Can the Hard Left Abandon Its Extreme Rhetoric and Violence?

AOC still calls Trump a fascist - will harsh rhetoric continue?

The ghosts of the modern day progressive Left - Saul Alinsky and Herbert Marcuse - unfortunately are alive and well in 2024. 

Hardened, self-described anti-imperialist radicals — who rocked many universities and cities this year with hate and violence - may not necessarily buy into the idea of a reduction of extremist rhetoric or even political violence as urged by many political leaders on liberal and conservative sides.

For the hard Left, violence has been part of their political religion. I know, as I once was a hard Left activist as I was a roommate with Chicago 8 defendant Rennie Davis. I personally became friends with Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and hard-left lawyer Bill Kuntsler. I understand that political violence is part of the Left’s DNA. Over time, I moved toward a more conservative outlook. 

Of course, Left-wing political violence has been on display in America ever since Big Bill Haywood’s Industrial Workers of the World, known as the Wobblies, sparked strikes and riots throughout the United States early in the Twentieth Century. 

We later saw 1970’s political violence by the Black Panthers and the SDS’s Weather Underground. And in this century, we have seen inner city riots sparked by Black Lives Matter leaders. Now we’re witnessing a new strain of political violence led by pro-Palestinian and self-described anti-imperialist demonstrators along with some of their progressive allies.

Those who have read my Substack four-part series on revolutionary author Saul Alinsky, who wrote the New Left’s “bible,” titled “Rules for Radicals,” understand that today’s doctrinaire radicals believe political violence is an acceptable, sometimes a necessary strategy.

At this difficult political moment, the moderate wing of the Democratic party, including President Biden, now is counseling a lowering of the political rhetoric since the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. In an Oval Office address on Sunday night he asked all parties to "lower the temperature" on their rhetoric and actions.

The Republican Party, which opened its national nominating convention in Milwaukee on Monday, also is counseling a quieting of political discourse. “We’re all Americans, and we have to treat one another with dignity and respect,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said in an interview Sunday on NBC News.”

But the hard Left may not be as easily calmed. 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York’s radical “Squad Member” on Sunday again resorted to extreme rhetoric, declaring that the election of Donald Trump would be an era of “fascism.”

AOC on the social media platform X, responded to CNN’s Jake Tapper, who quoted an unnamed senior Democrat who said “we’re resigned ourselves to a second Trump presidency.” 

The Squad Member replied, “If you’re a ‘senior Democrat’ that feels this way, you should absolutely retire and make space for true leadership that refuses to resign themselves to fascism.”

Now we must be cautious about today’s self-described progressives or those who call themselves part of the Marxist-Leninist, anti-imperialist Left. They may be or may not be mollified by President Biden’s plea. But they may become more inflamed, as AOC was, as talk of a Trump presidency circulates.

It’s important to note that the legendary Herbert Marcuse, who along with Alinsky were considered the godfathers of the New Left, never shied away from the use of political extremism and violence. 

In “The Essential Marcuse,” he wrote, “I believe that there is a ‘natural right’ of resistance for oppressed and overpowered minorities to use extralegal means if the legal ones have proved to be inadequate.” 

Alinsky, in “Rules” added, “in the spirit of that credo of the Spanish Civil War, ‘Better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.’ This means revolution.”

Alinsky felt the doctrine of revolutionary change means that ethical standards are not important. “That perennial question, ‘Does the end justify the means?’ is meaningless as it stands; the real and only question regarding the ethics of means and ends is, and always has been, ‘Does this particular end justify this particular means?” (Italics in the original).

Again, showing that ethics doesn’t govern the revolutionary activist, Alinsky counseled, “in war the end justifies almost any means,” adding, “Ethical standards must be elastic to stretch with the times.”

Today, the pro-Palestinian anarchistic organization Escalate Network, whose motto is “Heed the Call: Escalate for Gaza,” has currently posted on its website the importance of “resistance” for black and brown people. 

Its web page includes a post that states, “Remember, Black and brown protesters carry the torch of a proud tradition of direct resistance to colonialism, racism, and capitalism. Fred Hampton and Assata Shakur fought directly against the police of America.”

Now, who are Fred Hampton and Assata Shakur? Well, the selection of both radical activists is interesting and troubling.

Hampton, a Chicago activist was devoted to Marxist-Leninism as well as the founder and the national deputy chairman of the Black Panthers who, like AOC, considered fascism the greatest threat to our society. Hampton declared, “nothing is more important than stopping fascism.”

In a November 1969 gun battle with the Panthers, two Chicago police officers were shot and killed by the black activists. A total of nine police officers were shot. A month later, guided by the FBI, Chicago police raided Hampton’s apartment, killed him and seriously wounded four other Panthers. 

Hampton became an instant martyr for the New Left. Two days after Hampton’s killing, the SDS Weather Underground destroyed numerous Chicago police vehicles in a “retaliatory bombing spree.” Six months later, SDS issued a “Declaration of War” against the U.S. Government and adopted the term the “Weather Underground.”

Assata Shakur, originally born JoAnne Deborah Byron, was a member of the Black Liberation Army who was involved in a number of crimes between 1971 and 1973. In 1977, she was convicted of first-degree murder of a State Trooper in a wild shootout in New Jersey. Shakur was serving a life sentence for murder when in 1979, with the assistance of BLA members, she escaped from prison and surfaced in Cuba where she was given political asylum and where she lives to this day.

Now, pro-Palestinian demonstrators who already have resorted to violence across the country, are planning to surround the U.S. Capitol Building on July 24 when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress. Will this be a peaceful protest?

ANSWER, a Left-wing progressive activist organization that claims it’s an anti-war organization, states on its website that, “When war criminal Netanyahu comes to Washington DC on July 24, we will mobilize and issue a notice of a citizen’s arrest!” It’s unclear how they intend to execute the citizen’s “arrest,” but based on previous pro-Palestinian rallies, violence can erupt.

Another new anti-imperialist group is “Behind the Lines.” It is one of the forces behind mass demonstrations being planned outside of August’s Democratic National Convention.

On its website, it states, “Rather than engage in routinized protests that threaten no one or begging the rulers for concessions, we envision a militant anti-imperialist movement that throws wrenches in the gears of the war machine, develops anti-imperialist consciousness far and wide, deprives the empire of loyal soldiers, and aims to stop new imperialist wars through mass resistance.”

It’s unclear what “mass resistance” means. But we will find out, along with moderate Democratic delegates.

We’re hopeful that going forward, all Americans will commit themselves to peaceful and substantive criticism of their political opposition for the rest of the Presidential campaign. Of course, this includes rightwing violence as well as left-wing violence. That’s the American tradition and American way.

But we must carefully watch America’s hardened left, where harsh rhetoric and political violence, unfortunately, has been an historic tradition.