Olson is not a college student. He is a year-old Republican Party operative and commentator. He runs a Michigan-based conservative advocacy organization, the Education Action Group, which primarily attacks teachers' unions. The real reason for Olson's interview with Piven was a Nation article she co-authored with Richard Cloward.
The 6,word piece proposed organizing the poor to demand the welfare benefits for which they were eligible in order to pressure the federal government to expand the nation's social safety net and establish a guaranteed national income. To that end, Cloward and Piven helped create the National Welfare Rights Organization NWRO , which had some success in increasing participation in the federal Aid to Families with Dependent Children program through organized protests and political advocacy. Cloward, who died in , and Piven also served as unofficial advisers to the group.
During the Reagan years, the duo concluded that a successful anti-poverty movement had to combine grass-roots protest with electoral politics. In their book Why Americans Don't Vote , they examined deliberate efforts throughout the 20th century to deny the franchise to immigrants, minorities, and the poor. Their work ultimately led to the National Voter Registration Act, usually called the "motor voter" law, which conservatives feared would lead to widespread voting among the poor, which could keep liberals perpetually in power. However, the interview segments that Olson posted on Big Government featured no major revelations about an imminent uprising of the American proletariat.
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In one snippet , Piven remarks that Thomas Jefferson "would be stunned by the oligarchical character of American society. In another segment , Piven remarks that the current wave of foreclosures could trigger mass protest. She explains that if "millions of people refuse to go along with foreclosure procedures and refuse to pay off those mortgages that are underwater," political leaders would have to respond by making it harder for banks to evict families, as occurred during the Depression.
Spliced between Piven's observations is footage of ACORN activists removing locks from a foreclosed home and moving the evicted family back in. In the third clip , Olson asks Piven about Glenn Beck's persistent attacks on her Nation article, which the Fox News host regularly blames for many of America's problems, including the current financial crisis. She calls Beck's efforts to find an easy "scapegoat" for the country's troubles typical of "right-wing ideologues. These same right-wing ideologues have cast Piven and her late collaborator as Marxist Machiavellis whose ideas have spawned a radical movement intent on destroying capitalism and capable of advancing Obama's "socialist" agenda.
Conservatives have attacked Cloward and Piven for decades, but the demonization of the duo has escalated since Obama's election. Last Thursday, Beck said that Obama's health-care proposal followed the Cloward-Piven strategy to "melt the system down and have it collapse into a new system. Conservative radio jockeys Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin have, on multiple occasions, warned their listeners that what they call the "Cloward-Piven strategy" will destroy America.
He told the crowd that Cloward and Piven's ideas have influenced Democratic Party prescriptions since George McGovern's presidential candidacy. Farah also credited the sociologists with ACORN's rise, the community-organizing group's strategy of expanding voter registration, and Obama's work with Project Vote in Chicago. It isn't clear whether these conservative rabble-rousers actually believe what they preach about the Cloward-Piven strategy or simply use it to whip up their followers' anger and resentment.
What's obvious is that this tactic is intended to discredit Obama's liberal policy agenda and to destroy the progressive movement that pushes the president and the Democratic Party to be bolder, as they did in the recent health-care battle. This maneuver is hardly new. As far back as Joseph McCarthy and Richard Nixon, Republican politicians and hired strategists -- like Ed Meese, Karl Rove, Pat Buchanan and Frank Luntz -- have perfected the art of linking liberal Democrats to communists, socialists, radicals, subversives, "welfare queens," and terrorists.
Project Vote estimated that , registrations collected by ACORN were ultimately rejected, the vast majority for being duplicate registrations submitted by citizens. This is also a common problem at government voter registration services, according to reports on the National Voter Registration Act by the U. An unknown number of registrations were fraudulent, but Project Vote estimated that only a few percent were, based on past years and samples from some drives in Project Vote estimated that , of the registrations collected by ACORN represented first-time voters, while the remainder were address changes submitted by citizens updating their addresses.
Fraudulent voter registrations are investigated at local, state, and federal levels, and have sometimes resulted in criminal convictions for ACORN employees.
ACORN has fired employees for fraudulent registration practices and turned them over to authorities. As of , ACORN was improving its fraud detection and reporting procedures, and cooperating with authorities in efforts to prosecute violators. According to the prosecutor, the misconduct was done "as an easy way to get paid [by ACORN], not as an attempt to influence the outcome of elections. Busefink appealed her case to the Nevada Supreme Court, challenging the constitutionality of the statute.
In addition to conducting voter registration drives, ACORN has worked to remove systemic obstacles to voter registration.
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ACORN alleged that, during the period that included the United States election voting controversies , the defendants had committed multiple violations of the National Voter Registration Act of The district court dismissed the case, but that decision was reversed in by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. In , ACORN intervened on behalf of Jersey City , New Jersey , in a lawsuit brought against the city challenging a local ordinance that limited individuals' handgun purchases to one gun a month. In , ACORN advocated allowing homeowners delinquent in their mortgage payments to remain in their homes pending a government solution to the housing foreclosure crisis.
ACORN introduced a program called the Home Defender Program, intended to mobilize people to congregate at homes faced with foreclosure to "defend a family's right to stay in their homes. Gary Delgado and George Wiley were also instrumental in its founding. ACORN's first campaign was to help welfare recipients attain their basic needs, such as clothing and furniture.
The ACORN Conspiracy, Continued
This drive, inspired by a clause in the Arkansas welfare laws, began their effort to create and sustain a movement to assist welfare and lower-income working individuals; they developed the Arkansas Community Organizations for Reform Now, the beginnings of ACORN. ACORN's goal was to "unite welfare recipients with needy working people around issues such as school lunches , unemployment , Vietnam veterans' rights, and emergency room care.
