Political Organizations: the Lobbies and the Streets

Twelve Things About Interest Groups

1. Even registered sex offenders have a group.
2. So do frats.
3. Lobbyists have their own lobby. Seriously.
4. Foreign and domestic governments engage in lobbying.
5. Teach for America is an interest group.
6. Advocacy organizations take several forms.
7. Spending on federal lobbying is comparable to spending on federal elections.
8. And not all advocacy work counts as lobbying.
9. The revolving door keeps revolving -- especially for shadow lobbyists
10. Philanthropy is a form of interest group influence.
11. Once an interest group buys a friend, it can leverage that friendship.
12. Even think tanks are part of the interest group universe.

NEA General Counsel Bob Chanin speaks frankly about power:




Alinsky's 13 Rules:

• RULE 1: Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.
• RULE 2: Never go outside the experience of your people
• RULE 3: Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy. 
• RULE 4: Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules. 
• RULE 5: Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. 
• RULE 6: A good tactic is one that your people enjoy.
• RULE 7: A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.
• RULE 8: Keep the pressure on, with different tactics and actions, and utilize all events of the period for your purpose.
• RULE 9: The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.
• RULE 10: The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition. 
• RULE 11: If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counterside. 
• RULE 12: The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. 
• RULE 13. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.