ACORN's Real Crime: Empowering the Poor

ACORN's Real Crime: Empowering the Poor
By Jim Hightower, Hightower Lowdown
Posted on January 25, 2010, Printed on January 25, 2010
http://www.alternet.org/story/145371/

The name Felix Walker is not one you would recognize, but this 19th-century congressman inadvertently contributed a word to America's political lexicon that you will recognize--a word that fairly well sums up a lot of what we're getting these days from right-wing politicos and pundits.

In the 1820s, Walker was the U.S. representative for Buncombe County, North Carolina. In an age of great political orators, Walker was not one. He was a droner, a dull fellow known for expressing his dullness at great length on every topic. No matter what issue was up for debate in the House--no matter whether he had any real knowledge, facts, or insights to add--Walker would rise to speak, insisting that his constituents back home would want his voice heard. He would then launch into a wandering, wearisome, often-nonsensical discourse that he always called "a speech for Buncombe."

Exasperated colleagues began to refer to Walker's interminable prattling as "just so much buncombe," a phrase that has been passed down to us as "bunk"--a synonym for meaningless political claptrap.

We've been getting an overload of bunk in recent weeks from a gaggle of Fox-brained Republican Congress critters. They've been flapping their gums to demonize and destroy a grassroots group that has offended them by--get ready to be outraged--organizing and helping to empower thousands of Americans who live in low-income and working-class neighborhoods all across the country.

ACORN is this grassroots group. For four decades, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now has been going door to door, neighborhood to neighborhood, to extend basic democratic tools to people who've been dissed and dismissed by the political system. What ACORN's effort amounts to is civic education. Few members of the local chapters have ever been active in community decision making. After all, that process is usually held in the tight grip of moneyed interests who reside and work in distant, much tonier zip codes, and regular folks rarely are welcome.

Through ACORN, however, these powerless ones get an immersion in self-help democracy, learning how to operate in the public sphere to become both political and economic players. They form their own neighborhood organizations, elect officers, and choose a set of issues to push--from bank redlining to better garbage pickup, from rip-off utility bills to enforcement of antipollution regulations. They soon discover that working together, they have actual power to get things done through direct actions, group negotiations, and voter participation.

This democratization process is the essence of self-government, and ACORN has been remarkably successful at it. Having organized half a million members into 1,200 neighborhood chapters in 110 cities and 39 states, the group has become our nation's most effective voice of, by, and for modest-income families. As a Texas ACORN member put it, "Once you get involved, you will never be satisfied with grumbling again. After getting organized and making change happen, you can never go back to doing nothing."

Continued>>>
http://www.alternet.org/story/145371/acorn%27s_real_crime%3A_empowering_the_poor

At least one of the victims of the Right's free-lance "sting" has sued.

There have also been a number of recent news stories recounting Acorn's many exonerations.

Prediction: Within a year or two, this is going to prove far more damaging to the GOP than to either Acorn, the Democratic Party, President Obama, or the Left in general.

--d!

empowers the have not. I found it strange why conservatives found a person like Saul Alinsky a threat and use his name as if he was some kind of criminal. I didn't know who he was until 2008 and the election when I was bombarded with right wing emails listing their "enemies of America" like the ACLU, Acorn, Unions, Bill Ayers, etc. I think the the right wing and the corporate MSM keeps the good work of community organizers out of the mainstream on purpose to make it easier to criticize these groups as subversive, or trouble makers. I mean America is perfect right? Then there is no need to complain.

Don't attack your opponent where they are weak. These "Mayberry Machiavellis" attack where their opponents are stronges - trying to shut down the biggest weapons in their opponent's arsenal, and covering their own weaknesses in the process.
The Repugnicants have huge problems with free and fair elections - so they attack a "librul" orginisation devoted to empowering "the wrong kind" of voters.

As long as the votes are counted.