The American Spectator : The Real Problem With ACORN

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The Real Problem With ACORN

By William Tucker on 10.13.09 @ 6:09AM

When idealism gives way to moral gangsterism.

(Page 2 of 2)

As I carried on I suddenly realized the man had tears in his eyes. It came across me in a rush. They had worked on this land all their lives, feeding themselves, raising children, fending off god knows what kind of adversity -- and now I was telling them they could become dependent on the government. I finally apologized and left. I left that field thinking, "I wonder if I'm doing the right thing down here."

Eventually I soured on welfare in a number of ways. Even with the women it was doing no good. They had no sense of self-sufficiency. It was just a sophisticated form of begging. They would develop a sense of entitlement so that "getting ahead" simply meant making more and more strident demands on more and more people.

And that's what Wade Rathke seems to have picked up on. He said on the Fox show that when funding ran out for welfare rights he moved to Little Rock to start his own community organizing effort, based on that same sense of endless grievance. ACORN became skilled at moral gangsterism, shaking down governments and corporations for larger and larger amounts, making ever more ridiculous demands. (A former worker said on the show she became disillusioned when she realized ACORN was asking Sherwin-Williams for $1 billion as reparations for having manufactured lead-based paint. The money, of course, would go into ACORN's coffers.)

And that's where ACORN did itself in. It wasn't just an accident that the women in ACORN offices were willing to hand out advice on how to set up a brothel and dodge income taxes by claiming underage Central American prostitutes as dependents. ACORN simply doesn't produced good citizens. The organization is saturated with the sense that the world is one big shakedown and that anything you do to increase your share is justified.

At the end of the show, Rathke said he isn't discouraged. He's gone abroad to found ACORN chapters in Latin America, the Philippines and India. I hope the rest of the world is ready for this kind of gangster politics. And I hope Rathke is prepared to discover that in the big wide world out there he may not have the monopoly on moral cynicism.

Page: < 12

topics:
ACORN, Wade Rathke, Community Organizing

About the Author

William Tucker is the author of Terrestrial Energy: How Nuclear Power Will Lead the Green Revolution and End America's Energy Odyssey.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (49) | Leave a comment

Campy| 10.13.09 @ 7:13AM

It isn't simply that ACORN doesn't produce good citizens; entitlement by it's very definition precludes reward of personal pride and confidence which comes from self-determined achievement, ability and responsibility; there's no acknowledgment of value... the reason for the elderly couple's tears. So how do we expect entitlement to produce good citizens?

Alan Brooks| 10.13.09 @ 7:52PM

You are all correct. But when we dislike govt but want govt to give megabucks to each of our grandparents who often don't even need financial help, then we erode the premise of a smaller state. No, I don't suggest means testing, because that just makes the Gordian Knot of statism more...gnarly.

There is no solution for decades, at least.

Alan Brooks| 10.14.09 @ 12:23AM

BTW, compared to me, Mencken was an optimist; a 19th industrial-optimist.

Alan Brooks| 10.14.09 @ 12:25AM

...pardon'
Mencken, IMO, was a 19th century industrio-rationalist.

Melvin| 10.13.09 @ 7:35AM

"Sophisticated begging." I never quite heard welfare put that way, but the more I think about it the more correct it is.
Another way to look at this is, during the 2005 Tsunami that struck in the Indian Ocean, a reporter found the most pitiful looking individual that they could find and was asking this man questions and somewhere the conversation turned to Hurricane Katrina victims. The old fella made a comment that has stayed with me since both of those events and his comment to the reporter was, "Here in my country the poor are so skinny and we live in very small huts and the poor in your country are so fat and live in large houses."
This man was eluding to that fact that most Katrina victims were obese and helpless and couldn't or wouldn't provide for themselves and just waited on the government to provide.
In my travels around the world during various natural calamities especially in Asia, people draw together and help themselves out and begin rebuilding immediately after the typhoons pass. Here in the US after a hurricane many stand helplessly in waste deep water crying, "Where's FEMA!"

Bram| 10.13.09 @ 3:24PM

I just has the same reaction. I always had a distinct dislike for government handouts but could never explain it very well.

"a sophisticated form of begging" is a perect term for it and why I despise it.

Roark| 10.13.09 @ 6:08PM

Dependency is the purest and most insidious form of subjegation.

Big J| 10.13.09 @ 8:06AM

"Here in the US after a hurricane many stand helplessly in waste deep water crying, "Where's FEMA!" ".

I don't wholeheartedly agree, Melvin.

There is a stark contrast between the way New Orleans dealt with their natural disaster and the way we Texans deal with them. In neighborhoods all around south Texas, entire streets would join together in cleaning up each others yards, sharing food, and generator power. Our mayor literally tried to kick FEMA out because they were doing more harm than good.

That's the difference in a group dependent on welfare their entire lives and self sufficiency.

CC| 10.14.09 @ 11:23PM

I grew up on the Gulf of Mexico (FL panhandle), lived through many a hurricane. You pull yourself together, start cleaning up and know that it might happen again next month or next year. It's going to happen again. You decide if can live with it or not. I am so sick of the "Katrina Victims". You chose to be a victim or not.

Becky| 10.13.09 @ 8:08AM

I have never heard about traditional patterns of marriage among blacks both in America and Africa, and found it interesting.

Chronic dependency on the state robs the receipients of self efficacy; the inability to do for themselves, or to believe they can. I believe they call it learned helplessness.

The story about ACORN could be applied to any organization that is not deligent about its stated mission, and not choosy about its members. Most non profits are vulnerable to being philosophically hijacked, but ACORN started out philosophically challenged, and thrived by people not understanding or knowing much about it.

I have heard that the government has made forming a 501(c)3 harder because a great number are formed, overlap an existing organization (think how many popped up when Katrina hit), and are hard to monitor.

After being involved in a few, I have come to the conclusion, very few of them are worth it in the long run. If they collect money to directly help out the poor, I think I would go with the Salvation Army over even my own church.

R Martin| 10.13.09 @ 8:38AM

It's a bit odd that after campaigning effectively and successfully for "welfare rights" (am I the only one who shuddered at those words?) Mr. Tucker laments that recipients developed a sense of entitlement and lost self sufficiency. Duh! At least he saw the light...eventually.

Unfortunately Mr. Tucker is in the minority when it comes to such insight. The movement he helped propagate has become entrenched, it has its own strong political proponents and it is growing in areas beyond the narrow definition of welfare.

One such area is the invasive multi-culti industry. The philosophy of that industry has pretty much taken over American schools and universities. Today our children are being indoctrinated with a new batch of entitlements which in effect represent a broad quota system and lend credibility to Mr. Tucker’s observation that "getting ahead" simply means making more and more strident demands on more and more people. Sadly, the teaching of these new entitlements has relegated more traditional education to a lower status.

Andrew B| 10.13.09 @ 8:42AM

I believe that nothing on Earth is so perfectly designed to strip away a human's dignity as unnecessary dependence. My father never deprived me of anything essential, but he made me feel uncomfortable asking for more. I resented the hell out of him then, but I now see that he taught me a valuable lesson.

Earning one's own way in life is one of the greatest gifts a person can possess. I may not have much, but what I have is MINE.

Karen| 10.14.09 @ 10:07AM

Andrew,
My parents did the same thing, they learned it from their parents who called it going "cap in hand". It was considered shameful to go begging for something rather than working to attain it. Working for and EARNING what I have is infinitely satsifying.

fred| 10.13.09 @ 9:07AM

There are always unintended consequences.
When Welfare was reformed, women could no longer collect extra money for each child.
Planned parenthood moved their abortiontoriums into poor neighborhoods and now black women have 40% of all abortions yet represent only 13% of the female population.