Each year thereafter ACORN chapters were established in three or more states, building to a total of 20 states represented by This expansion led to multi-state campaigns, beginning with a mass meeting of 1, members in Memphis in Much of its resources and energy had been dedicated to the presidential primaries and national party conventions. ACORN launched squatting campaigns in an attempt to obtain affordable housing, and encouraged squatters to refit the premises for comfortable living. These tent cities were erected for two days on national park grounds; they were resisted by the National Park Service , which tried repeatedly to evict the tenters.
The protesters remained; they marched on the White House and members testified before a Congressional committee about what they described as the housing crisis in America. In addition to protesting, ACORN also developed and strengthened its political action committees and encouraged its members to run for office. No candidate reached that level, though there was strong support for Jesse Jackson.
They encouraged cities to change legislative bodies whose members were elected at-large to electing members by single-member district , which resulted in more participation by minorities, including women. At-large voting tends to favor candidates who can appeal to the majority and who can command more campaign funding, reducing participation by a wider variety of citizens. ACORN's membership grew to more than 70, in 28 states during this time. It also sought and received appointments to the Resolution Trust Corporation RTC , which was formed to dissolve the assets of failed Savings and Loans resulting from the Savings and Loan crisis.
While some of ACORN's most notable efforts were in the area of housing, it has counted health, public safety, education, representation, work and workers' rights and communications concerns among its victories. It featured a squatting demonstration at an RTC house. When Citibank , the nation's largest bank, did not participate, conventioneers protested at its downtown Manhattan headquarters, and won a meeting to negotiate for similar programs. In , ACORN also began a national campaign to fight insurance redlining , a practice that put the gains made in other housing campaigns at risk.
The campaign targeted Allstate , hitting sales offices in 14 cities and a stockholders meeting. Travelers Insurance agreed to a Neighborhood and Home Safety Program, linking access to insurance and lower rates to public safety programs. A March 27, decision of the National Labor Relations Board found that ACORN tried to thwart union organizing efforts within its own organization by laying off two workers who were trying to organize.
Over 1 million Florida employees were affected by the raise, which is adjusted annually for inflation. Offices have subsequently been opened in Mexico and Argentina. ACORN was a nonpartisan organization, but its legally separate political action arm frequently endorsed causes and candidates, including the Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.
In a report released in October , the U. Department of Justice Inspector General concluded that U. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales fired U.
The report said claims that Iglesias was fired for poor performance were not credible, and the "real reason for Iglesias's removal was the complaints from New Mexico Republican politicians and party activists about how Iglesias handled voter fraud [cases]. During the debate on the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of , some commentators claimed that a draft provision omitted in the adopted bill to give money to funds run by the U.
All funds would go to state and local governments. ACORN was among groups conducting voter registration drives prior to the presidential election; Republicans alleged they were responsible for voter registration fraud and had a conflict of interest. Throughout the election season, supporters of Republican candidates alleged that ACORN was responsible for widespread vote fraud.
McCain repeated in the final presidential debate. The Democratic polling organization commented that this was somewhat higher than belief in the birther conspiracy theories. In September , following revelations of Dale Rathke's embezzlement, two members of ACORN's national board of directors filed a lawsuit seeking to obtain financial documents and to force the organization to sever ties with Wade Rathke.
Although the resolutions were later nullified in a federal court ruling that the measure was an unconstitutional bill of attainder , on August 13, , a federal appeals court upheld the congressional act that cut off federal funding for ACORN. On December 7, , the former Massachusetts Attorney General , after an independent internal investigation of ACORN, found the videos that had been released appeared to have been edited, "in some cases substantially".
He found no evidence of criminal conduct by ACORN employees, but concluded that ACORN had poor management practices that contributed to unprofessional actions by a number of its low-level employees. Government Accountability Office GAO released its findings which showed that ACORN evidenced no sign that it, or any of its related organizations, mishandled any federal money they had received.
In late , after various allegations of criminal activity due to the videos, a number of Democrats who once advertised their connections to ACORN began to distance themselves, as Republicans began to use the ACORN allegations to portray Democrats as corrupt. President Obama signed the bill into law on October 1. One argument was that while government funding choices do not generally qualify as bills of attainder, the lack of a non-punitive regulatory purpose for the legislation may give a court "sufficient basis to overcome the presumption of constitutionality.
In response to an inquiry from a Housing and Urban Development Department lawyer, David Barron, the acting assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel , wrote a five-page memorandum concluding that the law does not prohibit the government from paying ACORN for services already performed. District Judge Nina Gershon issued a preliminary injunction blocking the government from enforcing its temporary spending ban, a week before it was set to expire.
Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now
On August 13, the U. On March 19, , The New York Times reported that ACORN was on the verge of filing for bankruptcy; 15 of the group's 30 state chapters had disbanded over the previous six months, and other chapters including the largest, in New York and California renamed themselves and severed all ties to the national organization. On March 22, , National ACORN spokesman Kevin Whelan says the organization's board decided to close remaining state affiliates and field offices by April 1 because of falling revenues.
We're on life support. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
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Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. ACORN undercover videos controversy. The Politics and Government Blog of the Times. The New York Times. Thirty-five Years of Community Organizing". Archived from the original on 15 November Archived from the original on 23 March Archived from the original on 25 March Retrieved March 22, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment. Archived from the original on April 14, Archived from the original on 28 September