Alinsky and Interest Groups

An alum of this class runs for office.

One-On-One:

The Alinsky method, which Obama taught long afterward, is centered on one-on-one conversations. The organizer's task is to draw out people's stories, listening for their goals and ambitions -- "the stuff that makes them tick," one of his teachers told him. There he would find the self-interest that would spark activism.

Fellow community organizer Madeline Talbott said Obama mastered the approach. She remembers a successful 1992 voter-registration drive that he ran for Project Vote.

"He says things like, 'Do you think we should do this? What role would you like to play?' " said Talbott, chief organizer for Illinois ACORN. "Everybody else just puts out an e-mail and says, 'Y'all come.' Barack doesn't do that."

Protest, Assembly, and the First Amendment

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Alinsky's 13 Rules of Political Tactics

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 experience 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. (compare with p. 139)
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.

Twelve observations about interest groups

1. Even registered sex offenders have a group.
2. So do frats.
3. Foreign and domestic governments engage in lobbying. 
4. Teach for America is an interest group.
5. Advocacy organizations take several forms.
6. Spending on federal lobbying is equal to or greater than spending on federal elections.
7. And not all advocacy work counts as lobbying.
8. The revolving door keeps revolving.
9. Philanthropy is a form of interest group influence.
10. Think tanks are not always nonpartisan

NEA General Counsel Bob Chanin speaks frankly about power: