First They Came For ACORN

First Big Business, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Lou Dobbs, the Religious Right, the Wall Street Journal, Mitch McConnell, and Karl Rove came for ACORN, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not ACORN.

Then they came for SEIU, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not SEIU.

Then they came for the Apollo Alliance, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the Apollo Alliance.

Then they came for the Center for American Progress, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the Center for American Program.

Then they came for the Sierra Club, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the Sierra Club.

Then they came for the National Organization for Women, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the National Organization for Women.

Then they came for the other community organizers, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not community organizers

Then they came for AFSCME, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not AFSCME.

Then they came for the National Council of La Raza, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the National Council of La Raza.

Then they came for the NAACP, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the NAACP.

Then they came for the ACLU, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the ACLU.

Then they came for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

Then they came for the National Council of Churches, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the National Council of Churches.

Then they came for the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.

Then they came for the AARP, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the AARP.

Then they came for the Teamsters, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not Teamsters.

Then they came for the Catholic Worker, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the Catholic Worker.

Then they came for UNITE HERE, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not UNITE HERE.

Then they came for the Immigrant Solidarity Network, and, the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the Immigrant Solidarity Network.

Then they came for the National Education Association, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the National Education Association.

Then they came for the U.S. Student Association, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the U.S. Student Association.

Then they came for the American Association of University Professors, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the American Association of University Professors

Then Big Business, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Lou Dobbs, the Religious Right, the Wall Street Journal, Mitch McConnell, and Karl Rove came for the Democrats -- and there was no one left to speak out for the Democrats.

Peter Dreier teaches Politics and directs the Urban & Environmental Policy program at Occidental College. This is based on a poem attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892-1984), written about the Nazi regime in Germany.

For more background about ACORN, read John Atlas' article, "What Is ACORN?" , Harold Meyerson's Washington Post column, "For ACORN, Truth Lost Amid the Din" ,
David Morris' article on Alternet, and Christopher Hayes article, "ACORN and Accountability," in The Nation.

Also, in his interview on the Rachel Maddow show, on Friday, September 25, Jeremy Scahill discusses the many corporations, like Blackwater and Halliburton, with billions in government contracts who are chronic lawbreakers, but who the Republicans are NOT trying to defund, compared with ACORN, which gets very little government funding and has not been convicted of any lawbreaking.

 

 

Comments

[tgriffy]

"Then Big Business, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Lou Dobbs, the Religious Right, the Wall Street Journal, Mitch McConnell, and Karl Rove came for the Democrats -- and there was no one left to speak out for the Democrats."

This is the wrong ending. It should say, "Then Big Business, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Lou Dobbs, the Religious Right, the Wall Street Journal, Mitch McConnell, and Karl Rove came for the Democrats -- and there were no Democrats left."

[woodsywizz]

Pastor Niebold managed to make his point in half-a-dozen lines. This (seemingly endless) list manages to lose its own message. Yes, we get it; every victim of the Far Right leads to another. Couldn't you have said it that way?

[middleoftheroad]

ACORN are radicals. sorry...but You forgot the TIDES Foundation. Aren't you watching Beck...They are the ones that have that crazy video playing in schools bashing capitalism.Parents are pissed. TIDES are next....then maybe Valarie Jarrett.

[mommadona]

This is Rahm Emanuel's DLC party disguising itself as the DNC.

Do NOT expect anything but the International ChamberofCommerce line.

(pssst 'we been had')

[jbarelli]

ACORN seems to have developed a problem that many good organizations over the years have had. They believed that because their causes were just, that they didn't need to be careful, and didn't need to watch their supporters carefully. Good will and good karma would carry them through.

Unfortunately, it just doesn't work that way, and ACORN had plenty of warnings along the way.

Now, even knowing how ACORN had become a target for the far-right, paid staffers were unsupervised and untrained to the point where a few of them were actually willing to assist in setting up illegal enterprises.

Any organization has a "few bad apples". The problem here is that there was such inadequate supervision that those few were able to taint the entire organization. The folks running those sting operations should have been ACORN personnel, and it should have been common knowledge that unannounced spot checks and stings would be run.

Good karma is a wonderful thing, but you cannot rely on it to replace good supervision.

[Tahut]

==========­==========­==========­==========­====
********** US Constitution **********
Article 1
Section 9

No Bill of Attainder or ex post fact Law shall be passed.
==========­==========­==========­==========­====

Bill of Attainder is a general safeguard against legislative exercise of the judicial function or more simply put - trial by legislature. See US vs Brown, 381 US 437, 440 (1965). It's intent is to keep the Legislature from adjudicating from their Chambers.

This is the same political Party that becomes incensed with their belief that liberal judges legislate from the bench. They're guilty of practicing those same tactics they abhor so much by violating the Constitution to settle a personal grudge in the same manner.

