It worked brilliantly. Time magazine bought into Alinsky’s act in a 1970 profile: “It is not too much to argue that American democracy is being altered by Alinsky’s ideas. In an age of dissolving political labels, he is a radical—but not in the usual sense, and he is certainly a long way removed from New Left extremists.” This, of course, was not true—not in the slightest. His own beliefs were intensely close to those of Marcuse and the Frankfurt School—it was only his practicality and pragmatism that distinguished him and made him infinitely more effective.
