Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals Paperback – October 23, 1989

Updated December 2016Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” is a widely used primer for organizers trying to create social change and political justice. These “rules” have also been adopted by many national, state and local politicians in their quest for power or support for issues which may not have anything to do with social change.Alinsky was a Chicago-born archaeology major who, in the midst of the Great Depression, dropped out of graduate school and became involved first with the labor movement and then with community organizing. He has experienced unusual notoriety in recent years due to his connection with presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and alleged connection to President Barack Obama.Clinton interviewed him and wrote her senior thesis, "An Analysis of the Alinsky Model," while at Wellesley.Critics of the President (who also worked as a community organizer in Chicago prior to embarking on his political career) often link his name with that of Saul Alinsky, sometimes in ways that suggest the two men knew each other and worked together. While untrue, there is some evidence he did teach and practice Alinskian methods to create “change” as an organizer.With an understanding of the “Rules” and a look back over the past 20 years, we will see that they are being employed by a vast number of “organizers” across all political interests to “divide and conquer” in a quest for power and support.Disruption of meetings and creating fear are two of Alinsky’s most visible trademarks: using spectacles – fighting, vulgarities, and incessant interruptions – to make up for a lack of numbers; targeting an individual to make a large point; and using ridicule to persuade the undecided. All were visible in the 2016 Presidential Election cycle.Alinsky, who died in 1972, explained that his book was concerned with how to create mass organizations to seize power and give it to the people. “What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be. ‘The Prince’ was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. ‘Rules for Radicals’ was written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away.”The “Rules for Radicals” outlined by Alinsky are:1. “Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.” Power is derived from money and people. “Have-Nots” lack money so they must build power from flesh and blood.2. “Never go outside the expertise of your people.” It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone.(Consider how organizers start by getting ‘the people’ to see them as one of them. Obama did this shortly after becoming President when he attacked a Cambridge police officer, without any facts, for arresting a black Harvard professor. We learned later that the officer was correct in his arrest. That was a non-issue for the President as he used this incident to let Blacks everywhere know he was one of them and he understood their fears.)3. “Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.” Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty.(Consider Donald Trump’s characterizing opposing candidates like an editorial cartoonist by emphasizing one outstanding trait – “Crooked Hillary,” “Little Marco,” etc. This approach was well outside the norm for political battle, and put those who were targeted on defense.)4. “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.” If the rule is that every letter gets a reply, send 30,000 letters. You can kill them with this because no one can possibly obey all of their own rules.5. “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions.(Obama, Clinton, Trump, and Harry Reid are all guilty of using ridicule.)6. “A good tactic is one your people enjoy.” They’ll keep doing it without urging and come back to do more. They’re doing their thing and will even suggest better ones.7. “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.” Don’t become old news.8. “Keep the pressure on. Never let up.” Keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, hit them from the flank with something new.(Consider flank attacks by Democrats with charges that Candidate McCain had an affair, and then the release of the “Access Hollywood” video painting Trump as a molester.)9. “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.” Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist.10. "The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition." It is this unceasing pressure that results in the reactions from the opposition that are essential for the success of the campaign.11. “If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive.” Violence from the other side can win the public to your side because the public sympathizes with the underdog.