Hypocrisy and Consequences
What engaged Americans and their sociopolitical obsessions perhaps require
In his famous 1971 tract Rules for Radicals, American activist and political theorist Saul Alinsky laid out several different “rules” to which political actors—namely from his camp on the radical left—should adhere in order to destroy their enemies and thus achieve political domination. Many took issue with his book—and by extension his rules—and it’s understandable since it reduced politics to a zero sum game in which victory at all costs transcended notions of democratic compromise. Such were the times in which Alinsky lived.
And, arguably, such are the times in the 21st century.
So while it’s certainly not surprising that not only have these tactics abounded within the political realm—both from the left and right frequently obsessing over each others’ very real and meaningful hypocrisy and double standards—it is certainly a little more surprising that a major political figure—a governor who no doubt has presidential aspirations, no less—would so flagrantly use one of Alinsky’s rules to score what on the face of it appears to be a major political victory (if you think delegitimizing your enemy’s stated values is a victory, rather than just a much-needed reality check). In other words, when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis sent up a couple flights to the affluent and largely, politically blue Martha’s Vineyard, he was operating right out of the Alinsky playbook by invoking the fourth rule: