The Pantheon of the left
Link to quote: Prairie Fire: A Political Manifesto : The Weather Underground : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
We have experienced the rise of the radical left in America. It all happened within my lifetime. The Communists did make a play for power in America during the great depression, but Americans despite their predicament at the time had a long history with the benefits of free enterprise and were unwilling to give it up. However, the radical left, which was slightly different than the Communists who staged a revolution in Russia, would find a way. The American left was a collection of Socialists and Marxists who found a home in American academia. We first got a glimpse of them in the late 60's when college students who lost their draft deferments launched the anti-war movement.
The stars of that radical movement were people like Bill Ayers who planted bombs, the Marxist/Feminist activist Angela Davis, the leader of the anti-Vietnam War movement Abbie Hoffman and a violent racial Marxist Leninist group known as the Black Panthers. There were others who were less famous. They were given a lot of latitude by what was then a very benevolent society. These early leftist leaders were partly successful to the degree that they influenced US policy on Vietnam. However, the nation which had become fed up with the protests turned to Richard Nixon. It seemed that the left's revolution had failed but the left's first real hero had quietly chalked up a major victory.
The long march through the institutions.
Herbert Marcuse (Member of the Frankfurt School of Critical Analysis)
Victory for the left did not come through a ground-up revolution. It came through an infiltration of American institutions or as the political philosopher Herbert Marcuse put it: ‘working against the established institutions while working in them’.
The Successful Long March Through the Institutions - The American Vision
The success of the American left in taking over American institutions cannot be overstated. Where the Communists had failed, they had succeeded, and it wasn't until 2016-17 that anyone had realized it or even tried to confront it. And when that happened, we began to see the extent of the power that the left had amassed. Most of the msm was dominated by the left and higher education was totally dominated by it. The Teachers Union had become a politically activist organization. Deep blue states like California had gerrymandered themselves to the point where they were painted blue even before national elections began. Some of the most radical individuals were being elected to high office while others were being appointed as judges.
The 2020 riots.
The American left has used race in place of class as a primary tool. That was the tweaking of the Marxist theme of class warfare. In America class distinction was thought of as a temporary situation, thus it never took off as it might in a society of peasants. On the other hand, race was permanent and thus it would replace class for the American left.
The left got the narrative it wanted with the death of George Floyd. Floyd was a drug addict and a lifelong criminal. He died while resisting arrest in police custody. The picture of a white police officer holding Floyd down with a knee to the neck fit the bill perfectly. Thus, the nation witnessed five months of endless rioting, looting and murder (about 35 people lost their lives.) It happened in a very blue district. The police had been stood down. Few were ever punished. The democrat candidate for vice president supported a nonprofit called the "Minnesota Freedom Fund", which paid for criminal bail of the rioters. She also supported the left's move to "defund the police."
On "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" she said the following:
"They're not gonna stop, and everyone beware, because they're not gonna stop," she added. "They're not gonna stop before Election Day in November, and they're not gonna stop after Election Day."
"Everyone should take note of that, on both levels, that they're not going to let up — and they should not. And we should not," she concluded.
Fact check: Kamala Harris said protests aren't going to stop
It was another huge step for the left. They flexed their muscles as the country watched in horror, but the high point was yet to come.
The perfect proxy
In the final year of President Trump's first term (A very successful term up until that point) came the world-wide Covid epidemic. The leftwing media was very successful in blaming Trump for its impact on the country. The left used all of its power to get what was nothing more than an empty effigy elected. A senile old man whose wife and son helped push him into the White House because they sought power. Others aided in the campaign such as former president Obama and James Clyburn. Clyburn got him his first primary win in return for certain promises. Obama supposedly got all the other democrat candidates to drop out. A Clinton campaign lawyer helped to get election laws changed to allow for massive mail-in voting. There were many others who aided on many other fronts as Molly Ball pointed out in her famous Time article.
