Community organizing has been dealt a serious blow with the recent ACORN scandals and at this point, it can not ever recover. Congress took the extraordinary measure of publicly excoriating ACORN by cutting federal funding. That really is the last straw. It is sad, it is unfortunate, but it is reality.
ACORN might have survived the voter registration scandal last year, but this time it's different, regardless of whether the recent indy film makers who entrapped ACORN have lied about some of their information, the fact is that in at least one case and probably more than one, ACORN staff did get caught doing the wrong thing.
We can call the film makers lying scum for omitting the Philadelphia report, but the Baltimore incident stands on it's own. No matter how defensive we get here, nor how much bluster we use in our arguments, it will not convince anyone outside of the blogosphere, and probably damn few here as well.
The only effect will be to perpetuate an already bad situation. It will ultimately do far more damage than good. There is no winning this. The best thing to do in this case it to just walk away, let ACORN die and create a new entity that is better managed to take it's place.
I realize how frustrating it is to have to let the forces of evil have a victory here, but we need to face reality here. ACORN is damaged goods. It can not be saved. It is a life raft with a three foot hole and we only have a teaspoon to bail it out.
At this point I can already see the flame fest starting, and yeah, I know how valuable ACORN has been in the past, how effective, how vital, how this is giving conservatives a victory, yadda yadda yadda. I get it. It doesn't matter. We can't have the progressive movement tied to an anchor, and at this point ACORN is beyond redemption. Even if it were effectively reformed, it's brand is forever tarnished. It will never again get federal funding. It will continue to be a bludgeon for the wingnuts to use against us forever.
It will strain the legitimacy of every election and every activity with which they are involved. We don't need that. It's time to say good by to a good friend. None of us likes it, but I'm hoping that most of us like losing elections and congressional battles a lot less.