Reply #5: Republicans and their ilk have been gunning for ACORN for years

[Emit]

almost at it's very conception. I find it interesting that the Socialist meme that has so dominated the Obama presidency resurrects the 'Cloward Piven Strategy' conspiracy ~ a leftist strategy, they claim, that is intent on destroying Capitalism through orchestrated crisis and redistribution of wealth. Cloward Piven segues directly into their deep hatred of ACORN and all it represents via the National Welfare Rights Organization and George Wiley.

Neoconservatives Sol Stern and David Horowitz revived Cloward and Piven in very recent years, turning up the volume during the primaries, and very effectively capitalizing on the prejudice and ignorance of the right wing by convincing them that ACORN is and has been a long standing strategy of the socialist (sic) left for all these years. The whole conspiracy comes replete with "arrogant" militant black organizers and all.

It is very sad indeed that currently, when one Googles Cloward or Piven, all one finds are Tea 'Bagger websites with 'Don't Tread on Me' banners, antiqued faded backgrounds of the Constitution, flowing American flags, flashy slogans of 'Liberty!' and 'Freedom!,' and wild rantings claiming to know exactly what our Christian (sic) founding fathers intended.

I would have liked to have met Mr. Cloward, and I would love to sit and chat with Ms. Piven. I am certain that Ms. Piven is appalled by this news, and all that has been done to warp her and her late husband's important work ~ work dedicated to poor and low-income women and families ~ into a wild wing nuttery conspiracy.

One of my favorites of Ms. Piven's is a piece she wrote after going up against William F. Buckley on Firing Line:

Don't blame welfare mothers for society's ills, FRANCES FOX PIVEN

Not long ago, I joined a Firing Line debate on the proposition that "Welfare does more harm than good." William Buckley led off with a story about his niece who lives in Paris. She has trouble finding household help, presumably because the help prefers welfare.

Then Buckley moved to his team's central claim: A moral rot is spreading in our society, revealed by rising delinquency, drug use, and dependency. The rot originates in the behavior of poor women who give birth to illegitimate children, encouraged and supported by government benefits. The remedy: Eliminate benefits, thereby forcing women to support themselves through work or marriage.

~snip~

Since Bill Buckley can't do anything about sin, he might reasonably ask what can be done about poverty. But he is too worried about getting good, cheap, household help - an objective he shares with a growing number of low-wage employers.

Buckley is not simply a cultural conservative, anxious to preserve traditional social forms. He is also a political conservative, committed to free-market doctrines that not only justify cutbacks in government social programs, but also justify reckless economic change, including the depletion of our industrial assets, massive layoffs through "streamlining," and declining wages.
Such wrenching economic change always leaves social disorder in its wake, which apologists like Buckley then blame on the immorality of the victims.

Still, after two hours of Firing Line debate leavened with smug male jokes at the expense of poor women, I am struck by how little evidence matters in talk about welfare. Stereotypes about the irresponsible poor are taken for granted, and too deeply etched.

~~~ St. Petersburg Times (Florida), May 8, 1994, retrieved February 6 2010 23:48:37, LexisNexis Academic Results