Nobody then realized it, but Joe Biden was extremely senile and cognitively in decline. He was only a rubber stamp for those around him who really called the shots. Jill and Hunter Biden thought it would be them, but it was the former Obama aides such as Susan Rice pulling the strings and they got to do what they had only dreamed about doing under Obama. They didn't get to do it then because Obama needed to be reelected and he wanted a legacy. So under Biden's name they opened the border, tried to shut down fossil fuels while putting in place a fantasy green energy policy that cost $ trillions, pushed for radical judges, demanded an absolute flight from Afghanistan leaving people and equipment behind as well as 13 needlessly killed service members, appointed Obama's pick for the Supreme Court to the DOJ as their private henchman, orchestrated lawfare against Donald Trump, and were mere spectators during two major wars that might have been preventable.
It was the high point of the left's power in America. By the time Susan Rice resigned her position in the Biden administration it was if she was saying: we are out of here now, let's see how long it takes you to fix it.
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Today's history lesson.
Is that revisionism should be left to actual historians.
Speaking of history, I see you have an article on free speech, a current buzz word for the left.
Do you recall how recently speech was really threatened by government?
Here for you and our readers:
"Conservative politicians and commentators are criticizing the Biden administration for creating a new bureau to fight the spread of disinformation online. Several of these critics have compared it unfavorably to the Ministry of Truth, a fictional department in George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984 .
On Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified during a budget hearing of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security that a Disinformation Governance Board had recently been created to fight the spread of disinformation on the internet. During a Thursday press briefing, White House press secretary Jen Psaki acknowledged the board's existence and noted that President Joe Biden supported it.
Psaki said she couldn't provide many details other than saying the bureau would monitor misinformation on topics such as COVID-19 and elections.
Critics say the bureau is another example of the government trying to police free speech on the internet. This has led to some comparisons to 1984 's Ministry of Truth. The protagonist of Orwell's classic, Winston Smith, works in the ministry, a governmental department that controls information coming from news, entertainment, arts and education. Smith's role at the ministry is to correct historical records to align with the messaging of Big Brother, the leader/symbol of the novel's ruling totalitarian party."
Joe Biden’s Disinformation Board Likened to Orwell’s ‘Min... - Newsweek
How soon we forget!
“…free speech, a current buzz word for the left.”
The co-opting of yet another set of words in the deludedly partisan debate. If the ideal of ‘free speech’ is now speciously considered a ‘buzz word’, perhaps it is an idea that escapes all reasoned, responsible thought in lieu of the most silly, most shrilly of arguments.
Yes indeed. The Ministry of Truth was fiction created by George Orwell. The Creel Committee was the real deal created by Woodrow Wilson.
The Biden administration was recreating Pres. Woodrow Wilson's propaganda ministry.
As long as free speech = Kimmel having a job with ABC it is a buzz word.
Btw ABC says Kimmel will be back tomorrow night.
50 years of progressive control of the education system has led to politicized idiots immersed in anti-Americanism who can't read.
The American Federation of Teachers President was selected right from the DNC. I love how the union wrote the protocols for the CDC during Covid. We didn't hear of an CDC Director refusing to go along based on integrity then, did we?
Reading this junk left me with one main question - does the right believe in progress?
The word for what the rest of us believe in is normalcy.
The normalcy of the past was racism, misogyny and homophobia. In the 1950's blacks were in the back of the bus, women were in the kitchen with aprons on and gays were in the closet.
That is pure Marx. All of history was bad and we need to go out and change the world no matter the cost.
In the 1950's blacks were in the back of the bus
In the 50's blacks had traditional families and were entering the middle class.
women were in the kitchen
Women were strong in the face of adversity, not the karens of the feminist movement
and gays were in the closet.
As opposed to on display.
Is this really the case you want to make for the radical, violent left?
I hate to tell you this, but you seem to be excusing racism ,misogyny and homophobia.
I hate to tell you this, but America defeated all those things. And all the minorities covered there live better in the US than anywhere else.
America also protected speech and freedom of religion via its Constitution.
Given the events of the last few months in Britain, it seems we don't appreciate this enough here in the US.
Unfortunately, the UK doesn't have it in their law.
Can you let us know what countries women, minorities and gays live better than in the US?