Melvin| 10.13.09 @ 9:10AM

Exactly Big J, that is the comparison that I was trying to make between the differences of the self-reliant, and the helpless that could be self-reliant if the desire to do so was present.

Michael L. Hauschild| 10.13.09 @ 10:06AM

When I was in the service it was SOP to team up with someone who you could count on to "watch your back." My partner was a young man from St. Louis. Correspondence was delivered in the field whenever possible and "mail call" was always a bright spot in our drudgery. My partner got a letter from a girl back home saying that she was pregnant with his child. He seemed happy about this and I asked him if he was going to marry her on his return. He actually laughed at my ignorance of the black culture and proceeded to educate me on the male role in such a situation.
Now, if anyone here thinks that the plight of the "welfare culture" is to be solved economically or educationally they are smoking the ganja. This attitude and lifestyle is so prevalent and ingrained, enabled by the "new deal" that there is no longer even the remotest memory of personal responsibility in many of the benefactors of the government dole. There is going to be a considerable amount of suffering for some very innocent children, very soon. The seemingly endless stream of money has run out. The anger of the diminishing few paying for this debacle will only be equaled by the anger of the increasingly greater number ACORN enabled recipients that will be denied.

Al Adab| 10.13.09 @ 11:20AM

Let's not limit the concern to ACORN alone. Every one of these publicly funded NGOs is inherently corrupt by virtue of their funding. They lobby for ever more3 money from taxpayers to pursue their personal agendas often in opposition to the public interest. We were warned that when people could vote themselves money from the public weal there would be problems. Again the founders, with their wisely placed distrust of government, were right.

JimJam| 10.13.09 @ 11:41AM

Someday the minorities will discover that the only way to achieve true power is through self reliance and achievement. For over a hundred years the carpetbaggers have been throwing money to the poor and minority population in the form of welfare in order to keep them "in their place" and "victims" of society. If Jesse and Al had preached the truth, as someone like Bill Cosby or Alan Keyes does, the welfare mess we are in now may have been avoided a long time ago.

Michael Tomlinson| 10.13.09 @ 11:50AM

If that ugly guy in the picture posted on TAS represents ACORN leadership then man they are in trouble. Ugly!

Margie| 10.13.09 @ 5:59PM

Yep. There's reason why these guys look so scary!

Son Of Sam| 10.13.09 @ 11:59AM

ACORN, like all ObamaNazi organizations, is nothing more than attack against the middle class. It does very little to help the poor and downtrodden, because the poor are only useful to the likes of ACORN as battering rams to be used against us. And just as the so-called "war on poverty" has eaten up TRILLIONS of middle class dollars, thrown the poor a dogbone to gnaw on, but built gigantic, billion dollar unaccountable government bureaucracies, so is ACORN nothing more than a shakedown racket. Only, they're smart enough to keep their attacks aimed at the middle class: they would never DREAM of touching the Kennedys, the Hollywood set, Congressmen, lobbyists, ambulance chasing lawyers, etc.

btw, want to know how you can tell you're middle class? Simple: if you have to get up every morning, oh say at about I don't know, 5am (my case) or 6 am (my wife), go to do a job all day to get the money to pay your bills, then you're middle class. On the other hand, if your needs are met by the taxpayers, then you're either on welfare or dispensing it. Or, if your needs are met by a trust fund, then you're living off the 5am wakeup times of someone who died after a lifetime of work

stand strong until freedom dawns
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http://www.samadamssos.bravehost.com

Kris Lepine| 10.13.09 @ 12:46PM

As an evangelican Christian most of my adult life, I recall a chapter out of one of Chuck Colsen's excellent books. It told how the Jewish prisoners maintained a will to live in the most horrendous conditions anyone can imagine. Why was that? Because they had meaningful work to do, even when it was done under slave conditions. Shortly before they were rescued, the Nazi's changed the working conditions for the prisoners and began having the workers move a pile of dirt from one end of the grounds to the other. Day after day, week after week it was the same. Then the men began commiting suicide, some throwing themselves into the electric fence. I see the suicide of drug and alcohol abuse a similar result of our welfare programs. God made us and meaningful work is important to our mental and spiritual health. Kris Lepine

