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You are here: Home / Organizing & Resistance / Don't Mourn, Organize / Consider yourselves on notice

Consider yourselves on notice

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Angry customers conducted a successful campaign to persuade several giant business entities to stop supporting voter suppression laws, among other laws that harm the public interest, so this group of well-paid hacks have stepped up to sell the absolute reeking garbage that is the “voter impersonation fraud” scam:

Shortly after the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) announced it was dropping voter identification laws from its agenda, another conservative group is stepping in to fill the void. The National Center for Public Policy Research announced this week it had formed a “Voter Identification Task Force” to continue ALEC’s “excellent work” in “promoting measures to enhance integrity in voting.” Describing itself as a “conservative, free-market, non-profit think-tank,” the group was established in 1982.

I love the spittle-flecked rage in this statement:

“We’re putting the left on notice: you take out a conservative program operating in one area, we’ll kick it up a notch somewhere else,” Amy Ridenour, chairman of the National Center for Public Policy Research, said in a statement. “You will not win. We outnumber you and we outthink you, and when you kick up a fuss you inspire us to victory.”

Corporate CEOs who “cower in the face of liberal boycott threats need to understand that the left never gives up,” Ridenour said. “If these corporations do not reverse course and immediately grow enough of a backbone to say no when the left tells them what to do, conservatives may as well consider them part of the organized left. It doesn’t matter if corporate executives have free-market sentiments hidden deep inside them if they continually surrender to the left’s Trotskyite strategy of making relentless demand after demand in public.”

In public, even! Barbarians.

Because the National Center for Public Policy Research knows lobbying is best conducted by professionals, in quiet rooms, behind closed doors.

Reader Interactions

82Comments

  1. 1.

    Tonal Crow

    Corporate CEOs who “cower in the face of liberal boycott threats need to understand that the left never gives up,” Ridenour said.

    Time to make it so.

  2. 2.

    Ben Cisco

    “You will not win. We outnumber you and we outthink you, and when you kick up a fuss you inspire us to victory.”

    Yeaahhh…that would be a NO, NO, HELL NO, and FUCK NO.

    In that order.

  3. 3.

    RalfW

    Ohhh, that level of rage is delicious!

    And Amy Ridenour, your panic-inflected anger is sweeeet.

  4. 4.

    Bort

    Trotskyite? Wow. It’s only a matter of time before the start calling people Bolsheviks. Republicans: A Bridge to the Rhetoric of 1952.

  5. 5.

    pragmatism

    “We’re putting the left on notice: you take out a conservative program operating in one area, we’ll kick it up a notch somewhere else,”

    protip: whenever you say “kick it up a notch”, you must say BAM! a la emeril.

  7. 7.

    KG

    If these corporations do not reverse course and immediately grow enough of a backbone to say no when the left tells them what to do, conservatives may as well consider them part of the organized left.

    No true Scotsman

  8. 8.

    MaximusNYC

    As always, the level of projection is breathtaking.

  9. 9.

    Tonal Crow

    If these corporations do not reverse course and immediately grow enough of a backbone to say no when the left tells them what to do, conservatives may as well consider them part of the organized left.

    Roll out ze Guillotines!

  11. 11.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Seriously, are they capable of ANYTHING but projection? I’m pretty sure they believe it when they say this stuff, but what an ass-backwards view of reality.

  12. 12.

    Kay

    @Tonal Crow:

    I don’t think they really get the strategy, which is amazing, for a such free market experts.

    It isn’t really a boycott, I mean that’s the direct threat, but that isn’t what the corporations are running from. They don’t want, say, Pepsi, associated with shooting kids or denying someone the right to vote.

    Conservatives need to to reflect on why their policies damage a corporate brand, because that’s the issue here. This stuff is toxic.

  14. 14.

    mingo

    So – who are the corporate sponsors of NCPPR? We need to break out our hard-left-trotskyite alinsky boycottin’ powers for them.

  15. 15.

    Suffern ACE

    Same to you, toots.

