Sarah Palin and the Alinsky Treatment

This youtube video is making the rounds.



This downright mocking of Governor Palin is the latest reincarnation of the same kind of mocking that both the MSM and Hollywood have engaged in since Palin first burst on the scene in September of last year.

In fact, the treatment that Palin has undertaken is straight of the Saul Alinsky rules for radicals #13.

identify, isolate, freeze and escalate

Palin's first appearance in that gym in Ohio in September was a springboard to national prominence. Within hours, the derision and mocking also began. What's most interesting was the immediate mocking and derision from leaders of the feminist movement.

When I saw that John McCain had picked Sarah Palin as his running mate this morning, I was on the elliptical trainer, and my rage propelled me to the most furious workout I've had in a while.It's always exciting to see women enter the political fray at higher levels. But a lot of feminists out there, are appalled by the cynicism and condescension inherent in this choice. It's as though the McCain camp believes our irrational she-hormones will lead us, like sheep, to pull the lever for any candidate who looks like us--even if she has a strong record, as Palin does, of standing against women's interests.

He hopes to court Hillary Clinton supporters with a woman VP who said on camera that she didn't like Hillary's "whining" about gender issues, a woman with unpopular, far-right positions on reproductive justice issues and LGBT rights. She's a woman who rides high on being a super-mom, but has an environmental record that won't leave the world in good shape for the next generation, her kids' generation.

Almost immediately, self professed feminists showed the most protest of the choice of Palin as the Vice Presidential choice for the Republican party. This was rather peculiar because while Palin is of course a woman, she has never been necessarily known specifically for feminist issues. So, why were feminists in particular so bent out of shape?

Well, let's take a look at Alinsky rule #13. The first part of the rule is to identify the threat. The feminists identified Palin right away as a threat, a threat that is to their leadership in the movement. (in other words they could see Palin as a role model to women) The second rule is the isolate the threat. By mocking her and calling her out as someone that isn't a friend to the feminist movement, that's exactly what they were doing. The third rule is to freeze. What this means is to do everything you can to stop some one's momentum. Column after column portraying her not as a feminist but an enemy to the feminist cause was meant to do this. This is a bit off topic, but all those ethical complaints that have been filed against her within Alaska also do a great job of freezing Palin as she has to deal with each individual complaint. The last part of the rule is to escalate. This means that as intense as the criticism was in the beginning, that was only the beginning. We have seen this. The mocking, derision, and insults have only gotten worse. It's simple. Feminists saw Palin as a threat to their leadership and, consciously or not, they carried out Alinsky tactics to eliminate that threat to their power.

Beyond the leaders of the feminist movement, it was the MSM and their allies in Hollywood that carried out these very same tactics over and over. How many times have we heard mocking jokes about Palin seeing Russia from her house? How many jokes have been made about her daughter's pregnancy? Everything from her accent, her looks, and her intelligence have been mocked. What the MSM and Hollywood have done is fixate on each and every of her flaws, real and perceived, and pounded on them over and over in an attempt to marginalize Palin. They have identified the threat,Palin. They isolated that threat by mocking her. This froze her momentum, and since, they have only escalated the mocking and derision.

Make no mistake, I am not saying that politicians shouldn't be the target of jokes. I am also not saying that everytime a media or comedian makes a joke they are trying Alinsky tactics. This is different. The jokes and derision are intense, consistent, and they never end. This is all part of a larger strategy. It's meant to do exactly what Saul Alinsky meant for these tactics to do. Identify, freeze, isolate, and escalate are tried and true tactics for countering and marginalizing an opponent.

I have already given my advice for what I would do if I were Sarah Palin to respond to these attacks. On a personal level, I am sure that anyone that can win a state championship on a bum ankle can take the attacks from the likes of David Letterman. On a political level, Palin would need to turn these attacks on the attackers. They are coming entirely from folks that can be labeled as establishment, elites, and insiders. Most of America is none of those. If she makes the case that these attacks are coming from insiders that don't care about the folks in most of America, she can use them to create a populist theme.