A left-wing progressive storm is sweeping through America. In the end, however, it will fail, as other Jacobin and fascist revolutions have failed. The question is when and at what price, writes the director of the Civic Institute Roman Joch.
We were used to the fact that Europeans sometimes go crazy. This is very European. The French went insane during the Great Revolution and Jacobin terror, the Italians under Benito Mussolini and fascism, the Germans under Adolf Hitler and Nazism, the Russians under Lenin, Stalin, Bolshevism, and communism, and even we made the communist party the strongest in the 1946 election.
But many of us thought it couldn’t happen to Anglo-Americans and had a belief that they are calm, balanced, and pragmatic. They have common sense. Now, even if a black lesbian transgender is a millionaire and some poor White man from Kentucky barely makes a living, she is the one oppressed, and he the oppressor.
When was the last time the English went mad? In the 17th century during the Puritan revolution. And the Americans? Yes, one great bloody civil war of the North against the South,160 years ago. For the past hundred years, however, no fascism, no communism, no dictator, no Lenin, Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler or Franco or Pétain. It can’t happen there.
But in the middle of last year, significant segments of the American population effectively went crazy. A neo-Jacobin and neo-Puritan revolution broke out in the sense that people were guillotining statues of figures of their history that they considered unclean. At the same time, they consider themselves the only pure ones, the first anti-racist generation in US history as all those before them were called racist.
This neo-Jacobin and neo-Puritan revolution is collectively called progressivism and has several forms.
One is represented by the neo-racist movement “Black Lives Matter” — neo-racist because if you add that Black lives certainly matter, but the lives of everyone else also matter, including Black, White, brown, and yellow, they will accuse you of racism.
Another is the theory of so-called intersectionality, according to which the historical caste of oppressors in history are white heterosexual men and those oppressed are women, people of color, and sexual minorities. The members of all oppressed groups at the same time are the ones most suffering, for example, black lesbians.
Joe Biden is the political manifestation of progressivism
The political manifestation of this progressive revolution is the six-month reign of Joe Biden. He ran as a moderate Democrat, ruling as the most left-wing president in U.S. history in terms of federal spending and state power to regulate all aspects of American life.
Where to look for the causes of this revolution? There are several, but four are the main ones.
First, the way American history is taught in American public high schools and most universities. Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” has been the basic text for 40 years. In it, he presents the history of the United States as a series of crimes: the murder of Indians, the enslavement of Blacks, the oppression of large-scale workers, and wars.
We in Europe teach history differently. We also mention its dark sides, but we also have our pantheons of heroes. We have something to be ashamed of in our own history, but we also have something to be proud of.
According to Zinn, however, in the history of the United States, we find only crimes and injustices; no story of establishing a free society and then spreading freedom to other groups of people at home and abroad.
Second, the shock from President Donald Trump. How did he come to be elected? And how did he manage to push through so much? Dramatic tax cuts, prosperity, and high employment until the pandemic, and worst of all, three new Supreme Court judges out of nine! And so the revolutionaries got nervous in the summer of 2020.
Third, the radicalizing and exaggerating influence of social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and others.
And fourth, the Democrats estimate that they will lose a majority in Congress in November 2022, so with Biden, they have two years to push whatever they want. The left, which once had astronomical hopes in Barack Obama, feels disappointed. According to it, he did little. Now, they want to use their power to the fullest extent and enforce their vision. Joe Biden and the Democrats have only a year and a half to push for full European-type socialism and an ambitious green new deal.
So, the combination of several factors caused something like a perfect storm.
How will this progressive revolution turn out? In the end, it will fail in its greatest ambitions, as all the Puritan, Jacobin, fascist, Nazi, and communist revolutions did before. However, the question is when and at what price. But at the same time, even if it is finally exhausted, it can still change the American character and the ethos of the US forever. The only question is how and to what extent.
Title image: President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the full FDA approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus, Monday, Aug. 23, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