    And what happens to those retail and consumer markets businesses that are part of the left? Maybe they should get back at them by raising the minimum wage or allow their workforces to unionize more easily. That’ll show em.

  16. 16.

    Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor

    Amy Moritz Ridenour: Born 1959. President of the NCPPR since its founding in 1982, at the tender age of 23 (apparently no well-connected 19 year olds were available).

    Yet another winger parasite who has created nothing, contributed nothing, fixed nothing, and quite frankly has never had what I would consider a ‘real job’ in her entire life.

    Just think, Amy… if you had won that little election in 1981 it would have been you going to jail instead of Jack Abramoff.

  17. 17.

    Mickey

    If you are the slightest bit surprised by this you haven’t been paying attention.

    At least this keeps it out in the open in broad daylight (for now).

  18. 18.

    Dave L

    “You will not win. We outnumber you…”

    If they really believed that, they wouldn’t be trying so hard to shrink the voter pool.

    Next up: property qualifications for voting. After all, why should you be given a stake if you haven’t already earned one?

  19. 19.

    burnspbesq

    I wonder if they’ve figured out that they aren’t supposed to jump out of the giant wooden rabbit until after it is wheeled into the enemy fortress.

  20. 20.

    Redshift

    This is my favorite bit:

    We outnumber you and we outthink you

    They “outnumber” us only in the “we can afford to create more phony front organizations” sense, but the “outthink” part is particularly special. When you’re getting into trouble because your tools in state legislatures are dumb enough submit your self-serving legislation on ALEC letterhead, you might want to rethink the “we am too smart!” whine.

  21. 21.

    ShadeTail

    @Kay:

    Well, sure, but that’s what you get when you live inside the bubble. They don’t realize that their ideas are toxic because Faux “News” has convinced them that they’re in the majority. For example, they see Treyvon Martin and honestly can’t understand why anyone cares that he was murdered by a mentally unbalanced vigilante. After all, the kid was black, and Zimmerman was just exercising his 2nd amendment right to free speech.

    That’s what being on the radicalized right-wing does to you.

  22. 22.

    Violet

    I’m so glad this kind of thing is being done in public where people can see what these folks are all about.

    And a few mainstream pundits seem to be calling out the wingnuts on their crazy rhetoric, like this from Eugene Robinson:

    Let me be clear: I’m saying that the extreme language we hear from the far right is qualitatively different from the extreme language we hear from the far left — and far more damaging to the ties that bind us as a nation. Tut-tutting that both sides should tone it down is meaningless. For all intents and purposes, one side is the problem.

    There’s more good stuff at the link.

  23. 23.

    Hill Dweller

    @Kay: I noticed the Obama campaign sent out a message today asking people to rally against the Republicans’ attempt to end early voting in Ohio. Is there any local organizing?

  24. 24.

    Aet

    Wow, this shit is fucking _clinical_.

    The subject feels acute anxiety towards someone they feels is persecuting them (by virtue of using their own rights and expression). So they ascribe the image of an organized, professional campaign of misinformation to a protest movement, while taking a wingnut thinktank check. The protest becomes campaign, and the campaign becomes a protest. They represent the elite and the CEO, while simultaneously outnumbering their opposition. It’s just Crazy, straight, coming from anger. Sociopathy is rarely so brazen.

    They then trot out the justification words of their movement, various ad hominem labels comparing their enemies/victims/persecutors to the Other

  25. 25.

    Schlemizel

    “I’m smart! Not like everybody says… like dumb… I’m smart and I want respect!”
    – Amy Ridenour Frado

  26. 26.

    Maude

    @ShadeTail:
    There’s and AP headline that says that there is a photo of Zimmerman on the night of the shooting that shows him with injury to his head. Why is showing up the day he is in court and he may be let out of jail on bail soon?

  27. 27.

    dmsilev

    You will not win. We outnumber you and we outthink you, and when you kick up a fuss you inspire us to victory.

    WOLVERINES!

