Vocabulary is important.  It is the means through which we make our argument, through which we move people.  The Left, the Democrats, the progressives and their media and academic constituencies have been very successful at defining the terms with which we discuss politics -- think "choice" or "spending cut" or "fairness."

These forces have deployed all their weapons in the politics of personal destruction to remove or attempt to remove from the public forum effective exponents of the conservative and Republican argument.  We saw this with Newt Gingrich in the 1990's and very recently with Sarah Palin.

Now we have Dr. Ben Carson exploding on the scene, not only with his life story, but even more significantly, with his ability to make the conservative argument.  We can now expect a tremendous effort on the part of the Lefties/Dems/progs to "get" him.  If there is any point of leverage against Dr. Carson, it will very likely be in some malpractice suit, an occupational hazard for any doctor and especially one in the extraordinarily delicate field of brain surgery. 

But if the best that we have at making an argument, our most exemplary advocates, can be taken down by the conscienceless personal attacks of the opposition, what should we do?

Turn the tables using vocabulary.  Turn "Alinsky" into a verb.  And use it to dismiss incidents or arguments crafted to make our people look bad, whether it is with Katie Couric or Gloria Allred or Nancy Pelosi, or whomever.

"Governor Palin, what did you think about your interview with Katie Couric and her questions about what you read?" 

"Oh, she was just Alinskying me."

"Dr. Carson, what do you have to say about the suit against you for malpractice?" 

"I have no comment on that.  They are just trying to Alinsky me."

"Mr. Speaker, what do you have to say about lobbying for Freddie Mac?"

"I have advised a number of organizations over the years.  The opposition is just trying to Alinsky me."

To Alinsky: to pick a target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it