I have often said here and elsewhere that the Democratic Party is the place where progressive movements go to die. Usually, they are just marginalized – ignored until they disappear. In the case of single payer advocacy, they were arrested. In the case of ACORN, the party has taken extreme measures – a public disembowelment not unlike that given William Wallace in Braveheart.
The films of various ACORN agents offering crazy and stupid advice could be real – top to bottom. The ACORN employees could be agents provocateurs. The people who set them up could be what we used to call investigative reporters. They could be party hacks. It would take years to get to the bottom of the sting – is it Scaife? Is it Dick Armey? Or is it Rahm Emmanuel.
The sins of ACORN appear to be real – but don’t forget that Elliot Spitzer’s offense was real, but that he was only singled out for his prosecution of powerful figures on Wall Street. Prosecution of high-level crimes in politics is usually selective, with a few exposed and most similarly guilty unaffected. There is more here than meets the eye. As usual.
What ACORN agents apparently did was stupid, but not worthy of a death sentence. But real or not, the important thing to note is that ACORN is done, destroyed.
The question is, whodunnit? My guess is that the Democrats did this sting operation, and they did it because ACORN was dangerous. They were willing to tolerate the group when they were stirring up the peasantry in support of Barack Obama, but the real work of the organization is grassroots organization for things like community housing discrimination and access to health care. They are community organizers. The Democratic Party wants nothing to do with them.
The ferociousness of the slamming and castration of ACORN ought to be a lesson to Democrats everywhere about the true nature of their party (as if there were a shortage of such lessons). But mainstream Democrats will likely be glad to be rid of them. The business of the party is to cover the backs of Republicans as Republicans advance the interests of wealth.
ACORN was just a sideshow, a useful group when it came to electing a corporate Democrat, and now a nuisance. Long live ACORN.
Piece of Mindful 
I know you’re on this kick against Dems…but don’t let it cloud your judgment, okay? Do a little Googling, and you’ll find out who made the video.
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Oh, I know who made the video. But the point is, they could be anybody. Did they do it on their own, or were they paid to do it? Might I introduce you to the term “orchestrated”?
If you don’t dig deeper in politics, you’ll never understand politics. If you think you understand politics, then it is politics you don’t understand.
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ACORN was caught being themselves, who cares if those who caught them were paid or not?
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Nice post.
Glenn Beck and Breitbart teamed-up with the Dems to take down ACORN, riiiiight.
You’re even dumber than I thought.
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Rusty – I will not be lectured on being dumb by someone who, shall we say, doesn’t exactly have an intellectual furnace burning in his basement.
In politics, alliances exist that might surprise you. In a two-party system, where we have no third choice and where the same money finances both parties, it makes perfect sense that one party would surreptitiously support the other. Sorry about the big word.
How is it that a Democrat just introduced a health care reform bill written by the health care industry?
Care to explain politics to me, Einstein?
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OMGLOLWTF?!?
You’re a Socialist-Truther! You blame big government AND big business for your crappy station in life, AWESOME!
I do agree about the two-party system…you should rally your socialist buddies and form a third party…look how well it worked for Clinton in 1992! Get on it Mark! POWER TO THE LAZY PEOPLE!!1! I’d have gone with “Workers of the World Unite”, but those that would make up your ideal third-party aren’t to fond of actually working…why work when you can just take it from those damn richies, amirite?!
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That entire statement contained not one original thought. Don’t you ever, EVER, call me dumb again.
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Who are you to determine what is and is not original?
Regarding your freakout over being called dumb: A Fish Called Wanda…you got the wrong actor. You’re Kevin Klein, not John Cleese, LULZ
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I am Mark Tokarski, who is capable of seeing original thought and parroting of talk radio. Not rocket science.
PS – you won’t find what I wrote with this post anywehre else that I am aware of … that makes it … original?
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You listen to a lot of talk radio, do ya?
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Here are your turn coat Democrats…
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/duo_who_turned_this_trick_2sjQ58MdtwmSXxhfVELmZL
No bullshit, this is one of the dumbest theories you’ve ever come up with…well done sir, well done.
