Fifty years ago, a mob of leftist baby boomers descended on the National Democratic Convention in Chicago and wreaked havoc.
These self-righteous student radicals, who had draft-exemptions and continued to accept living allowances and tuition from their much-despised middle-class parents, claimed they were the champions of the "powerless," laborers and the poor — groups they never encountered during their sheltered, suburban and gated-community youth.
They condemned the American system, as immoral, oppressive, evil and they were convinced they were the anointed ones destined to restore peace and beauty to the United States.
They were similar to the early 20th century European youth movement which the legendary Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises described as "turbulent gangs of untidy boys and girls" declaring that "all preceding generations . . . were simply idiotic [and] henceforth the brilliant youths will rule. They will destroy everything that is old and useless, they will reject all that was dear to their parents, they will substitute new real and substantial values and ideologies for the antiquated and false ones of capitalist and bourgeois civilization, and they will build a new society of giants and supermen."
Social critic Roger Kimball described them more succinctly as "of the privileged, by the privileged, for the privileged."
At the 1968 Democratic Convention, these student protestors turned to the streets in the name of liberty and justice after the duly-elected delegates voted down the anti-Vietnam War plank. Because the police were viewed as barriers, it was permissible to taunt and attack the pigs.
Journalist Theodore H. White, observing the "bloody climax," saw "the black flags of the anarchists; Viet Cong flags; red and blue banners; Omega banners; no American flags" as the kids were looting and committing acts of violence.
As the sixties radicals grew older, they tossed their granny glasses, cut their hair and joined the ranks of the professional and managerial elites who defined themselves by their intelligence. They might still hate "the system" but rationalized that they were using it in order to obtain the power and wealth necessary to promote and finance their radical causes—feminism, environmentalism, one-world government, etc.
To have a platform to preach "social justice," many pursued careers in academia. In this realm, the leading warrior has been Bill Ayers, co-founder of the terrorist Weatherman Group.
In his forties, after receiving a Ph.D. in education from Columbia University in 1987, Ayers began a new career as a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and as trainer of teachers for the Chicago school system.
Ayers has been promoting "social justice" education methods which, according to Education Week, recommends critical pedagogy — "teaching kids to question whoever happens to hold the reins of power at a particular moment. It’s see yourself not just as a consumer, but as an actor-critic." Students are to be taught to recognize that America is nothing more than a racist, sexist, oppressive capitalist nation and to be trained to fight and suppress opposition.
Ayers efforts appear to be paying off.
A recent Brookings Institute poll revealed that 62 percent of leftist college students believe that protesting and drowning out the voices of people they disagree with is okay with them. Twenty percent hold that resorting to violence is okay to silence those that disagree with them.
Ayers and like-minded professors throughout the nation have begat a new generation of radicals entering the public arena. And like their forebears, anyone who challenges their vision are unworthy, insensitive, racist, evil, and intellectually as well as morally bankrupt.
One graduate in good standing of the Ayers school of social-justice is 28 year old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
After knocking off New York City’s long-time Congressman Joe Crowley, in the Democratic primary, Ocasio-Cortez became the poster child for the lunatic fringe of the party.
A proud member of the Democratic Socialists of America, she subscribes to its platform that calls for open borders, closing of prisons, abolishing ICE, tuition-free public college, Medicare for all and a federal jobs guarantee.
Ocasio-Cortez is a classic multi-culturalist who believes American history is the story of oppressed women and minorities.
She equates the ending of slavery to electing Democrats and boasts her political movement is fighting for "social, economic and racial dignity."
"I can’t name a single issue, with roots in race that doesn’t have economic implications and I cannot think of a single economic issue that doesn’t have racial implications," she insists.
"The idea that we have to separate them is a con."
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her confreres are in the words of Manhattan Institute’s Sol Stern, promoters of "1960s-bred agenda of anti-capitalism, central planning, victimology and government handouts to the poor."
Bill Ayers must be very proud.
George J. Marlin, a former executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, is the author of "The American Catholic Voter: Two Hundred Years of Political Impact," and "Christian Persecutions in the Middle East: A 21st Century Tragedy." He is chairman of Aid to the Church in Need-USA. Mr. Marlin also writes for TheCatholicThing.org and the Long Island Business News. To read more George J. Marlin — Click Here Now.
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