Who will carry forth the Alinsky torch?

Reader Terri Wagner asked how I could compare Rush Limbaugh and Saul Alinsky. Rush has all the qualities Alinsky hoped for in an organizer of people. He uses humor effectively. I dare you to listen to Rush for an hour and not get a chuckle. He is comfortable with conflict. He daily engages the liberal enemy in conflict. He instinctively understands that the action is in the reaction. That is, the liberal establishment daily reveals its fear of Rush. Rush plays back their words, then rolls right into the action, ridiculing anyone who dares to take him on.

A superb communicator like Obama, Rush does not make the fatal mistake Obama makes, which is to have contempt for the great middle class of America. Just the opposite; he is ever-confident, lending the strength of his ego to millions of people, encouraging people to have faith in themselves and in the American dream of self-reliance, freedom, and private enterprise. Rush has earned the trust of a great swath of the American middle class, something Alinsky wanted to do, but his untimely death at age 63 prevented him from pursuing that dream.

Tactics? No one understands the effective use of tactics like Rush Limbaugh. Alinsky noted in his book Rules for Radicals that our founders conspiculously omitted all the advantages the colonies had gained from the British, and cited only the disadvantages. Why? Because, as Alinsky noted, "before men will act, an issue must be polarized" and, I might add, personalized. Do you know anyone who does a better job of that than Rush Limbaugh?

Rush is amazingly well-organized personally, always staying on top of current events. He is imaginative and well prepared.

Last night on the way home from work I listened to talk show host Billy Cunningham touting a Sean Hannity-for-President candidacy in 2012. We have many brilliant spokespersons: Glenn Beck, and Laura Ingraham also have huge audiences. It should be noted that, like Obama, Limbaugh has used this expertise for his own personal advantage, reaping an income of $38 million dollars a year, but doing so by advocating private enterprise and putting those principles into practice through his own initiative and brilliance and perseverance. Obama, on the other hand, got there by advocating big government, and becoming its head, and he now lives the most lavish of personal lifestyles, funded by the taxes of private citizens.

Saul Alinsky was all about empowering people. Rush and Obama have succeeded in empowering themselves. Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity seem to have a really good knack of organizing people to take action (Sean's Freedom Concerts and Glenn's encouraging of people's participation in Tea Parties and Town Hall meetings).