[jbarelli]

Agreed that the law is unconstitutional. That's not the real problem here.

ACORN, an organization that does some very good things, has lost much of its effectiveness and may eventually fold because of a few stupid acts that were certainly not condoned by the group.

I would be surprised if they win any of the lawsuits against the group that organized the sting.

The problem is a lack of supervision and training. This outfit probably had to go to many ACORN offices to find the few that would go along with the "pimp and ho" act.

Considering that the far right has been gunning for ACORN for years, the very first time they were told "ACORN does not assist in illegal enterprises, please leave now" alarms should have rung throughout the organization.

The law is a knee-jerk reaction that will almost certainly be struck down. Congress voted for it because, Constitutional or not, they were in a position where they had to distance themselves from ACORN due to actions of a few ACORN personnel.

Hopefully, ACORN (probably renamed) will survive this. It's a good organization and it does a lot of good work. But damage has been done.

Will the law survive judicial review? I seriously doubt it. And when it's tossed, the far right will get another round of publicity in their favor, with pundits talking about "liberal judges supporting putting prostitutes in your neighborhood".

The far right won this one. Big time.

[Daniboy]

As a moderate Dem-this roadmap doesn't look bad-these left radicals could well ruin the Dem Party! And good riddence to Van and Acorn!

[pjburke]

LOL

There are no "left radicals," silly.... haven't been since the 1960's. Even the unions had an aggressive purge campaign, over several decades, to eject any "leftists" that they had. The terms "left" and "radical" -- and particularly "left radical" -- are just scare words that have very little substance. The United States really has no sizeable -- or even politically measureable -- "Left."

Today's radicals are all on the Right. From Reagan forward it has been a radical "wrecking crew" (h/t Thomas Frank) whose actual, stated purpose is to take down the federal government so that corporations -- concentrated wealth -- can reign free and unfettered... and reduce the rest of us back to the serfdom that existed before the founding of America challenged that absolute rule of the Many and Poor by the Wealthy and Few.

Maybe you should get your understanding of basic vocabulary tuned up.

[ecomarxist]

Saying there are no "left radicals" is pure idiocy. You probably think Mumia is innocent as well...

[JackWhistle]

Um... thats inaccurate. The millennial generation is consistantly polled as being far.. far left of the current incarnation of the Democratic party. The Dems in washington will find this out in 2010.

[Skepticat]

The USA would be hard pressed to find enough "leftist radicals" these days to fill 2 or 3 1960's era VW mini-buses. The country has been pushed so far to the right that what people call "Left" would be called center right in most other countries. Clinton on the whole was far more conservative than Eisenhower. The so-called moderate dems - or blue dogs are simply old style pro corporation republicans who don't pander to fundementalist birthers. In the 1960's and '70's some elected Republicans were actually more liberal than the blue dogs. And just what exactly makes Acorn "leftist" - that they register poor and minority voters, and provide financial advice to poor folks? If they visited only prestigious country clubs to register republicans or Blue Dog voters and advised the well off how to squirrel away money in the Caymans would that be sufficiently mainstream for you?
Given the goings on of the investment houses that rebundled worthless loans as investments even the alleged crime of telling self proclaimed pimps how to obtain funding doesn't sound particularly leftist

[mjtaylor22]

BUT WITHOUT ORGANIZATION TO COMBAT THE PROFESSIONL ONES ON THE RIGHT what chance do the dems have if their grass roots support is eaten away thru attrition, and if you keep abandoning these groups why would they keep fighting for you,. i voluntreered hours for the dems thru community organizing gorups such as these, i believed in the goal. of informing the uninformed registering people to vote
no after all that hard work for free these dems are scared to death of the right wing yellers.
and backing down instead of standign up strong .
yea, that is how they lost in 93-94
we fight for them to get in again then they waffle around and allow the minority to runn ruff shot over them even when in majority

[rightly]

Ummm, if not for the parties you mention, Acorn would have continued assisting in such crimes as voter fraud and human slavery. Certainly, no one in the MSM was going to cover it. So we're justifying these things because they are pro-Democratic organizations, just as NOW ignored Clinton's philanderings because he was on their side?

Is there no sin (or crime if you prefer) that can be committed where we have to say, that is not us? Don't you think such an intractable position might hurt the cause?

[valkyrie607]

LOL

Right, because that's all poor people ever do, is look for tax advice in how to set up human trafficking and prostitution rings. It happens EVERY DAY.

You'll notice that nobody is saying that ACORN's employees did the right thing. You'll also notice that those employees have since been fired.

You will also notice that if we apply the standards the GOP uses for ACORN to all government contractors, we would have to cut off funding to ten of the biggest military contractor­s--Hallibu­rton, KBR, Blackwater, Dynecorps, and more. Unlike ACORN, many of these companies have ALREADY been convicted of fraud, embezzlement, and other, more serious crimes, like rape and murder.

