Adrienne Ross
After last night's post contrasting the light of pro-Palin patriots with the anger of anti-Palin protesters in California when the Governor visited to help raise money for CSU Stanislaus, I was contacted by Paul Villarreal of Conservative New Media who did the video that you see in the post. He read the article on C4P and wanted to shed further light. Without the need to overtly call out the protesters' foolishness, the interviewer certainly captured it, and easily captured, also, the civility and patriotism of Governor Palin's supporters,who were well-able to articulate the reasons they stand so vehemently in her corner.
I will let Paul speak for himself. He wrote:
Hi, this is Paul F. Villarreal of Conservative New Media (CNM) and I asked Adrienne Ross if I could add a few words to her excellent write-up here of what took place on the campus of CSU Stanislaus during Sarah's Palin's very successful visit. Adrienne graciously accepted and so I want to share with the C4P readers a bit more alleged information that came to our attention following the shooting of the video posted here as well as some thoughts on the tactics being used by the anti-Palin protesters at Stanislaus and where we have seen such methods previously and how to spot and counteract them.
On the Tuesday following Sarah's visit, John co-hosted the Dave Diamond radio program on KFIV 1360 in Modesto, California (very close to Turlock, where Sarah spoke). During this stint, John was told by both the third man in the booth as well as a caller who had attended the Palin speech and also interviewed the Palin protesters that at least one group among those who had gathered to spew their vitriol toward Sarah were members of a presumably local Teamsters union.
I cannot verify this information independently at this time. The caller who interviewed the protesters himself said that the supposed Teamsters told him this information directly, and that the alleged Teamster members were let out of work early on Friday with the explicit understanding that they were to head down straight from work and protest Palin.
For the purposes of the rest of my comments, I will assume that this information is true, and that a core chunk of those who seemingly mindlessly ranted against Sarah, "the rich" and other strawmen at Stanislaus on Friday were, indeed, union members.
The Teamsters are a notoriously corrupt outfit with deep historical ties to disgraced criminal Jimmy Hoffa as well as the ethically-compromised city of Chicago.
What stuck out most, though, in watching the footage were the tactics of what I will presume are the young men who are union members some time around the middle of the video. Their aggressiveness -- at first appearing illogical but then seeming to fit the profile of the strategic Saul Alinsky disciple -- reminded both John and I, and probably many C4P readers, of other Obama-friendly hatchet men from the 2008 campaign.
For several years now, CNM has come under sustained assault from Obama-friendly astroturfers and left-wing flaks. We are thoroughly familiar with their methods, including those of the "goon squad" groups which seemed to constitute a core of the anti-Palin protesters.
In my opinion, the methods being used by the presumed young Teamster union men in the video fit a very specific profile of agitators and bullies. These are the kinds of people and tactics, I feel, which were employed when Kenneth Gladney was beaten up in Missouri by apparent SEIU members. These are the kinds of methods which were used against average Americans who opposed ObamaCare and voiced their concerns at town hall meetings, and finally, these are the kinds of people and means which have marked the left's hysterical campaign attempting to marginalize Sarah Palin and make her permanently "off limits" to most Americans.
The hallmark of these agitators is their rabid, almost incoherent, chanting and demeanor. The goal is to elicit an emotional response both from fellow protesters and from the opponent, in this case the pro-Palin crowd outside the Stanislaus event.
To this end, initiating mindless chants such as "Eat the rich!" is not the work of unsophisticated protesters but is, instead, a very targeted tactic intended to draw out the anger and hatred of the anti-Palin side and also seek to provoke a kind-of fear response in the pro-Palin protesters. It is the supposed lack of coherence of the chant, that is, which is designed to make the pro-Palin crowd come to a kind of helpless psychological response along the lines of "Wow, these people are so angry and full of rage that even though they are rambling idiotic phrases, I guess they really feel passionately about hating Sarah Palin and I definitely don't want to mess with them. Maybe I should just kind of back off here and kind of accept this Palin hate. I don't want any kind of confrontation."
This technique is often referred to as the "Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt" method. CNM actually made a simple video about this some time ago which you can watch here and you can read more about the FUD approach towards engagement and interpersonal dynamics here.
In watching and re-watching the footage, I am convinced that the young men at the heart of the anti-Palin vitriol are, in fact, union members and I am also fairly certain that the tactics which they used fit into the Saul Alinsky/FUD playbook.
You will never see these kinds of hate purveyors of the left featured in traditional LSM outlets. Sad to say, many media personalities, I feel, secretly appreciate these goon squads because their tactics, as the young pro-Palin woman in the video mentions, work. The many members of the media who detest Palin and support Obama, I believe, appreciate the "clearing out" function which shady outfits like the Teamsters provide because that makes the enactment of the left's radical agenda that much easier to achieve.
For those who support Palin, however, and even just for non-ideological Americans who want to see politics rise above the sum total of advertising methods and partisan pop-psychology hackery such as the FUD method being used by Saul Alinsky types, it is essential to know who your adversary is and just what kind of tactics are being employed. The would-be bully standing across from you at a Palin rally might look and sound like a naive Neanderthal, but it is our experience that they are often anything but, and their methods have to be countered.
I believe that the men in the video which Adrienne posted are a good representation of what Sarah and her supporters will face from now until Sarah is potentially elected President, should she run, in 2012. The left knows they must not allow Sarah any room to breathe, so to speak, and so they will continue to mobilize their most-extreme elements in a desperate scorched-earth campaign to take down Sarah at any cost.
It is our responsibility, as Palin supporters and patriots, to meet such people out on the political battlefield--and to defeat them as often and as widely as we can, in peaceful and concerted ways.
Thank you again, Adrienne and C4P, for allowing me to share my thoughts on this footage and event, and I hope everyone here has a terrific Independence Day Weekend.
Paul F. Villarreal
Conservative New Media
We're in a battle against an enemy that wants to annihilate. The only way to win is to know what we're dealing with and expose those tactics time and time again. Governor Palin's supporters will not be ignorant of the despicable devices used against her. I thank Mr. Villarreal and CNM for being among the good guys who stand for truth.
