actors, including Jon Voight, Kelsey Grammer, James Woods and Dennis Hopper. They are clearly not happy to be swimming in a big pond full of lefties. Grammer, who is friends with Ann Coulter, says he once quoted her pearls of wisdom to some young staffers at his company. As the Standard recounts, the reaction was not pretty:

…As the Weekly Standard describes it:

The film follows the exploits of a slovenly, anti-American filmmaker named Michael Malone, who has joined with a left-wing activist group (Moovealong.org) to ban the Fourth of July. Along the way, Malone is visited by the ghosts of three American heroes–George Washington, George S. Patton and John F. Kennedy–who try to convince him he’s got it all wrong. When terrorists from Afghanistan realize that they need to recruit more operatives to make up for the ever-diminishing supply of suicide bombers, they begin a search for just the right person to help produce a new propaganda video.

“This will not be hard to find in Hollywood,” says one. “They all hate America.” When they settle on Malone, who is in need of work after his last film (“Die You American Pigs”) bombed at the box-office, he unwittingly helps them with their plans to launch another attack on American soil.

OK, so subtlety was never Zucker’s strong suit, even back in the “Naked Gun” days. He’s cast Kevin Farley, Chris Farley’s little brother, to play Michael Moore–ahem–Malone. Woods plays Malone’s agent. Voight plays George Washington. Hopper is a judge who defends his courthouse by gunning down ACLU lawyers trying to take down the Ten Commandments.

The film also has a chubby comedian named Rosie O’Connell who’s promoting a documentary, “The Truth About Radical Christians,” which, among other things, examines the growing phenomenon of nuns as suicide bombers–showing two nuns, strapped with explosives, boarding a bus and inspiring fellow passengers to shriek, “Oh, no! Not the Christians!”

Will this stuff play in Peoria? Can conservatives truly be funny? I’m eager to see if the film is, well, slightly less didactic than the way the Standard describes it. Maybe Zucker hasn’t lost his touch. On the other hand, maybe he’s become just as humorless and sanctimonious as Barbra Streisand. At the end of the piece he says: “I don’t have any desire to be taken seriously. But having said that, I really believe this stuff. Why can’t I put it out there. I’m scared to death of Obama. If I didn’t do something about it, I would feel–my kids would ask: `What did you do in the war Daddy?’ [My answer]: I donated my career to stop this s—.”</blockquote>

Jenny Hatch

Healthy Families Make A Healthy World!

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