Government · Statewide · CA · September 1, 2026
California Passes Bills on Jewish Identity, Worship-Zone Protections
What Alinsky tactic is being used
2 of the thirteen rules are in play here — campaigns rarely run just one.
Rule 3
“Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.”
The six bills cleared both houses in the closing hours of the 2026 session and reach across four unrelated codes at once — the Penal Code (AB 2664's new Section 594.38), the Education Code (AB 1763 amending Section 48205), the Elections Code (AB 1853's limits on candidate statements) and state demographic-data rules (SB 1387). That is ground almost no congregation is equipped to argue on in a week: AB 2664 passed the Assembly 49-2 with 28 members abstaining, which is what it looks like when even legislators decline to engage unfamiliar drafting rather than debate it.
Counter-Rule 3 · Preparation and Width
Prepare the unfamiliar ground before you are dragged onto it. "I don't know, I'll find out and come back" beats an improvised answer.
Read the actual text, not the coverage: pull AB 2664 and AB 1763 on leginfo.legislature.ca.gov and note the operative numbers — 100 feet, 8 feet, consent, up to $5,000 and up to a year for a first violation. Have one person in your church learn the Sept. 30 gubernatorial deadline and the January 1 default effective date so that when someone asks at a members' meeting, the answer is a citation rather than an impression. If you do not know, say "I'll find the bill text and come back."
Rule 11
“If you push a negative hard and deep enough, it will break through into its counterside.”
AB 1853 began with one genuine abuse — an antisemitic candidate statement, including a 9/11 conspiracy claim, printed in the June 2026 Official Voter Information Guide sent to 23 million voters — and the remedy pushed through is a general power: candidate statements confined to education, experience, public service and community involvement, with the Secretary of State and county officials authorized to reject noncompliant content. A real negative, pressed hard, arrives at its counterside, which is state review of political speech in an official document. The same pressure shows in the press framing of a false-or-misleading-statements bill as a ban on "hate speech."
Counter-Rule 11 · Proportional Truth
Refuse to overclaim, even where it would help. One exaggeration hands the other side the only weapon that works permanently.
Refuse the mirror-image exaggeration on our side. Do not tell your congregation that California has criminalized street preaching or evangelism — AB 2664 reaches an unconsented approach within 8 feet inside a 100-foot radius, and saying more than that hands away the argument permanently. If your church writes to Sacramento before Sept. 30, quote AB 1853's own list of permitted content and ask a narrow question: what standard governs rejection, and who reviews it.
Chapter 3 sets out the rules; Chapter 15 answers each of them in turn. This is that pairing applied to this story.
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