Why does the right wing have a fetish for ACORN?

[Politics_Guy25]

I didn't even know anything about ACORN until October 2008 to be perfectly honest and I don't get why the freepers are so obsessed with it? ACORN is a group of community organizers right? The only thing I can think of is that community organizers might have helped increase the turnout in November. Did ACORN's turnout operation help to tip the scales in close states like OH, FL, IN and NC in November for President Obama and without ACORN's efforts turnout would have been lower and Mccain would have won OH, FL, IN and NC, etc?

I can see why the GOP would be out to destroy them in THAT case but if ACORN had nothing to do with the electoral results, why are Fox and the GOP so obsessed with them? Indeed, why are they even an issue? It's insane.

The other thing I can guess is that since the President was once a community organizer, the righties think that he must have been associated with ACORN by definition since they are community organizers as well when he had really next to nothing to do with them?

Basically, what is it about ACORN that terrifies the GOP so much?

[Sanity Claws]

1. Maybe they're squirrels or another rodent that likes acorns

[Tony_FLADEM]

2. They register poor and minority people to vote most of whom register as Democrats

[Lorien]

5. plus they got the minimum wage increased and help the poor

re-negotiate their mortgages. it's a class war, and ACORN has been on the front lines on our side for decades.

[TheKentuckian]

14. Right and I hope it turns around and brings down the military industrial complex with it

We need to be trumpeting Grayson's bill that applies the ACORN standards to all that defraud the government to the heavens. Most of the big contractors have already been busted time and time again.

This should be made the sweetest lemonade of all time and in the end when ACORN is found not to have actually done shit they'll get all they need. This is billboard, commercial, and march worthy stuff that can bring unbearable pressure because you can take the jackass teabagers on a ride to a shotgun wedding.

This kat is sharp and gutsy but we need to be more interested in his bill than his balls.

[Politics_Guy25]

7. That's what I was afraid of!

WHY did Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid so willingly cut off their funding then!! Let the GOP squak. Those people NEED to be on the ground registering voters and making sure that the voice of the people are heard. Let Fox scream.

I knew it had to have something to do with voter registration or turnout. I'd like to know who Pelosi and Reid think will replace ACORN's voter registration efforts.

[bunkerbuster1]

10. Well, the "funding cutoff" = something like 3% of ACORN's revenue

That doesn't excuse that lily-livered vote by wayyy too many Democrats, who really never miss an opportunity to piss on their progressive base.

[creeksneakers2]

34. I heard on NPR Friday

That the videos cost ACORN lots of corporate support.

[Enthusiast]

42. Never trust NPR

as a source of untainted information. They have become a conduit for GOP talking points.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

19. AND THAT IS WHY I WILL PERSONALLY GO OUT AND DO THE SAME

JUST GO TO THE REGISTRAR, GET FORMS AND GO OUT ON YOUR OWN.

MY ONE VOTE CAN BECOME HUNDREDS

[RBInMaine]

3. They are fucking crazy. Riding the fucking crazy train all the way to looney land. Nuff said.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

20. AND THEY ARE DANGEROUS TO OUR DEMOCRACY

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

4. Honestly, it's mainly because much of their work involves helping minorities in their communities,

with voter registration etc.

It's a way to keep the racist flames burning, really. That's why if you turn on Glenn Beck's show or Hannity there's still so much dwelling on Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Wright is a totally irrelevant issue at this point, what's relevant is Pres. Obama's record as PRESIDENT, but it's another way to keep SCARY BLACKS on TV.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

29. Hit the nail on the head. The rightwing's nature is to keep minorities down so they can thrive.

[TlalocW]

6. The GOP's plan - which they really worked on the last 8 years

Has been to keep people from voting democratic - by keeping them from registering or kicking them off the voting roles to begin with. ACORN has been very successful at getting the "wrong" kind of people registered to vote.

TlalocW

[bunkerbuster1]

8. Mostly it's a boogyman, but there's some reason for their terror.

I've heard that ACORN's registered over a million voters, predominantly poor/working class, obviously more likely to vote against Republicans, so naturally Republicans hate ACORN.

I will admit to being a little surprised by the right wing's nuttiness and obsession with the organization, but then the right have become a self-parody these days, so maybe I shouldn't be.

Anyway, I'll just wrap up by saying your suspicions are correct. They're scared of Americans actually voting; they always have been.

See also this classic clip from Paul Weyfirch, which pretty much explains it all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GBAsFwPglw

"I don't want everybody to vote. ... As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections goes up as the voting populus goes down."

[Politics_Guy25]

11. But Pelosi and Reid say "who cares" to all of that

succumb to the GOP noise machine and screw us for future elections. Pathetic!!!!!!!!

They need to grow a spine.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

9. The Soviet Union is dead...

so anti-communisim doesn't work.

Many of their key leaders are closet queens. So the anti-gay thing doesn't work.

Conservatives require a demon. Now it's ACORN's turn.