    (either that, or the spokesdroid is admitting that conservative think-tanks are run by Terminators)

  30. 30.

    bemused

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    The projection is wall to wall. It must be a required Frank Luntz course which rightwingers with their natural aptitude for projection, pass with flying colors.

  31. 31.

    LGRooney

    we outthink you

    Where do I sign up for a public debate with these pinheads?! I’m happy to spin them into knots the likes of which would baffle Gordius!

  32. 32.

    ShadeTail

    @Maude:

    I wouldn’t even speculate why. There are far too many players with an obvious motive to make Zimmerman look innocent, and the political connections to get their hands on tainted evidence.

  33. 33.

    Comrade Dread

    “conservative, free-market, non-profit think-tank,”

    “Conservative” and “think” do not tend to work well together these days. Sure, there was a time when they were on speaking terms. When they occasionally went out for dinner and a movie.

    But these days, there is only silence over breakfast and sleeping in separate beds.

    Think is generally down at the library or in his study laboring over the great works, while Conservative is in the living room jacking off to talk radio phone sex and screaming in ecstasy with Rush ($9.95 a minute) about how Obama hunts, kills, skins, and eats dogs, and then wears the dog’s skin as a loincloth while cackling with the governor of Hawaii over the ‘birth certificate’ they photoshopped together.

  35. 35.

    MattR

    @LGRooney:

    Where do I sign up for a public debate with these pinheads?! I’m happy to spin them into knots the likes of which would baffle Gordius!

    Unfortunately, I don’t think they have the ability to recognize the logical beating you would give them.

  38. 38.

    JGabriel

    @Comrade Dread:

    “conservative, free-market, non-profit think-tank,”

    “Conservative” and “think” do not tend to work well together these days …

    Not to mention the Free-Market Non-Profit oxymoron.

    Edited to Add: Dammit, Calouste! You posted my joke first! Grumble, grumble.

    .

  39. 39.

    Comrade Dread

    @JGabriel: Oh, I don’t think it’s an oxymoron.

    If one believes in a free market, and one doesn’t mind whoring themselves out for a buck, you’ll find all manner of corporate sugar daddies to pay for you to ‘think’ exactly like your client tells you to think.

  40. 40.

    Gustopher

    I really, really hope the radical right starts going after businesses that back away from supporting the radical right.

    All that will happen is that more businesses will attempt to stay out of politics where it doesn’t affect them directly, knowing that anything they do is fraught with danger and risk.

  41. 41.

    mds

    the left’s Trotskyite strategy of making relentless demand after demand in public.

    Oh, so that’s how the October Revolution played out. Trotsky simply made relentless demand after demand in public. He annoyed the provisional government to death.

    This is the “outthinking” of which she speaks?

  42. 42.

    dan

    Amy Moritz Ridenour: Born 1959.

    Isn’t she a little old to be talking like a 17 year-old? A 17 year-old football player at a pep rally?

  43. 43.

    JGabriel

    __
    __
    Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor:

    Amy Moritz Ridenour: Born 1959. President of the NCPPR since its founding in 1982, at the tender age of 23 (apparently no well-connected 19 year olds were available).

    Wikipedia:

    The National Center for Public Policy Research is one of the few, possibly the only, U.S. conservative organization to have an extensive long term outreach to the African American community. Since 1992, the group has sponsored Project 21, a “national leadership group of black conservatives.”

    Whose votes they will now try to block?

    Edited to Add:

    Project 21’s staff director is David W. Almasi, who is white.

    The laughs just keep coming. You don’t even need a punchline, they do all the work for you.

    .

  45. 45.

    Yutsano

    That statement is pure comedy gold. It’s like they want to be known as the protectors of the delicate 1%. I’ll enjoy that contest, although this works better as subtrefuge Amy dear.

  46. 46.

    Veritas

    So, liberals are already whining that Mitt’s new slogan is RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACIIIIIIST! That’s always a good sign. Word is Karl Rove came up with it himself. OIW T-shirts, bumperstickers, and yard signs are on the way as well!

