ACORN Founder Wade Rathke: “There Is a Different Culture”

by Maura Flynn

Earlier this week, ACORN founder Wade Rathke brought his traveling “everyone-is-against-us” road show to DC to promote his new book, Citizen Wealth. The book doesn’t contain surprises; a 200 page polemic laying out a stale progressive agenda for America. What was interesting though, was a rare glimpse from ACORN’s long-time Chief Organizer into the current scandal now overwhelming the organization. Rathke did not disappoint.

I should note that on a personal level Rathke is easy-going and downright charming. And having been around the political/policy block for decades, he’s mastered a tight control of messaging. A control that makes his successor, Bertha Lewis, sound like an amateur college activist by comparison. That said, his Q & A exchange was fascinating. (Video below from Founding Bloggers.)


But Rathke, for all his political prowess, does slip up. While extrapolating about why he and ACORN’s leadership made an executive decision not to disclose his brother’s nearly $1 million embezzlement, Rathke explains that they were afraid their opponents would “weaponize” the crime in order to destroy ACORN. He went on to suggest that the current turmoil engulfing ACORN justifies the decision to cover-up the embezzlement scandal for eight years. He clearly believes that the end (ACORN’s existence) justifies the means (a cover-up). Rathke still doesn’t appear to acknowledge his brother’s crime for what it was. He refers to his brother’s embezzlement as a “misappropriation” of funds. His moral calculus, while seemingly sincere, is disturbing. Other organizations that truly attempt to aid low-income families (without political agendas) should be alarmed.

Another item of interest came at the end of this interview clip. Rathke talked about the “subculture of organizing” and intimated that it was much different than the broader culture we inhabit. Taking a rare jab at ACORN, he noted that “There is a different culture,” a distinction he believes ACORN doesn’t fully appreciate. Different culture, indeed.

A couple weeks ago, Mike Flynn noted that ACORN’s employee manual states that, “ACORN’s lifeblood is conflicts with targets outside the organization.”

It’s clear that this organization embraces and advocates a kind of bunker mentality. Rathke’s observations in the video reflect that.

Political philosophies aside, the behavior displayed by ACORN employees in the videos of James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles is unacceptable by any standard. But perhaps it is, in fact, a glimpse into a subculture that has, until recently, scarcely been analyzed.

In Rathke’s—and ACORN’s—world, there is a constant struggle with ambiguous and allegedly powerful enemies. Mistakes should be avoided – not because they are objectively wrong – but because they could be “weaponized.”


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Posted Oct 3rd 2009 at 9:22 am in ACORN, Culture, Featured Story | 63 Comments