The losing of the right wing mind took off following the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which some of them have been trying to contest or minimize for the last 60 years. St Charlie has openly opposed the CRA, although I dont think that was brought up at his memorial yesterday.
No John, that was the southern democrats who opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Actually, there wasnt a single southern Republican in Congress that voted for the Civil Rights Act.
Back in 1964 there was such a thing as Republican liberals or moderates, and they were the ones who voted for it, all of them in the north or on the west coast. No Republican conservatives voted for it.
Support for or opposition to the Civil Rights Act broke on a geographical basis, not a party line.
FALSE AND DELIBERATELY MISLEADING:
"An examination of the House vote shows a similar pattern. The House voted 290 to 130 in favor. Democrats split their vote 152 (61%) to 96 (39%) while Republicans split theirs 138 (80%) to 34 (20%). The no vote consisted of 74% Democrats. Clearly, the 1964 Civil Rights Act could not have been passed without the leadership of Republicans such as Everett Dirksen and the votes of Republicans."
As the online Wall Street Journal so aptly subtitled Mr. Steele's article, "Trent Lott jeopardizes the very productive ideas his party stands for."
Vic, nothing you just typed contradicts anything i said. Liberals and moderates of both parties voted for the Civil Rights Act and conservatives of both parties did not.
Everett Dirksen was a moderate and even sometimes liberal northern senator.
Nonsense. You are just defining a liberal as someone who supported Act, a conservative as one who didn't. Many opponents of the CRA supported Johnson's progressive agenda,
You are classifying people as Liberal and Conservative?
And I don't think anyone mentioned dingbat AOC's claim that the CRA gave blacks the right to vote either. It would be interesting to see how many people who hold the CRA up as a sacred text to spoken of only in the most reverent tones actually can explain its contents unaided.
devil is in the details Sean , does she mean the post war CRA's of the 1860s , or the CRA of the 1960s to include all the ones in between ?
with her i dont think anyone can really tell unless she is asked .
We have to be excused for not realizing how ignorant AOC truly is.
Vic , with the way things are , i would have to say that the primaries for the 28 general election are looking to become very "interesting " to say the least .
Kirk was talking about the 1964 Act, so I assume she was addressing that topic. But the Right for blacks to vote was created by the 15th Amendment and additionally protected by the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
I hadn't heard about this.
So I looked it up.
From her own website........
What the actual fuck.
I agree.
I want red states to do what the dems did with redistricting.
There's no doubt our institutions have assumed a liberal bias that has progressed to left wing lunacy. But I don't believe our modern liberalism has its roots in the 1960s or communism. The Vietnam era counterculture was more about shared sacrifice and shared reward. It's true Lyndon Johnson's Great Society caught civil rights leaders off guard and heightened racial tensions as a result. But Johnson's appeal to racial greed didn't overwhelm the political left's live-let-live ideological underpinnings. Richard Nixon challenged that communal counterculture spirit without being mean-spirited. Nixon provided an example of coexistence, of how to agree to disagree. That's not what we see with today's political left or political right.
Today's liberalism has been shaped by the new age, yuppie sense of entitlement that emerged during the 1980s and 1990s. The mid-century liberals and conservatives both adopted a sense of liberal entitlement. Free love was replaced with prenuptial agreements. The counterculture was replaced by the in-crowd. Live-let-live attitudes were replaced with dog-eat-dog. Buttoned down business majors replaced counterculture philosophers. Today the politics of both the left and right tell us we are entitled to the good life. Free trade and free money drives the political narratives today.
Waxing nostalgic over the 1950s and 1960s is really uninformative. The mid-20th century politics of moral virtue have been swept aside and aren't going to return anytime soon. Today's political struggle between left and right swirl around "are you better off today than yesterday?" Have you been given what you are entitled to. You are entitled to a graduation certificate. You are entitled to a living wage. You are entitled to exploit the open market for as much money as you can grab. You are entitled to the most ostentatious display of affluence no matter how pointless it may be.
The left bought power over institutions by exploiting a sense of entitlement. But the political right has done the same thing. Both sides are threatening each other's entitlements. If we continue down this path only the one with the most toys when they die can win. Everyone seems to ignore that means the only winners will be dead people.