[HughBeaumont]

39. Hasn't stopped them much though.

At those TeaBirther parties I saw more Red-Baiting than a McCarthy hearing.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

53. Part of their retro-charm...

I actually heard a wingnut use the word "Pinko" a few weeks ago. Talk about a blast from the past!

[HelenWheels]

12. Because it's easy for their freakin idiots to remember

so acorn becomes the whipping boy for all the faults, that way their idiot assholes don't have to engage their brains at all.

[thunder rising]

18. yeah, but it's hard to spell with 5 chars and such. Really, most wingers don't even know

what they do. They have been told to hate and that's what they do.

[Beartracks]

13. Because if they in any way seem liberal...

... then they must be bad.

That's about it in a nutshell from the Republican Party perspective.

[CatholicEdHead]

15. They need to win something about the 2008 Election

they lost the election, so someone has to pay, they need their pound of flesh. ACORN was a Election 2008 talking point so it has to go down, they need to beat someone or there is no meaning to their lives. ACORN is the scapegoat as to why Republicans lost the 2008 election :crazy: .

It is similar with the birthers, as a Rush Limbaugh Election 2008 talking point took a life of its own.

[Avalux]

16. Because to them, Acorn = Obama.

I think they were hoping for another Whitewater or something they could drag out that would give Obama a black eye and diminish his credibility.

Everything they do is about hurting Obama.

[iceman66]

17. Because

they believe their own bullshit story from the last election that ACORN fraud got Obama elected.

For a while there last September and October Fox News practically became the ACORN Conspiracy Network. CNN devoted considerable time to the (non) issue as well.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

22. WHO IS UN-RECING THIS THREAD ???????????

I RECCED AND IT WAS +8, RELOADED A MINUTE LATER AND IT WAS +6

[Lerkfish]

26. should be obvious.

who would want this thread to go away?

[JTFrog]

50. Capslock....

[Helga Scow Stern]

21. Because Acorn makes democracy work....

meaning even poor people get a vote. Plutocratic interests fear this so they stir up the propaganda puppets and try to ruin them.

Simple.

The propaganda machine is so slick....

[Cronus Protagonist]

23. Acorns look like cute little penises

We can't have tax money spent on that, now, can we?

[annabanana]

24. See if you can find Rachel Maddows shows from last week.

She goes into it in some depth. Names names, etc.

ACORN has been registering poor people to vote for decades, and they have fought hard for both minimum wage standards, and the concept of a (gasp) "living wage". . . and are therefore "the enemy" to all Chamber of Commerce types.

[Lerkfish]

25. reps: "I SEE BLACK PEOPLE"

its dogwhistling racism, pure and simple.
Republicans don't want black people to vote, and they view ACORN's efforts as a way to register more black people (although I don't think their perceptions are correct).

bottom line, is republicans will fight, tooth and nail, to prevent democracy from happening because they have the money, but not the numbers, to win elections.

[Alcibiades]

35. Too true

They mistake ACORN for the Black Panthers. The folks--who I always call the George Wallace people--who have these fears know that, in a just world, they have something coming to them. It's a cultural continuation of the old fear of slave rebellions.

[CBR]

27. A friend of mine is the Director of our local ACORN...

she does horribly work like increasing street lighting, running health screenings, working on anti-violence campaigns and distributing information about energy efficiency. The Horror!

[elias7]

28. Misdirection play by big boys away from true voter fraud

We point to 8 years of voting irregularities since advent of computerized voting systems so they point to ACORN and think things are even.

[hileeopnyn8d]

30. They are an easy target.

Because right-wingers/Fox are not overly concerned about truth, ACORN is an easy group concentrate on. The truth is Obama never worked with/for ACORN, but he did work with Project Vote and at sometime Project Vote worked with ACORN. Or maybe they didn't, but that doesn't matter, because once they say it the truth becomes irrelevant.

And yes, it all comes down to what they do, and who they do it for - minorities and poor people.

I believe they've even tried to tie the sub-prime mortgage crisis on ACORN, because they fought against red-lining. It doesn't matter that none of these people even understand what redlining was/is what they know is - black people got mortgages.

And to them that means - Black people got mortgages + black people are irresponsible/welfare queens + black people caused our economy to collapse + ACORN and Democrats are responsible for this + Obama worked for ACORN + Obama is a Democrat + Obama is black = black people are destroying our country and now one of them is in charge.

That's what the average Fox viewer believes, that's what the pundits and republicans want them to believe. But the man behind the curtain is mostly concerned with one thing - minorities & poor people cannot be allowed to vote.

I remember back during the election arguing with a right-winger about ACORN. I've rarely been so pissed off, hurt and insulted as I was that day. It was personal to me. My mom volunteered for ACORN in the 70s, my mother is not/was not overly radical, she was just trying to help our neighborhood before it collapsed into ruin. She had already witnessed that very thing happen in our old neighborhood and saw the signs (along with ACORN) that it was about to happen to this one if the community didn't do something about it. I tried to explain that working for or volunteering for this group didn't make someone intrinsically connected to individuals who may have been accused of some wrongdoing. That the guilt by association was impossible to conclude based on the very nature of the group. That it would be no different than being in a PTA or HOA and then years later one member being accused of a crime.