(Consider Clinton’s charge that temperamental Trump was unfit to serve, and Trump’s charge that “crooked” Hillary was unfit to serve. And Senator Harry Reid’s aggressive approach to almost any issue and Hollywood’s romanticizing of provocative issues.)12. “The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.” Never let the enemy score points because you’re caught without a solution to the problem.13. “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.(Consider what we are witnessing with just about every Trump appointee…racism, fascism, xenophobia, etc.)Alinskian methods work. They have been widely adopted in the quest for power by politicians, Hollywood, interest groups and other organizations with vested interests. They have contributed to today’s absence of any fundamental Truth, and the resulting absence of productive political discourse. Moral relativity is the only truth and from this comes political correctness, gender conflict, gender confusion and so many other confusing aspects of US culture that had at one time been anchored in Truth. These methods, though, create the very unrest and disparities that those who use them claim to be fighting against.One of many troubling aspects of Alinsky’s philosophic approach centers on the notion of “means and ends.” “Means and ends are so qualitatively interrelated that the true question has never been the proverbial one, ‘Does the End Justify the Means?’ but always has been ‘Does this particular end justify this particular means?’…THE END JUSTIFIES ALMOST ANY MEANS.” Moral rationalization is indispensable at times of action…to justify the selection for use of means and ends.”This philosophy made national news in 1996 when Vice-President Gore’s role was exposed in a money-laundering scheme involving the California-based Hsi Lai Buddhist temple. Gore admitted his mistake on TV when questioned in a news conference, but he continued by adding, “Think of the importance of what we were doing and how we were going to use this money.” The ends justify the means (laws are to be broken for the right ends) was in evidence at highest levels of our government.And a fundamental reason many felt Hillary Clinton lost her presidential bid was that Democrats forgot the “white working man.” Alinksy points to the political power of this group in the book’s last chapter, “The Way Ahead.”“America’s white middle class… is where the power is… The middle class are fearful people, who feel threatened from all sides: the nightmare of pending retirement and old age with the social security decimated by inflation; the conflict of cultures threatening job competition; the high cost of long-term illness; and finally with mortgages outstanding, they dread the possibility of property devaluation from non-whites moving to the neighborhood. They are beset by taxes and installment buying. They are victimized by TV commercials with fraudulent claims. Their pleasures are simple – once a week dinner out, gardening, etc. They look at the unemployed poor as a parasitical dependency, recipients of the vast variety of massive public programs they will pay for.”“Rules for Radicals” is important an important book. The book is centered on manipulation through disruption using tactics (means) that are justified by the ends…the ends of those seeking power that comes from division.We are being played and unless we know the “rules” of their game, the US and our Constitutional Republic will lose.

Ever wonder why we Americans are stuck with two political Parties who argue slightly different side of the same Big Government political coin? All of whom think of themselves as our “Elite Rulers”?You should read this book because your enemies have. And they use it against you. Although, your biggest enemies might not be who you think they are…By the end of Alinsky’s Prologue and dedication pages – It becomes obvious that the Limbaughs’, Levins’, Luciannes’, Hannitys’, “American Thinkers”, et-al. (aka – Republican Emotionalists [ii] or “Republicanistas” [i] - have either not read this book (or they are liars). If they had, they would know that:1.) Alinsky’s heroes were the Revolution’s Sam Adams - the original Tea Partier and Founder of “The Sons’ of Liberty” and Thomas Paine (author of the revolutionary pamphlet “Common Sense” - a spark for the American Revolution).2.) – Rules for Radicals is dedicated to Alinsky’s wife - Irene. NOT to Lucifer as alleged by talking heads & writers posing as “constitutional conservatives”. The reference to Lucifer is on the following page. It is actually an oblique reference to Alinsky’s views of the lesson of the interaction between God & Moses (the community organizer) and Moses carefully pointed lesson to God – I.E. - Your word was your bond to the Israelites (Jews). By breaking your covenant (contract), you caused them to go off and worship the Golden Calf… (See Pages: #88- 91.)3.) - Had these Republicans "Emotionalists" bothered to read as far as the prologue they would have known that Alinsky actually despised the antics of William “Billy” Ayers, Huey Newton, Bernadine Dorhn, Chicago-Seven, et-al as childish counterproductive actions by idiots. Who did far more damage to their revolutionary “Cause” by being smelly, dope smoking, long haired hippy freaks calling ordinary Americans - Mother-F-ers’, pigs etc.