Posted on Evans Politics, for the best in liberal news, politics and entertainment.
Compiled primarily from ACORN: The Most Cost-Effective Investment the Government (and Foundations) Have Ever Made, AlterNet, September 23, 2009, by David Morris; from As ACORN Grew, so Did It's Clout and Problems, Truthout, September 18, 2009, by Barbara Barrett of McClatchy Newspapers; from the ACORN website; and from the Wikipedia article on ACORN.
The Truth about the Right Wing Attacks on an Organization Of, By and For the Poor
AlterNet: "The real purpose of the right's attacks on ACORN is to destroy a remarkably successful 50-year-old grassroots model for defending the poor and workers."
ACORN is: the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, which was created in 1970 out of the National Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO), which by 1966 had 170 groups in 60 cities across the nation. You can read about the full history of the group at their own site, here.
Remember Karl Rove's firing of those U.S. Attorneys' and the blowback still happening about that? From the ACORN website: "Recently revealed emails show that Karl Rove directly pushed for the termination of US Attorney David Iglesias, in large part for his decision to not pursue allegations of voter fraud against ACORN in 2006 (allegations which Iglesias investigated and found to be unfounded.)"
That Karl Rove concerned himself about ACORN, a remarkably effective, fifty year old grassroots, bottom-up led community level based organization of, by and for America's poor and lower middle class, is actually not surprising. ACORN has been about the single most effective organization nationally in advocating for workers rights, the poor, and ordinary Americans empowerment, and the Right has always hated them and tried to destroy them.
Background from Wikipedia:
"The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) is a collection of community-based organizations in the United States that advocate for low- and moderate-income families by working on neighborhood safety, voter registration, health care, affordable housing, and other social issues. ACORN has over 400,000 members and more than 1,200 neighborhood chapters in over 100 cities across the U.S., as well as in Argentina, Canada, Mexico, and Peru. ACORN was founded in 1970 by Wade Rathke and Gary Delgado. Maude Hurd has been National President of ACORN since 1990.
"ACORN's priorities have included: better housing and wages for the poor, more community development investment from banks and governments, better public schools, and other social justice issues. ACORN pursues these goals through demonstration, negotiation, lobbying for legislation, and voter participation. ACORN comprises a number of legally distinct non-profit entities including a nationwide umbrella organization established as a 501(c)(4) that performs lobbying; local chapters established as 501(c)(3) nonpartisan charities; and the ACORN Housing Corporation. These entities champion liberal and labor-oriented causes. The organization has been the subject of numerous controversies."
OF COURSE the corporate interests represented by the Republican Party have always hated this group. TRUTHOUT: ACORN "helped pass state laws requiring living wages from companies contracting with state and local governments, and raising minimum wages. They helped monitor banks and lenders on the illegal practice of steering minorities into certain neighborhoods. They forged deals with corporations such as H&R Block to protect low-income earners. And they called attention to the rising scandal of subprime lending and the foreclosures that followed." In fact, ACORN is one of the main forces fighting against the rising wave of foreclosures around the country:
"The group has worked within the mainstream political and economic system as well. Last summer, ACORN chief executive officer Bertha Lewis appeared with big-city mayors at a Washington press conference to tout mandatory settlement conferences between lenders and borrowers prior to foreclosure sales.
"Around the country, workers at ACORN offices offer tax advice, loan counseling and housing assistance in low-income neighborhoods - some of it with federal funds.
"In 2007, the group received $1.9 million from the Department of Housing and Urban Development for housing counseling, resident support services and Section 8 housing assistance, according to the database FedSpending.org."
Gee, I guess that's such a significant burden on the federal government, to put out all of almost 2 whole million dollars to help stop the wave of foreclosures and provide the kind of minimal housing assistance that that kind of money gets, right? Almost boggles the mind, the lengths to which the "welfare state" will go... But never mind:
"The non-partisan group also has helped register 1.7 million voters since 2004, many of them African-Americans and Hispanics in urban neighborhoods who were more likely to vote Democratic.
"'(ACORN) has given a voice to people who would otherwise be politically powerless,' said Peter Dreier , a professor of public policy at Occidental College in Los Angeles who has written about ACORN's work. 'And it's rubbed the powerful forces in American society - particularly the Republican Party and big business - the wrong way.'"
There have been some bad problems along the way. ACORN is a "bottom up," community based organization, not led by slick politicians, but by ordinary working poor people who have risen inside the organization, starting at the local level. There is a certain lack of sophistication, and in ANY organization this large, there are going to be some problems, and some illegality and crime.
As the AlterNet article states: "Early this year, the conservative blog, Provocateur said about ACORN's board members, 'They rose through the ranks of ACORN, often starting as foot soldiers fighting for causes near and dear to them. Since ACORN is often associated with causes for poor, most of the board are themselves poor. As such, they are often rather unsophisticated, and thus will be overwhelmed by the sophisticated nature of the organization itself.'"