    #OIW–Obama Isn’t Working

  50. 50.

    ShadeTail

    @MattR:

    Unfortunately, I don’t think they have the ability to recognize the logical beating you would give them.

    That’s a good thing. If they had brains and shame enough to realize how badly they get beaten, they’d stop giving us chances to humiliate them in front of everyone who *can* be convinced.

  53. 53.

    Jamey

    @Veritas: @Veritas: At least the GOP had the good taste to withdraw their first slogan, “The [Strapping Young T-Bone-eating] Buck Stops Here.”

    #GOPASSHATS

  56. 56.

    Mnemosyne

    @Veritas:

    Romney’s been unemployed for five years. But I guess you guys really want to emphasize the fact that he’s been living a life of leisure riding his horses and renovating his multi-million dollar mansions while ordinary Americans have been losing their jobs and struggling to pay their mortgages.

  58. 58.

    TooManyJens

    Shortly after the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) announced it was dropping voter identification laws from its agenda, another conservative group is stepping in to fill the void.

    Mmm-hmm. It’s not like the right was suddenly going to let Those People vote without a fight. They sound paranoid and scared because they face a genuine threat: they just misidentify the source. Their real problem isn’t the imagined iron-fisted oppression of “The Left,” it’s that their ideas are unjust and unpopular. So unpopular that it’s unfair to hold people accountable for them in public!

    Ordinarily I’d feel sorry for somebody who is so obviously shit-scared, but given that they’re shit-scared of their fellow citizens being allowed to exercise their rights, I’ll pass.

  59. 59.

    LGRooney

    @mds:

    He annoyed the provisional government to death

    Got me into trouble at work, here, since now everyone knows I’m not working after that outburst of laughter. Either that, or I am so delirious from playing with accounting numbers they’ll straightjacket me.

  60. 60.

    Southern Beale

    @Jamey:

    Dude she could look like Mila Kunis for all I care. I hate her because she’s a fucking corporate shill, a liar, and a manipulator. She’s a part of the right-wing propaganda machine that’s been trying to con this country since Nixon.

  63. 63.

    yopd1

    She makes it almost too easy…. This is the same woman who called for a boycott of the NFL when they fired Rush Limbaugh.

  64. 64.

    Jamey

    @Southern Beale: Relax, it’s just a recycled meme from an ’80s shampoo commercial. And Mila Kunis could look like Amy for all I care. I’d still love her for stuff like this. In Russian, “dude.” Russian!

  67. 67.

    Violet

    @Veritas:
    This is a really dumb slogan for Romney. What people’s brains will see is “Obama” and “working”. And if Mitt is standing next to or in front of signs that all say “Obama”, that’s another messaging fail. It’s reminding people of the other candidate while he’s trying to get their attention.

  68. 68.

    quannlace

    reverse course and immediately grow enough of a backbone to say no when the left tells them what to do

    Cause doing what liberals want you to do = BAD
    Doing what we demand you to do = GOOD

    Yes, and also loved that little ‘kick it up a notch.’ Don’t forget the seasoning for the seafood gumbo!
    ***********************

    Someone is a little irritated by the new slogan. Should I reserve a OIW t-shirt for you?

    Uh, a little hint, Veritas and by extension, the Romney campaign. When You have a slogan that has to be constantly explained, i.e. spelled out for everyone who says ‘what the heck does that mean?’ It’s not a very good slogan. Personally I thought it was about owls.
    Instant visual recognition: important, you know?

  69. 69.

    Jamey

    @quannlace: No, OIW is a great slogan. The GOP should run with that. Seriously. How could an unemployed billionaire possibly lose by pointing out that a self-made man is a failure?

    /briar-patch

  70. 70.

    rikryah

    FACTS TO MITT ROMNEY ARE LIKE GARLIC TO A VAMPIRE

    Chronicling Mitt’s Mendacity, Vol. XIV

    By Steve Benen

    ———————————————

    Campaigning in Ohio yesterday, Mitt Romney told supporters, without smirking or sounding sarcastic, “If I’m president of the United States, with your help, I will tell the truth.”