(prologue-xviii).4.) – Why do these radical Republicanistas’ ignore the most obvious argument against Alinsky?I.E. - Alinsky was in fact a “Capitalist” who profited by charging fees to teach his fundamentals of community organizing.Why do Republican Emotionalists [ii] abhor “Rules for Radicals”?The Republicanistas have been co-worshiping Golden Calf named Abraham (Lincoln) who instead of leading some out of Slavery actually enslaved us all to a National Collectivist Government by destroying the sacred compact of our Founding Fathers. The myth of “Honest Abe” was the creation of Fourierian Socialists and publisher Horace Greeley. This is why the term RINO is a myth. The simple fact is that the Grand Old Party was founded by Utopian Socialists in Ripon, Wisconsin in 1854. This is the reason that our current political discourse is stillborn. There is no actual small government advocacy.I am only sorry that I did not read this book sooner. I thought – What is the big deal? This book is simply Fourth Century B.C. Chinese General Sun Tzu’s maxims from his “The Art of War” plagiarized, rewritten & regurgitated for today’s community organizers… Obama-ites or Clintonites. I was mistaken.“There is no instance of a nation benefitting from prolonged warfare.” - Sun Tzu - I would add that the U.S. Civil War is no exception.What Alinsky did not seem to realize and the “Republicanistas” arrogantly ignore is that the Marxists Revolution and the destruction of the “contract nature” of the U.S .Constitution (aka States’ Rights - Federalism) was destroyed by the Election of 1860 and the Radical Republicans’ Reconstruction. What we commonly refer to as the U.S. Civil War was in reality America’s Un-Revolution, the destruction of the work of Samuel Adams, et-al. and our other Founding Fathers.The radical Republicans may have felt that they did not need lessons on community organizing since they had been endowed, early on, by two of America’s earliest Community Organizers and Terrorists - William Lloyd Garrison & “Pottawatomie” John Brown.Those who claim to be America’s “Truth Detectors” might not be what they claim to be and are in fact our biggest enemies.Suggested reading before reading Rules for Radicals:Essays: Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” & John Locke’s “Second Treatise on Government”Books: To discover the Utopian Socialists roots of the Abolitionist movement & Republican Party: “Lincoln’s Marxists” by Benson & Kennedy - Here: //www.amazon.com/Lincolns-Marxists-Al-Benson-Jr/dp/158980905X/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393076225&sr=8-1&keywords=Lincoln%27s+Marxists – Follow the footnotes and read (sane Abolitionists) William Rawle’s “A View of the Constitution of the United States”. It was the textbook used at West Point.“Karl Marx - On America & The Civil War” - by Saul K. Padover (Editor) Here: //www.amazon.com/Karl-Marx-America-Library-Volume/dp/0070480842/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1393077146&sr=8-2&keywords=Karl+Marx+on+America+%26+the+Civil+WarTo discover who the terrorist “Osawatomie” John Brown actually was. Read: “John Brown, Soldier of Fortune, a Critique" by Hill Peebles Wilson. Here: //www.amazon.com/John-Brown-Soldier-Fortune-Critique/dp/1406998192/ref=sr_sp-btf_title_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393078457&sr=1-4&keywords=john+brown+a+soldier+of+fortuneGet this version – the footnotes are worth it - Not the OCR version. Its footnotes are impossible to follow.Checking the veracity of this book is easy. Simply Google: “James Townsley’s Confession” and Lewis Washington’s Testimony on the inquiry into Browns’ Harper’s Ferry raid. (Or, simply read the entire Mason Committee report - Here: [...]) - Pay attention to Vallandigham’s questioning of Brown. He is not quite the idiot that Rush portrays him to be…[i] – “Republicanistas” [i] – “Rules for Radicals” exposes the arrogant ignorance and negligence of the Talk-Radio “Emotionalists” [ii] - Republican Hacks who claim to be Constitutionally Conservative (meaning small government – compact / contract constitutional theorists). While ignoring the Republicans’ the inculcation of Militant European Marxists “48-ers” into the officer corps of the Union Army.[ii] - “Emotionalist” The term was coined by Columbia Political Science Professor William A. Dunning to describe the Radical Republicans during the founding of America’s Welfare State – Radical Reconstruction.