Bolshevik Lawlessness

The left gets the band back together for 2016. Protesting mobs in the streets is an Alinsky-era rerun, By Monica Crowley - The Washington Times - Wednesday, March 16, 2016

The radical left will never tolerate a disruption to its revolution to “fundamentally transform the nation.” When leftists detect pushback that threatens its grand project, they attack. And now, following their successfully orchestrated assaults on the Tea Party movement, Mitt Romney’s 2012 candidacy and conservative principles more generally, they are putting the band back together for another national tour. This is the essence of the “protests” surrounding Donald Trump’s campaign, with other, more dangerous ones to follow.

Gathered at the site of a recent Trump campaign rally in Chicago were MoveOn, the group financed by leftist billionaire George Soros, Black Lives Matter, sundry socialists and Muslim activists, remnants of the most recent granddaddy of leftist mob activism, Occupy Wall Street, and the unrepentant domestic terrorist Bill Ayers. It’s the old Saul Alinsky crew, disciples of his leftist bible “Rules for Radicals,” looking rested and ready to wreak havoc on yet another presidential election cycle.

The leftists must kill the counterrevolution as symbolized by Mr. Trump. This means using any and all tactics, including the heckler’s veto: mobilize the mob, deploy it as a weapon, and then use the threat of future violence to shut down events and smother dissent (as they did successfully with Mr. Trump’s Chicago event). They then blamed Mr. Trump’s policies and rhetoric for creating a hostile environment in which clashes were inevitable.

This is not about Mr. Trump or what he says or does. It’s not about the GOP. This is straight out of the Alinsky playbook: create chaos, blame the victim, stop free speech and advance progressivism. It was particularly pathetic to see some of Mr. Trump’s rivals and other conservatives blame him as well. Have they learned nothing over the past eight years? Useful idiots all.

This is the left. This is what they do. Note that Mr. Obama, who regularly butts into even the most minor controversies, was silent for nearly a full day before commenting on the Chicago ruckus. This is no surprise. These are his community organizers. He eventually tsk-tsked Mr. Trump and his supporters, as did Hillary Clinton; again, no surprise given that the young Mr. Obama was inspired by Alinsky and the young Mrs. Clinton studied with the man himself

What happened in Chicago last week is the same leftist revolution that’s been roiling America for decades. The leftists who carried out that “protest” are the same ones who were last seen in 2011 and 2012 as Occupy Wall Street. 

Recall that the purpose of those “protests” was to provide the Obama re-election effort with the handy theme of income inequality and economic justice, which lo and behold, is the Democrats’ theme this year, too. What a coincidence.

Five years ago, Service Employees International Union and other big unions (with financial backing from Mr. Soros) planned Occupy Wall Street months in advance and got groups like the socialist Working Families Party to pay local community organizers to field people for the “protests.”

One of the original agitators behind that movement, Mr. Ayers launched tutorial sessions for the kids in the streets. He inspired them with the same words he had used in the early 1970s: “Actions create facts, and facts are essential,” he told them. “Every movement is improbable until it happens; after the fact it so clearly was inevitable.” Bill Ayers, master of wagging the dog.

At the time, many wondered why the protesters seemed to lack a coherent message. The first step was to get the foot soldiers — college students, aging hippies, socialists, rank-and-file union members — riled up. It didn’t matter what the message or cause was, at least not early on. The point was to get the leftist mob acting first. Having invested so much in acting, the mob would then be quick to accept any justification the leftist masters supplied.

And so it was. At first, very few of the Occupy protesters could articulate why they were there. As time went on, they became a bit clearer: Socialism: yay! The banks: boo! And as intended, they carried that energy into protesting, organizing, campaigning and voting in 2012.

Organize the useful idiots, identify and amplify grievances, pit group against group, stoke class warfare by hitting the rich and telling others they are entitled to more of what has been robbed from them, manufacture bedlam and then use it to advance their agenda: This has been Mr. Obama’s shtick from his earliest days in Chicago to the White House.

And that’s why all of this is so familiar. The “protests” in Chicago follow the same pattern — leftist generals send troops unaware of what they’re protesting into the streets to create chaos and silence those who oppose them. It didn’t start with Mr. Trump and won’t end with him. His campaign is merely the current pretext for the latest battle of a revolution that seeks nothing short of the destruction of the American democratic and capitalist system. At least Mr. Trump is resisting their forces. That’s more than we can say for many others in his own party.

• Monica Crowley is editor of online opinion at The Washington Times.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/mar/16/monica-crowley-the-left-gets-the-band-back-togethe/