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Rusty, even Jon Stewart gets it.
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/09/16/jon-stewart-to-media-on-acorn-where-the-hell-were-you/comment-page-1/#comments
Mark, you’re definitely an island, out there.
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I watched Stewart last night, who by the way, ‘gets’ a whole lot more than you know.
Swede – I’ve said this to you before, and it does not sink in – you view the whole of the political spectrum as that tiny area between D and R. The fact that both parties have the same financiers is not something you trouble your pretty little head about.
Absent proof, it is mere conjecture based on experience to put Democrats behind this entrapment scheme. The NY Post article tells us who the dynamic duo is, and offers a little hint as to what they do – they do entrapment films. They were publicly known to do this. Is it so odd to conjecture that they might have been hired to entrap ACORN?
I’m not saying ACORN is innocent – this is a bit nuanced, Swede and Rusty, so I’ve probably lost you. But many tens of thousands of people in politics are guilty of nefarious behavior. Only a select few are exposed. The Democrats have no more use for progressives than the Republicans. So I conjecture that the Democrats are behind this. If not, they are quick to seize on it, no?
Don’t you think that these two clever film makers could focus their work on a couple of stupid teabaggers and get the same result? There is no shortage of opportunities for exposure of stupidity and misdeeds. The 70,000 moron march last weekend, for example.
Honestly, neither of you should be commenting on politics. You’re too trusting, too accepting of official truth.
Anyway, did you hear the one about the teabagger who was staring at a carton of orange juice? It said “concentrate” on the carton.
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Entrapment? How so?
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This really must stop. Here and now.
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It’s not just ACORN, its the relationship it has with the POTUS.
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Swede – goddammit, read! I said that the Obama people used the ACORN people. You go out and get a YouTube showing Obama doing the using.
Obama wanted one thing from them-to stir up the underclasses to vote for him. Other than that, the underclasses are not part of our political system. Hence, ACORN, after serving its purpose, is dumped.
I have no problems with ACORN – I like what they do, don’t find them at all eeeeeeeeeevil. That’s just right wing fear of the underclasses. I much prefer them over any astrotruf that Dick Armey can suggest into action.
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You like what they do?
Wait until they audit their books.
As an accountant I’d like your opinion on their bookkeeping.
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No doubt I would share your highly selective outrage.
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the real work of the organization is grassroots organization for things like community housing discrimination and access to health care.
How’s that been working out lately? ACORN et al pushing the Community Reinvestment Act was a pretty big party of the sub prime meltdown. ACORN et al agitate for more medical coverage when a state such as Tennessee tries to formulate a common sense approach to universal coverage. ACORN hasn’t done anything to make the world a better place.
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*pfft* What-EVER! They’re trying to find employment for underage girls from El Salvador, they’re all about helping those in need!!
This subject is so super-nuanced that only those with an intellect on par with that of Stephen Hawking or Mark T can understand it…I’m sure Mark T could take the time to try and educate us all, but I’m sure our puny brains would explode from all the nuance and depth.
Only those who are NOT dumb can fully understand the true meaning of this fiasco.
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If you don’t understand politics, which you obviously don’t, I suggest you get a cup of pencils and stake out a street corner, and put on a sign that says “perpetual victim”.
ACORN et al pushing the Community Reinvestment Act was a pretty big party of the sub prime meltdown.
From your ass to our plates. There’s been an half-assed effort to divert blame for the meltdown away from the actual perpetrators, and it has enjoyed modest success among your fellows of the nimbus right.
Only those who are NOT dumb can fully understand the true meaning of this fiasco.
All politics is theater. I rest my case on the head of the truest of true believers, Shackleford.
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There’s been an half-assed effort to divert blame
Plenty of blame to go around. The debauching of credit requirements in search of “diversity” is one part of the story.
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The vast majority of blame falls on the back of hucksters and financiers who calculated that the price of real estate would always go up and morphed and re-morphed mortgages into exotic instruments that were cross-insured – a house of cards that collapsed when the underlying mortgage failed. There was fraud aplenty in the selling of these mortgages, of steering people away from sound financing and towards ARM’s with high commissions and teaser rates. Unsophisticated buyers sucked them up.
