• v  choose or elect as a fellow member or colleague
  The church members co-opted individuals from similar backgrounds to replenish the congregation
• v  neutralize or win over through assimilation into an established group
  We co-opted the independent minority tribes by pulling them into the Northern Alliance
• v  appoint summarily or commandeer
  The army tried to co-opt peasants into civil defence groups
• v  take or assume for one's own use
  He co-opted the criticism and embraced it

News & Articles

• Vaudeville Vladimir Ruins Russia
  The staunchly conservative and moralizing Russian czar, Vladimir Putin, announced he and his wife of 30 years are divorcing. This was met with a strange silence from Kirill I, the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch, and a Putin bootlicker who allowed the state to co-opt his racket. Vsevolod Chaplin, a spokesman [...]
  June 12, 2013 - Falls Church News-Press
• Social Security: The New Deal’s Fiscal Ponzi
  Social insurance co-opts all potential sources of political opposition, making it inherently a fiscal doomsday machine.
  June 10, 2013 - Ludwig von Mises Institute

Quotes

• Thaksin Shinawatra in Asia Sentinel
  In a letter to US President George W Bush dated June 23, Thaksin wrote: "Having failed to provoke violence and disorder, my opponents are now attempting various extra Constitutional tactics to co-opt the will of the people."
• Julia Gillard in South Western Rural Advertiser
  This was a desperate attempt by the previous government to co-opt businesses into their wasteful Work Choices advertising campaign and should stop immediately,Ms Gillard said.
• Rob Bishop in National Parks Traveler (blog)
  This legislation helps ensure that DOI policies no longer enable dangerous criminals to co-opt federal border lands as their drug trafficking highways,said Rep. Bishop. "What many fail to recognize is that allowing the (US Border Patrol)...