Caption: He's just about reached the sleigh.Image credit: Arrr!.
ACORN's CEO, Bertha Lewis, published this news release today:
The impact of ACORN's highly effective strategies spread throughout the country, catching the attention of right-wing media and its proponents. The barrage of unmitigated accusations certainly took its toll, but even as extremists increased their radicalism, we continued to make a difference for families in each and every corner of our nation. We fought bank redlining and predatory lending for decades, making the American dream of homeownership more universally available while protecting it against waves of abusive practices. We helped build a movement for a living wage, fought for stronger public schools, helped rebuild New Orleans after Katrina, and won countless improvements in neighborhoods. As recently as 2009, the organization saved affordable housing in New York, stood up to anti-immigrant racism in Arizona, and was fighting for real solutions to the foreclosure crisis, even as the right fought to stop this work in its tracks.What Ms. Lewis failed to mention, of course, was the cowardly way that Democratic politicians ran and hid from this issue, rather than speaking out on ACORN's behalf. As Ian Welsh notes:
The ongoing political onslaught caused irreparable harm. This effort was a clear attempt to cast a shadow over the historic 2008 Presidential election, and set up a far right counter offense. Through those attacks we re-tooled and re-organized. Then again came the right-wing media blitz. This time of edited videos that misrepresented our mission, and consequently misled the public. The pressure and cost of defending ourselves in multiple investigations as a result of the falsified videos has eroded our organization. As a result we will be filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy by close of business today.
The End Of An Era: ACORN Files Chapter 7 Bankruptcy
Dems abandoned Acorn, an organization which had relentlessly registered new voters, based on accusations which were outright lies. Now Dems lose an election as an organization which had helped them for forty years goes under.ACORN is part of a long list of people and organizations who have helped the Democrats over the years, including gays, minorities, unions, and progressives whom they then turned their backs on when they needed help.
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You reap what you sow, folks.
How Appropriate That Acorn Should File For Bankruptcy As Dems Take A Bath
The new motto of the Democratic Party should be Sic semper rectumi. People who are too stupid to realize that the way to hold onto power is to support your friends aren't going to be much use, anyway. The last four years have proved that pretty conclusively.
2 comments:
It was difficult to believe that the Democrats would so quickly desert their ally ACORN -- but they lost no time doing it. I feel that I still have not fully and completely absorbed the lessons to be learned from that. And I think that is in part because a part of me does not want to believe the Democrats who deserted ACORN are quite as stupid, foolish, and cowardly as their actions indicate they indeed are.
They definitely have not absorbed that lesson. The DLC philosophy of beating on the base while taking money from the powerful is still alive and well. The basic problem with that philosophy, that in the end the base is weakened and they are weakened, won't occur to them until it's too late.
So, we either need different Democrats or a new party.
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