The venerable community organization ACORN shut down and dissolved in 2010.
Founded in 1970, ACORN was actually an umbrella organization pulling together dozens of other small grassroots, community-based advocacy groups. It became an effective voice promoting and magnifying political representation on behalf of poor, working-class and minority communities.
The phrase “community organization” and post-2008 color arousal on the part of the white right meant that ACORN became the unwitting embodiment of Fox Fear and a conservative punching bag. The group was targeted by fraudulent video activists and deep-pocketed legal harassment and was forced to close its doors permanently in 2010.
But the white right wing just can’t quit ACORN, and every year since then, despite the group’s non-existence, House Republicans have voted to ensure that the defunct organization does not receive federal funding.
So here’s a list of other now defunct and/or no-longer-existent organizations and entities the Republicans in the House might just as productively vote to deny future federal funding:
10. Napster
8. Moxie soda
7. Polio
6. Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction
5. Saddam Hussein
4. The Seattle Pilots
3. The Commodore 64
2. The Battle of the Network Stars
1. Dick Cheney’s soul