Update April 24th, 2010: Potok quoted on murder of white nationalist lawyer by black neighbor, here.
Update February 19th, 2010: Potok singles out the Oath Keepers, here.
And, do you care?
Potok (really, who is this guy?) we know is a practitioner of Saul Alinsky’s Rule 13. We know he is part of an extreme leftwing cabal at the Southern Poverty Law Center and we know from this press release (of his own work) at the Huffington Post that he is really running scared (or running low on funds). And, we know he even looks like a looney leftie from his photo (check out his bio, any doubts about media bias this will dispel them!).
Remember Alinsky’s Rule 13, Obama used it unsuccessfully last week on Rush Limbaugh (I laugh every time I think about it). Basically Rule 13 is a tactic which says you gotta pick one person on the other side and isolate that person.
Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.
Alinsky says the target has to be a person and one needs to make the person the poster boy (or girl) for evil. That is what Potok is trying to do here with John Tanton.
At some point, probably later this year, Congress will once again grapple with legislation to reform our broken immigration system. During the campaign, President Obama promised to make this a “top priority in my first year.”
Standing firmly in the path, however, will be the same triumvirate of Washington, D.C.-based organizations that were most responsible for blocking comprehensive immigration reform in 2007.
These supposedly independent groups – the Federation for Immigration Reform (FAIR), the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) and NumbersUSA – enjoy a great degree of credibility among the media and many prominent members of Congress. They shouldn’t.
In reality, they are part of a network conceived by John Tanton, a man who has been at the heart of the white nationalist movement for decades.
Potok wants to cause these groups to split from Tanton and start to question each other and he wants to place seeds of doubt in the minds of their members. Don’t fall for it! You have got them on the run now! Potok is scared! Hang tough, and take a lesson from Rush and laugh and laugh and laugh (Rule 5)!
Check out all of our posts on Alinsky in Community Destabilization here.
Addendum February 6th: I just had a look at the Southern Poverty Law Centers most recent Form 990 (2006). They sure are fighting poverty—among their Board members anyway. Their CEO made $334,886 in salary and compensation that year. Potok made a measly $140,000 in comparison.
To be fair, I wonder if Obama shouldn’t cap non-profit group salaries too.
The Southern Poverty Law Center took in almost $45 million in 2006, spent millions on lobbying, and its assets are over $226,000,000. Oh, and their so-called ‘Poverty Palace’ office building cost almost $100,000 to clean that year.