Al Adab| 10.13.09 @ 5:33PM

Indeed I recall the same story from Colsen and indeed the comfort of dependancy inures us to our humanity. Without purpose, without hope (irony) our very nature as human beings, our self-worth if you will, falters. Government, through well intended act, dehumanizes the very people the intend to help. The road to where is paved with good intentions?

Margie| 10.13.09 @ 6:02PM

Hey you guys, it's Colson. And I love him. Get his e newsletters at Breakpoint.org

Al Adab| 10.13.09 @ 6:13PM

Right, Margie. My apologies to Chuck.

Tim| 10.13.09 @ 12:47PM

Son Of Sam....Bravo!! Well said.

Tish| 10.13.09 @ 1:28PM

I can't understand how any liberal/progressive could stand to look at the victims of Katrina, the hundreds of people who just sat, waiting for someone else to save them, having long ago sacrificed their dignity and self-reliance for a government check. Liberals have farmed those people as surely as any slave owner ever did. The government plantation is quite efficient at harvesting souls, but since it regards them as valueless, it tosses them into a corner to rot.

Margie| 10.13.09 @ 6:04PM

Excellent post. You paint the true picture.

Marc Jeric| 10.13.09 @ 2:02PM

We declared War on Poverty some 44 years ago. What is the definition of victory in this ongoing war? What is our exit strategy? How come the far-left never asked tose questions?

Mick| 10.13.09 @ 5:18PM

The down trodden are but cannon fodder for all the political shake down artists. It is clear to me these people are all a Cancer on America and the sooner they are excised the better.

Kent| 10.13.09 @ 10:34PM

Interesting article. Sad to hear how young idealistic students went down South to recruit independent minded and capable people into becoming wards of the state. I don't care if it was legal - slavery was legal for a time. Making people slaves to government is no better than being a slave to a master. I have read some of Charles Murray's (I think it was Murray) commentary on early 19th century illigitimacy rates - among both blacks and whites. I believe the rate in the black community in the 30s and 40s was about 6%, versus 2-3 % for whites. Both these groups have mastered illigitimacy and their numbers are much higher now, with the black community figures definitely helped along by the aggressive promotion of the welfare state. I believe I have also read Thomas Sowell and Clarence Thomas speak of very conservative family values being the norm when they were growing up. This is not the picture Mr. Tucker paints, and I tend to think Sowell and Thomas had better insight into this.

Kent| 10.13.09 @ 10:36PM

Make that early 20th century illegitimacy rates in the comment above.

Richard Baker| 10.14.09 @ 8:43AM

Moral gangsterism, a nice turn of phrase, was the reason behind the founding of ACORN, not uplift or anything else. Listen to the founders of this criminal enterprise and you'll know the truth. Moral? ACORN?

Robert| 10.14.09 @ 7:48PM

Nothing like a big, deep, and nasty Greater Depression to wipe out the insanities like the welfare state, the entitlement mentality, and Keynsianism. And if the Democrats do pass government control of access to medical care, the Greater Depression should wipe that out, too. Those who have chosen to be dependent on others are about to learn a very hard lesson, assuming they survive it.

The Quadfather| 10.15.09 @ 1:22AM

This idea that welfare is a "right" is what got us in our current troubles. Those who live off the teat of government should be denied the right to vote. If they want a say in the way government is run, then they get off the teat, and after about five years of self sufficiency, they can vote again. If they are on the teat for more than five years contiguos or not, they lose the right to vote permanently. Voting should only be for the responsible. And if saying that makes me racist, so...?

William Free| 12.28.09 @ 12:37PM

Racist? Most people on welfare are white.

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