I tried to explain what it was that ACORN did in my neighborhood - gather petition signatures and organize protests with the support and help of the local churches. And what it accomplished. You see, there were several city employees - housing inspectors etc. that were completely corrupt. They had financial interest in multiple properties throughout Philadelphia, either by outrightly owning them themselves or their friends and family members owned them. Others were simply being paid off to ignore code violations, lead paint, and extremely unsafe living conditions.

Repeated pleas with City Hall to address the fraud were ignored, until an entire block of row-homes that were mostly rentals burned to the ground because of faulty systems. I can't remember whether it was electrical or gas or both, but they had all been inspected and signed off on just prior to the fire, despite tenants complaints to the city housing office. In that fire, children died, again escape from the fire made nearly impossible due to non-working backdoors and windows.

ACORN and area church organizations worked together to both collect money/clothes/etc. and petition city hall. And it worked, there was an investigation and I believe several city officials were convicted.

Anyway, my explanations and personal story in regards to ACORN fell on deaf ears. I was mocked, my mom was mocked, and community organizers were mocked. And they went right back to using words like thug, criminal and radical to describe these clipboard carrying volunteers.

Dehumanizing is their specialty.

Sorry for such a long and rambling post that probably didn't say anything we didn't/don't already know...

[creeksneakers2]

36. That's an interesting post

I learned some things from it. Thank you.

[hileeopnyn8d]

38. You're welcome, and

thank you for saying so. :)

I screwed up though, because I made it sound like the President had no connection with ACORN, leaving out the motor-voter case he worked on as a lawyer. But ACORN wasn't the only group involved in that, and that still makes his connection to them equal or less than that of my mothers.

I teased my mother this summer when the ACORN stuff first came up, that I would never be president now because of her. That, and my father was secretary of his union local for awhile. In right wing terms that makes my parents "union thugs" and "Saul Alinsky radicals" when reality is they were hard-working working class people concerned with their community and their workplace.

I remember when those were good things.

[GirlAfire]

40. Excellent Post

...and it wasn't long enough! It was quite enjoyable and informative. :)

[90-percent]

31. FAUX NOISE

I was flipping channels and saw parts of a one hour documentary on FAUX telling all about the poop on ACORN.

I was half asleep and don't want to devote any share of my existence to Fox ever, but, I think the main thing they are going after is that there's a guy on top of ACORN that's like a George Soros Richard Melon Scaife type of guy that is using ACORN for a cover for dubious business practices and propaganda or something.

I think the underlying reason is as described here - they help poor people and register the poor, who seem to register democratic most of the time.

I think the reasons FAUX NOISE uses to sell their anti-poor people crusade is, however, quite a bit different and they are doing a great job of demonizing what ACORN is all about through lying and very very selective reporting.

If that helps.

ACORN was never on my radar until Fox cooked up this jihad against them recently. I went to the Hartford Sept 11 tea party 'protest' and I got a lot of under the breath comments that I was paid to be there by acorn. I've never even met anybody in ACORN in my whole life. PS - my sign said "TEA BAGGERS ARE ASTROTURF PUPPETS OF FASCIST CORPORATIONS" and I was the only counter protester in the crowd of 200 to 400.

-90% Jimmy

[madmom]

32. Because a community organizer is making them look bad. They blame Obama for every

"bad" thing that has/is happening to the repug party right now.

[olegramps]

33. The death of Jim Crow has been greatly exaggerated. He is alive and thriving thanks to Republicans.

[wildflowergardener]

37. Acorn

I think it's because they think Acorn helped steal the election. People really didn't vote for Obama is their thought (IMO).

[Enthusiast]

43. Really, the more ignorant

members of the tea bagger movement do believe the election was stolen. Of course this is absurd.

[Enthusiast]

41. The only possible way

the GOP can win another presidential race (ever) is by suppressing the minority vote. Killing voter registration by disabling ACORN has been a priority for the GOP since before the election.

[Orsino]

44. ACORN helps "the wrong element" vote.

That's it.

[freddie mertz]

45. Racism. Classism, Hatred and Fear of Minority Voters.

The usual GOP motive for everything: Hate, Greed, Fear.

[Raine]

46. Because they register people to vote ... the kind of

people who tend to vote Democratic.

[Kdillard]

47. If you think about what the people at ACORN do it is not a surprise

exactly why it is a priority to Republicans that they are destroyed and discredited.

[Politics_Guy25]

48. We need to go to the bat for ACORN

They sound like a tremendously great organization from what I've read here. I'd be proud to fight for them day and night. Boehner (Boner) can STFU along with Faux.

[boppers]

49. ACORN=Other people.

The kinds who didn't vote for *.

Basically, it's a problem with them feeling that their vote is being "stolen", or otherwise diluted, if everyone votes.

Especially if the poor vote.

[Skittles]

51. ACORN is another redmeat codeword for their dittohead fans

[LaydeeBug]

52. The ground game. ACORN (and Dems) beat them on the GROUND and they can't stand it. nt