ACORN: A Phenomenal Awakening

The five ACORN videos are accelerating Americans' rejection of this government..

The Political Class doesn’t really grasp this yet, but the O’Keefe/Giles videos of personnel in five ACORN offices supporting in one way or another abject lawlessness—e.g., facilitating the institution of prostitution (including child smuggling) and the practice of tax evasion—are an awakening force that is spreading like wildfire across America. Media elites are trying to contain it or dismiss it in various ways, calling the filmmakers conservative (gasp!) pranksters, playing the race card, and pontificating on the evils of entrapment. Only in the morally vacuous condition of the media are these the issues.

The issues are that Americans have a government that appropriated and authorized $8 billion of taxpayers’ money in an emergency stimulus bill to fund an organization which systemically views the poor of America as utterly devoid of any moral sense or decency. To ACORN, a pimp and his prostitute are just people trying to make a living like anyone else—and prostitution is a ‘normal’ living for anyone who is poor— and the mission of a government-funded ‘reform’ organization is to help them navigate around bothersome laws and taxes so they can achieve their dreams. This is pathological. It is depraved.

President Bush often spoke of ‘the soft bigotry of low expectations’—a society-wide acquiescence to the idea that the poor, and especially the poor comprised of racial minorities, are destined to stay that way because they are not capable of anything better. Bush voiced this idea primarily in regard to the need for educational reform of public schools. But the ACORN revelations show something much worse; something truly malevolent in the left-wing view of humanity. This is institutionalized ‘hard’ bigotry imposing defiled expectations on people they are supposed to be helping.

One ACORN video would easily be dismissed; two would be problematic; three would present a serious problem. FIVE demonstrates unequivocally a malignancy that can only be dealt with by a complete shutdown of ACORN and a firm, public rebuke of its repugnant attitudes.

There are signs that Congress understands this, though it is sickening to note that 75 Congressmen and 7 Senators are still in a ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ mode. Plus there are many jaded and cynical observers who anticipate that Congress is acting for show only, and what funding may be cut off today will simply be rerouted to the same groups using a different name tomorrow.

But the awakening provoked by these videos is bigger and more powerful than the Political Class can understand. The Christian heritage and instincts of the American people are asserting themselves, and they are affirming and reaffirming American and Christian ideals that man is the creation of God; that all men and women are created equal; and that, as George Washington famously said his farewll address:

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.

Americans do not accept any view of man or woman—no matter how destitute his or her economic condition—as incapable of moral decency or as comfortable with and desirous of moral indecency. Americans do not accept that economic well-being—either nationally or individually—can be achieved on any lasting basis on a foundation of immorality and lawlessness. Americans do not accept ACORN.

The broader truth is that five videos have completely eradicated Americans’ traditional patience and forbearance and willingness to give everyone a second chance. ACORN is irredeemable, rotten to the core, and the people know it. Americans do not accept a government or a politician that legitimizes or apologizes for ACORN.

And yes, this is another straw on the camel’s back that is the Obama administration. Obama is closely aligned with ACORN, and no amount of spinning is going to change that fact. The ACORN videos are just one more catalyst for the buyer’s remorse felt by the American voters from the election of 2008. Obama is not what he portrayed himself to be; the media was complicit in hiding who he really was and is—and both Obama and the media are in the process of being held accountable. In Obama’s case, we continue to believe accountability will ultimately result in his removal from office; in the media’s case, they will go bankrupt and be replaced by more honest information-brokers on the web.

The 9/12 protest in Washington, D.C. was the biggest in US history, and its ramifications are going to be felt for years, despite a media determined to deny and disparage it. The ACORN videos are having a similar impact despite a similar media reaction. Truth is working and winning. A truly phenomenal awakening is going on, all over America.

Paul Gable

September 20, 2009