SO no, there is not “plenty of blame to go around”. That sounds like a kid trying to blame his brother for the broken vase.
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Unsophisticated buyers sucked them up.
Yes to this all that above it, but it is a poor reflection on a country’s human capital when people sign on the line for things they don’t understand or don’t intend on honoring if things go south.
Part of the problem here is our politicians and groups like ACORN that actively funneled unsophisticated buyers into these deals with assurances that everything would work out all right.
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What I don’t get is how people like you rush to defend the real crooks. You don’t even have a stake in it. They got away with billions, got bailed out by teh government, and you’re pissed at ACORN.
Counter intuitive.
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When the pitchforks come out, I’ll head for Wall Street first.
But, who do you blame, the drug dealer or the user?
The mortgage traders gathered billions, but the ACORN types pushed for debauched underwriting standards that gave us a mortgage regime where clients signed and walked away from trillions in mortgages.
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ACORN had very little role in this. That’s right wing folk wisdom. The Community Reinvestment Act hardly played a role at all.
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hardly played a role at all.
Marginal changes to accommodate CRA reverberated through the system in a not insignificant way.
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Big problem with the Internet – so much crap out there. Someone writes something and it becomes someone else’s a priori evidence.
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Another one of your cop out answers.
I’m not all that worked up about ACORNS role in the sub prime mess, but you, in your comic book morality way, cast them as the flowing white robe virgins bringing food and medicine to the afflicted while the evil Wall Streeters are looting the health insurance fund. Some of us would like a little more comprehensive analysis.
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Some of us would like a little more comprehensive analysis.
Most assuredly not true.
Show me something not from a whacked-out right wing web site that systematically explores the role of ACORN, or the Community Reinvestment Act, in the mortgage crisis, putting it in perspective with the storefronts and Countrywide’s that did the vast majority of the lending.
Waiting … waiting …
I did no cop out. I simply know there’s been a concerted effort by the banks to deflect blame, just as there is a concerted effort among the insurance companies to prevent health care reform. The key is, that it cannot look like they are going it.
I do not place ACORN in a virginal gown. You don’t read very closely, do you.
Learn PR.
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Let’s call this blog “arguing with Bobby Fisher”.
Anything that doesn’t hue your line is “whacked out right wing”.
The storefronts and Countrywide were under the aegis of rules promulgated by ACORN et al who seized upon the CRA as a mechanism to do social policy via the banks. Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide was a big CRA/ACORN type who pumped minority lending to the max. He was at least genuine in thinking he was doing a social good, not just operating out of greed.
Do you think this had no effect? What percentage blame do you place on ACORN’s effort in this mess? Zero?
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False statement, in case you’re really interested at all. CRA only affected banking institutions covered by FDIC. Countrywide and all the other store fronts were not under its rule.
I am an observer with a left wing tilt. There are smart conservatives out there, but the Republican Party has been taken over by extremists. Conservatives I know and have known are generally thoughtful, and I sympathize with most of their objectives. One principle of conservatism, gradual change and respect for those who came before us, is something that we health care reform advocates need to absorb.
The banner “whacked out right wing”is both accurate and covers most of what I see going on over there.
What effect did ACORN have on the housing meltdown? TSTM – too small to measure.
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TSTM
Like a butterfly moving it’s wings?
Small perturbations can have large effects, especially in a system where the feedback mechanisms are out of whack. A real estate broker commission of 5% helped flood the market with lots of “pushers”. Maybe in the day of pencil, paper, and modest sales this was okay. But I know architects who design and oversee buildings for 5% of the cost. That seems a little much for real estate sales.
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So we had a housing bubble fueled in no small part by people buying houses they couldn’t afford, and ACORN pushed for such loans, and they had no part in the housing meltdown?
What does ACORN do? Register people to vote, give out tax and business advice, lobby for various laws and programs. Mostly done on the taxpayers dime. Aren’t these things engaged citizens do on their own? Long live ACORN indeed, the Jesuits of the Liberal orthodoxy.
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