I don't see it that way. I know I keep saying it, but the left staged a revolution via the democrat party. The right is currently staging a counterrevolution. It is kind of like WWII in the Pacific in the year 1942. We have had some victories, but we have a long way to go. When I see people on the left going to jail, I'll say that we are past Midway.
IMO that discounts the influence of Ronald Reagan in reshaping the political landscape. Democrats claim the turning point was Richard Nixon's 'southern strategy'. But Nixon didn't need a strategy to defeat George McGovern. Gerald Ford was essentially a placeholder. Jimmy Carter wasn't a left leaning liberal; he was trying to channel the humanitarian ideals of Herbert Hoover.
Ronald Reagan overturned the post-WWII political landscape as a conservative Californian; quite the contrast with Richard Nixon. Bill Clinton brought the Democratic Party into the political landscape Reagan established. (Bill Clinton is the President that cemented Reagan's legacy. Clinton built upon Reagan's ideology, he didn't replace with traditional politics.)
To me, Democrats and Republicans have been playing exactly the same game on different playing fields. Democrats scored points with social liberalism while Republicans scored points with economic liberalism. Repealing Glass-Steagall definitely was not a conservative move supported by the moral virtue of post-WWII America. NAFTA was a bipartisan sell-out justified by both social and economic liberalism.
Throwing the social liberals in jail won't accomplish anything because they're playing on a completely different playing field. What we need is for both Democrats and Republicans to meet in the middle on the same playing field. Republicans trying to bring back mid-20th century moral virtue while selling out America with free trade and shady business practices is neither virtuous or viable.
If Democrats win, America is doomed. If Republicans win, America is doomed. We're stuck in a Mexican standoff where neither side can be allowed to win or lose. We need to get everybody on the same playing field, playing the same game, using the same rules.
You do make some good points IE:
Ronald Reagan overturned the post-WWII political landscape as a conservative Californian; quite the contrast with Richard Nixon. Bill Clinton brought the Democratic Party into the political landscape Reagan established. (Bill Clinton is the President that cemented Reagan's legacy. Clinton built upon Reagan's ideology, he didn't replace with traditional politics.)
I don't recall who said it, but a President's policies extend well beyond his term once a President from the opposing party either accepts or endorses them and Clinton did do that.
Repealing Glass-Steagall definitely was not a conservative move supported by the moral virtue of post-WWII America.
That is a great point. I'm sure we have members and readers here who may not know the consequences of repealing that act which played out during the Financial Crisis of 2008.
We're stuck in a Mexican standoff where neither side can be allowed to win or lose. We need to get everybody on the same playing field, playing the same game, using the same rules.
That is where we disagree. I think we are stuck in the House Divided that Lincoln spoke of and you may recall that one side will have to win, and one must lose.
I have to include the left's rising star Jasmine Crockett in the Left's Pantheon.
Did anyone catch this hateful soul the other day?
The House proposed a resolution condemning the assassination of Kirk:
"Firebrand Rep. Jasmine Crockett scolded her white Democratic peers for declining to vote against a resolution honor the legacy of conservative icon Charlie Kirk, which was adopted Friday.
Crockett (D-Texas) grumbled that there were only “two caucasians” who voted against the resolution, which passed with support from 215 Republicans and 95 Democrats. A sizable 58 Democrats voted no and another 64 voted present or didn’t show up.
“One of the things that I want to point out that’s not been laid out that honestly hurt my heart is when I saw the no votes — there were only two caucasians,” Crockett complained on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday. “For the most part, the only people that voted no were people of color.”
"The resolution condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the assassination of Kirk during his Sept. 10 appearance at Utah Valley University.
It also conveyed condolences to his wife, Erika Kirk and family while celebrating Charlie’s “steadfast dedication to the Constitution, civil discourse, and Biblical truth” that “inspired a generation to cherish and defend the blessings of liberty” and asked Americans “to reject political violence, recommit to respectful debate, uphold American values, and respect one another as fellow Americans.”
Jasmine Crockett scolds white Dems for not voting against Charlie Kirk resolution: 'Hurt my heart'