Hillary Clinton has often tried to portray herself as the hard-working, long-suffering wife simply trying to make the world a better place for whatever minority is convenient at the time. However, she didn’t just magically pick up her manipulative skills during her years at Wellesley or Yale. As Dinesh D’Souza points out in Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democrat Party, Clinton also got her education from gangsters.
The former First Lady’s life as a mafiosa began upon meeting political gangster Saul Alinsky in high school. She recognized Alinsky’s skill, wrote her college thesis on him, and she even invited him to speak at Wellesley College during her time there. In the meantime, she veered sharply left, leaving her days as a “Goldwater girl” behind her. She would later become the embodiment of Alinsky’s tactics.
D’Souza writes that in addition to scamming the University of Chicago, Alinsky fell in with smaller gangs like the Sholto and the 42 Mob. The real prize for him, though, was to get in with the Al Capone crew-- and he did after months of trying with no success.
He had no problem calling Frank Nitti, Capone’s number two man, “Professor.” He had no problem with the mob’s little habit of murdering people. In fact, he even shocked Nitti by his idea of using a local hitman to save money. A hardened gangster believed the young Alinsky was callous.
Alinsky soon recognized his problem: the shakedown men tend to get knocked off. According to Hillary’s America, this was the point when Alinsky decided to enter politics. It was a legal way to extract money without risking your head. Alinsky said during one interview, “I learned a hell of a lot about the uses and abuses of power from the mob, lessons that stood me in good stead later on.”
Alinsky’s greatest challenge became to get the target of his schemes to the point of submission. In his words, “To f*ck your enemies, you’ve first got to seduce your allies.”
Still, Alinsky wanted to remain an “outside agitator.” In a shocking display of self-awareness, he realized that an activist in the government may not be the best idea. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, took a different route. She even admitted they disagreed over the matter, with her saying she wanted to change from within while he wanted to remain on the outside, or as Michael Tomasky summarized: Why fight the power when you can be the power?
As Hillary’s America shows, Hillary got her education by way of Alinsky. Why else would a Goldwater girl suddenly swing to the far left? Even though Alinsky died long befor he could see some of his prized students ascend to power, Hillary Clinton, along with Barack Obama, has seemingly done her best to make Alinsky proud. From helping silence Bill’s accusers, using the government to go after other enemies, or abusing power to accomplish her goals while Americans suffer and die, it’s clear that Alinsky is her Godfather. She remains a loyal associate.
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