Again from Truthout: "In recent years, the organization also found itself accused of voter registration fraud after some of its canvassers turned in fake names to election offices in some states. And last year, the organization's board pushed out its founder, Wade Rathke , after learning that he had concealed for eight years the embezzlement of nearly $1 million by his brother."
This apparently shook ACORN to its foundations: an internal memo that Republican investigators obtained highlighted the problem: "'Leadership has no faith in staff,' read the minutes of an August 2008 meeting. 'Wade betrayed them.'" (Truthout)
Look, let's see the obvious: ACORN is a threat to the Republican, big business establishment. Of COURSE they are going to go after ACORN any time they can, in any way they can. Don't you remember the shouts to high heaven during this last election over voter registration fraud? That was almost wholly led by the corporate mouthpiece, FOX News, who has an absolute obsession with the group. ACORN represents exactly the one thing the establishment can't tolerate: a successful organization, led by ordinary working poor, helping ordinary Americans, and quite successfully at that. Again, it's obvious: they are going to come at ACORN any time they can, any way they can.
The most recent scandal is this ridiculous business about the "pimp" and his "whore" showing up at ACORN offices around the country soliciting help in setting up illegal activities. Did you know that in MOST, by far, of the ACORN offices where this ruse was tried, the staff immediately shut the business down?
I encourage you to go to YouTube and search for "ACORN" and just look at the huge list of antagonistic, right wing videos that pop up. Not a single video on the first page is positive. Here is one of my own personal "favorites," on the list of hate, it's just a short little ditty, "Glenn Beck Hosts ACORN spokesman," below. As you can see, there is no civility left in this debate:
By the way, about that "pimp scandal," which President Obama immediately called "completely unacceptable"? According to Truthout, "ACORN fired the offending employees and ordered a halt to all new customers at its offices." Moreover, according to ACORN's own website, in a statement from September 22nd, entitled Former MA Atty. General Harshbarger to Head ACORN Review, "ACORN Board Chair Maude Hurd announced Tuesday morning that former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger would lead an independent inquiry into the organizational systems and processes surrounding the social services of the organization. Mr. Harshbarger, now Senior Counsel to the Firm of Proskauer Rose LLP, is also the former President and CEO of Common Cause, the good government organization."
As you can see, these people are the very devil, are they not?
And now the House of Representative, that august group where one third of the members are millionaires, has voted overwhelmingly to terminate federal funding to ACORN, which has amounted to $53 million since 1994, or about the grand figure of $2 million a year over 25 years. If they think they are going to shut down a group which gets the vast majority of it's $100 million a year budget FROM THE PEOPLE by shutting off $2 million a year, they are going to be sorely disappointed.
It was a milksop, a publicity stunt to counter the hugely negative publicity which ACORN has had generated against it by the right wing media establishment.
I heartily recommend that you read the AlterNet article on the history of ACORN and Republican attempts to stop them, ACORN: The Most Cost-Effective Investment the Government (and Foundations) Have Ever Made, which came out just today, September 23, 2009, by David Morris. It's three pages long, and your eyes will be opened, if they are not already.
A few more examples of attempts to "get at" ACORN, from the AlterNet article: "ACORN has been a target of the right virtually since its founding. During the 1980s and early 1990s, President George H.W. Bush's Department of Labor convened a grand jury to investigate ACORN's relationship to the progressive labor union SEIU.
"The investigation was dropped after Bill Clinton took office. The President George W. Bush's Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was forced to quit in part because he fired several U.S. attorneys who refused to go after ACORN's voter-registration efforts when they found no evidence of alleged voter fraud."
So there you have it. The Federal Prosecutor firing scandal had its roots, primarily, over Republican hatred towards ACORN.
Here is just one of the ways in which ACORN has effectively worked successfully for the interests of poor people and infuriatated the Republicans:
"When Reagan and the first President Bush's regulators failed to enforce the Community Reinvestment Act, ACORN and other groups conducted their own studies.
"They identified banks with patterns of discriminatory lending, exposed these practices to the media and then demanded regulators do their jobs. The combination of publicity and confrontations led many lenders to agree to make loans to borrowers who could afford them." (AlterNet)
Of course the Right hates ACORN! They're cutting into their pocket books!
I think Evans Politics has shown its readers enough to give you the general idea. The fight against ACORN, a generally very effective group working for the poor and ordinary Americans, and hated for a long, long time by the right wing establishment, is nothing new.
We should see reality for what it is. Would you like to contribute to ACORN? Open up YOUR pocketbook for the poor, and fight the Right? For a limited time, your donation will be matched and so doubled. The secure donations page is here.