The selective outrage on the part of the right wing is revealing.

[valkyrie607]

'Scuse me, I left out a couple words.

"Unlike ACORN, many of THE EMPLOYEES of these companies have already been convicted of fraud, embezzlement, etc."

[LeLoup]

Sure! of course!
Mindlessly repeating the "news" about ACORN without any critical thinking.

Awesome!

[mjtaylor22]

REGISTRATION FRAUD WAS COMMITTED UPON ACORN AND THEY DULY REPORTED IT TO THE AUTHORITIES
what are u talking about on the human slavery, no evidence just false accusations.
and the right winged crazies were so bad at acting they were found out numerous times. and kick out of numerous offices.

[SNPUW]

Maybe if they had first come for the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America - who support all named groups in this poem, and who Dreier, the author of this "poem" is a prominent leader of) they would have saved all of us some hassle and I wouldn't have changed my party from Democrat to Independent.

[SNPUW]

Maybe if they came for the DSA party (Democratic Socialists of America) who the author of this "Dreier is a prominent leader of I would not have changed from being a member of the Democratic party to the Independent Party "To achieve a more just society, many structures of our government and economy must be radically transformed through greater economic and social democracy so that ordinary Americans can participate in the many decisions that affect our lives.

[mikefina]

Interesting Equivalence being drawn.

The wholesale slaughter of 6 million-plus people, for no crime other than whom they are (Jewish, Gay, Roma, Disabled, Etc.) is likened to the defunding of a non-profit corp for the actions of it's members--including voter registration fraud and counseling to evade federal income-taxes (through the shelter of a brothel for illegal immigrant child sex-slaves).

The difference doesn't give the author a moment's pause?

[pjburke]

"counseling to evade federal income-taxes"

What every CPA -- and tax lawyer -- in America does for a living.

"voter registration fraud"

Numerous allegations... most of which have come up empty.

ACORN was the fraud victim. A handful of dishonest workers -- out of several hundred -- collected pay but did not perform as per the contract. ACORN itself flagged the questionable registrations. No voter fraud occurred.

"brothel for illegal immigrant child sex-slaves"

Fiction invented by the videograph­er-crimina­ls. ACORN employees broke no laws... the videographers did.

The author is not comparing the Holocaust to the defunding of ACORN. You miss the point entirely. The author is drawing a fairly loose comparison between the thuggish behavior of Reich Wing media jackals, muggers, and goons and the similarly thuggish behavior of the Nazi jackals, muggers and goons... Reich Wing media thugs that have been in non-stop attack mode against American citizens who are simply trying to exercise their rights as citizens.

More importantly, the author's main criticism is directed at spineless Democrats who -- at best -- sit silent, do nothing, and watch impotently as all of their various groups of supporters are attacked with baseless lies and -- at the worst -- actually assist and enable the jackals and muggers and goons.

[mikefina]

ACORN counseled clients in how to ILLEGALLY evade Federal income taxes--a point I should have made more clear. Still, NOT what CPA's do.

They committed voter REGISTRATION fraud, the point I made, and which even ACORN acknowledges. Not in dispute.

The videographers perpetrated a 'sting' on an operation they believed was a political pyramid scheme. Operating on that premise, they crafted a device (brothel for underaged illegal immigrants) that was so inarguably despicable, that only a truly indifferent or depraved person could countenence the artifice. Lo and behold, the systemic infiltration of ACORN by bad actors, was revealed.

The author draws an unmistakeable equivalence between the unwillingness to defend two putative "victims"-­-Holocaust victims and ACORN. A pernicious use of equivalency, and a cruel fiction on the readers.

That DEMS are weak-kneed in their "defense" of ACORN is a mark of good-character. Some BEHAVIORS are beyond the pale. They deserve neither popular sanction or financial support.

The rest is name-calling polemic. The conversation deserves better.

[Pinkertonian]

Hey, thanks for the handy roadmap. It's make the job of clearing out these Marxist front groups a bit easier. There are some on the list I hadn't been aware of previously.

[pjburke]

Perhaps your time would be better spent learning what Marxism actually is... rather than be led around by that Beck Ring in your nose.

[p0s3r]

If they got rid of all those organizations, the only Democrats left would be the Blue Dogs.

You know, the un-crazy Democrats.

[valkyrie607]

Yeah, it's just INSANE to think that you can go into politics without selling your soul to financial institutions and insurance companies and anybody else who can cut a check for more than half a million dollars.

[Chumleysmom]

One thing's certain: no matter WHICH of those groups the RWNJs next get in their sights, the new guy in the White House will look the other way.

[iblogleft]

Its not funny at all, its the god %amned truth.

Horribly sad.

[guardian2]

Comedy Gold!