2. How warlike will the Democratic race become?
Saul Alinsky was a radical organizer who preached confrontation. Specifically, he believed in demonizing opponents. He approvingly noted that left-wing labor organizers “never attacked General Motors, they always attacked its president, Alfred `Icewater-In-His-Veins’ Sloan; they never attacked the Republic Steel Corporation but always its president, `Bloodied Hands’ Tom Girdler.”
Hillary Clinton wrote her senior thesis on Alinsky. She carried her devotion to political warfare into her husband’s 1992 campaign, where she gave the famous “War Room” its name. Throughout his presidency, she backed nasty tactics against political opponents. So far in the campaign, she has not been rough on Obama. She’d like to unify the party for November, and what’s more, her big lead in the polls affords her the luxury of civility. If Obama draws close, however, he may learn what happens to those who threaten the Clintons.
Obama has worked hard to cultivate an image of niceness, so it shocked some when his campaign circulated a memo attacking Clinton’s ties to India. The flash of steel should not have been surprising. Like Clinton, Obama has Alinsky connections — in his case, stemming from his time as a community organizer. He may have studied law at Harvard, but he learned politics on the streets of Chicago.
A national street fight is quite possible. Could it ultimately work to the GOP’s benefit?
How warlike is the Republican party. The Republican party has been and will always be the party of dirty tricks.
