Uncovering the Facts on ACORN

They’ve sure been in the news a lot but does anyone really know what they do? Rupert & Co. certainly have their opinions…

ACORN stands for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Corporations have trade organizations, fake non-profits and the US Chamber of Commerce all lobbying for their interests… Meanwhile, poor people in this country have close to nothing… ACORN attempts to fill some of that gap.

ACORN provides invaluable resources to some of our country’s poorest communities, filling in for the government in providing many basic services such as finding low-income housing, jobs, and improving schools and public safety. They also have another arm – organizing low-income communities into a political force to vote for better schools, more police offers, and improved public housing… I know what you’re thinking, terrible left-wing/communist social justice issues.

Yes. These issues tend to favor Democrats for the simple fact that Republicans are ideologically opposed to most policies that benefit lower income families. They wanted to dismantle the Dept. of Education for several years before deciding to cripple it with the unfunded mandate of No Child Left Behind – which has put an enormous financial burden on many public school districts throughout the country. Republican tax cuts were targeted at the wealthiest 2% of our country and when in power, Republicans consistently favored business over workers.It’s not a dishonest position that conservatives take, there is something to be said for encouraging personal responsibility and encouraging economic growth. I think the disaster that was the Bush era has exposed many of the flaws in their approach to these ideals, but alas… it is an honest opinion shared by millions.

This ideological divide is what gets to the heart of the Glenn Beck/Fox News attack on ACORN – not corruption or misuse of taxpayer dollars.

Controversy —

Voter Registration Fraud - Yes ACORN pays people to register voters. Hundreds of organizations on both sides do this and while perhaps a dozen ACORN paid canvassers submitted fake names such as “Donald Duck” – Those names were dismissed by county election boards. There is no evidence any of any voter fraud attributed to ACORN. Meanwhile, I have personally seen paid Republican operatives challenge the vote of every minority at urban polling locations – requiring them to show ID and and submit to questioning before being allowed to vote. In some areas Republicans go to even greater lengths to disenfranchise voters – from mailing out fake election day notifiers, even renting billboards, telling people to vote on a different date than the actual election, In some areas Republicans actually put fake cops at inner city polling centers to frighten/discourage the black vote – i’m not kidding, this happens all the time. Where was Glenn Beck’s outrage at this far more blatant corruption of the electoral system?

PIMP & HO Videos

First off – the filmmakers readily admit they were out to get ACORN. They went into this knowing nothing about the organization except for “i heard they were corrupt and liberal.”Okay… So they went into several offices, and found some pretty horrible examples of corruption. Yes. There is some pretty egregious content on those video tapes. What they failed to mention is they also went into several other ACORN offices are were either forced to leave or had the cops called on them. That doesn’t fit into the Fox News narrative though so it was of course left out.

Okay so there is fraud… butI guarantee you, it’s far more rampant among government contractors, insurance companies and the oil companies. Luckily those organizations support the Republican agenda. Meanwhile, Tom DeLay, Dick Cheney and Jerry Lewis have all been involved in wasting much greater amounts in government money. The amount of money that cannot be accounted for in Iraq alone dwarfs anything ACORN has done – how much coverage has Fox News given that?

Closing Thoughts…

I readily admit there is room for improvement at ACORN. It has become too close with minority political machines in several urban areas, and the organization’s mission is sometimes lost in a clusterfuck of money, politics, and corruption. But that’s not the reason it’s under attack. The yelling and screaming is purely political. Republicans see the potential power in organizing a community that until the last election, turned out in frustratingly low numbers. And while Obama boosted black and hispanic turnout to record numbers, there’s still an enormous gap in turnout rates for those demographics. ACORN’s efforts in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, combined with changing demographics, could eventually put those key battleground states firmly on the Democratic side.

That’s not an excuse though to engage in an aggressive, semi-crazed, and thoroughly disproportionate attack on an organization. Fox News, with their dramatic music and straw man narrative, has switched from a Bush administration echo chamber into an powerful and dishonest republican attack machine – in an attempt to derail any and all liberal efforts. They pick targets and start firing… It’s almost impressive – though disgustingly dishonest.