    Ordinarily, those seeking national leadership positions don’t vow to tell the truth if others help them, but since I am nothing if not helpful, I thought I might give the presumptive Republican presidential nominee a few examples of instances in which he fell short of honesty this week.

    Indeed, if Romney intends to “tell the truth,” he can start by reading the 14th installment of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt’s mendacity.

    ———————————————

    http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/20/11309846-chronicling-mitts-mendacity-vol-xiv

  71. 71.

    kay

    @efgoldman:

    I don’t know, but the statement makes me laugh because it ‘s rejection.

    Corporations with valuable brands and goodwill are perfectly willing to “stand with” conservative activists as long as it’s secret. They don’t want to be seen with these scumbags in public. Not good for bidness. So sorry. See ya!

    And she knows it. That’s why she’s mad.

    She’s a professional hit man. How stupid was she to think the people who hired her were going to publicly associate with her?

  73. 73.

    Rome Again

    @burnspbesq:

    I wonder if they’ve figured out that they aren’t supposed to jump out of the giant wooden rabbit until after it is wheeled into the enemy fortress.

    Winner!

  74. 74.

    Catsy

    @Kay:

    Conservatives need to to reflect on why their policies damage a corporate brand, because that’s the issue here. This stuff is toxic.

    DINGDINGDINGDINGDING!

    But they won’t, because doing so would mean acknowledging one of the facts that their ideology simply doesn’t allow them to acknowledge: that their policies are toxic and unpopular.

    You can’t get to the “why” if you deny the “what” altogether.

  75. 75.

    RalfW

    @Gustopher:

    …more businesses will attempt to stay out of politics where it doesn’t affect them directly, knowing that anything they do is fraught with danger and risk.

    This is why the spanking of Target when they funded anti-gay Emmer in MN mattered. It mattered that he was anti-gay, but it was to send a message to Target that claiming to be pro-growth could not operate in a moral vacuum when the (cough) putative pro-growth candidate is also anti-gay.

  76. 76.

    RalfW

    @Veritas:

    I’m in for six of them, since you’re buying.

    Mail ’em to:
    RalfW
    c/o
    Salvation Army Donation Center
    10747 University Ave.
    Minneapolis, MN 55434

    Thanx!! :)

  77. 77.

    kay

    @Catsy:

    Okay, but look at Komen, and now this, and, Target, before that.

    So what is it that makes public association w/ conservative policy toxic to commercial brands, but not to voters, in the political “marketplace?

    Because in all of those examples the folks protecting the brand went with conservatives privately, but liberals publicly.

    They’ll be “seen” with us, but not with them.

    I just think that’s both fascinating, and weird, because they’re (supposedly) the Real Americans.

  78. 78.

    Catsy

    @kay:

    So what is it that makes public association w/ conservative policy toxic to commercial brands, but not to voters, in the political “marketplace?

    I think this begs the question a little. I think for the most part conservative policies are in fact toxic to voters–when those policies and their consequences are truthfully described to them.

    The problem is that most voters are inundated with decades of right-wing bulshytt, messaging, obfuscation and outright disinformation. This is why you get polls where when asked for their opinion on “Obamacare” voters respond with uniform negativity, but when you poll them on neutral, factual descriptions of the individual parts of the PPACA they receive broad support. This is why Republicans have to lie about their agenda in general elections and hide their policy proposals behind euphemisms.

    So while these corporations are perfectly happy to support scumbags like ALEC when all the average voter knows about them (if anything) is that they’re a “pro-business” advocacy group (nothing wrong with that, right?), they flee from being publicly associated with right-wing policies when we raise the visibility of those policies and educate people about what ALEC really does.

  79. 79.

    Bullsmith

    This really is pretty good Stalinist rhetoric. We will never give up, which shows how resolute and committed we are. But remember the enemy will never give up, which shows how completely lost to evil they are.

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