Radicalism at Home and Abroad- Sanders, Trump, and Destability Tactics in Russia- Part2
Russian Influence among the Far Left.
The far right is not alone among radicals in getting plenty of Russian assistance. The far left, which has shown just as strong a resurgence as its counterpart since the Great Recession happened, is also getting more than its fair share. Russia, it seems, is never short of rubles to spend on troublemaking.
Keeping the United States in a perpetual state of crisis is a tremendous boon to the Russians. This crisis is used by the far left to drum up support for the causes they hold dear. As Tad Devine, senior adviser to the Bernie Sanders campaign and deposed Ukrainian dictator Victor Yanukovych once said, "Crisis is our brand".
From the perspective of leftists, this is the only motive that makes sense, as the new Russia is just as much the ideological rival of the left as the Soviet Union was the right.
The left’s affiliation with the Kremlin can be explained better via the “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” principle. Marx long taught that Communists should make any such alliances as are helpful toward the ultimate goal of dissolving the State. Russia's state-controlled economy, which promises to keep “big capital” in check, has proved attractive as a model for many anti-capitalists.
The trouble is that all this crisis and empowered radicalism gives both sides many opportunities to incite mayhems, and if these tendencies are not held in check by a strong and involved middle class, they tend to polarize their own atmospheres to the mutual detriment of all.
America is not alone in having experienced troubles with leftist radicalism of the type that caused the supporters of Bernie Sanders to riot in the streets of Washington last summer, causing the goblins in the Kremlin to chortle with hideous glee at the forced resignation of DWS, the Democratic party chairman.
Germany’s Die Linke party, which literally means "The Left", has outdone itself in support of the Kremlin. One of its leading figures declared that Crimea legally belongs to Russia, a sore point throughout all of NATO. The radical left group European United Left/Nordic Green Left in the European Parliament supports the Kremlin with words and votes (in 78% of the cases), in the Council of Europe.
Director of the Political Capital Institute Peter Kreko has been recently involved in research regarding this matter. He concluded two facts about the intentions of Putin. First, that he is becoming the front man of a worldwide anti-human rights movement, and second, that he is investing in, stirring up, and inciting radicals on both ends of the spectrum that are trying to “sabotage democracy in Europe”. Kreko describes Russian tactics focused on destabilizing the EU and advancing Moscow’s ideology. This includes supporting parties and candidates on the margins(such as Bernie Sanders, or Ralph Nader's Green Party) and friendly media outlets.
In America, we are experiencing many problems with so- called progressives who are still insisting, in the face of the overwhelming evidence that keeps piling up, that "the Russia thing" is simply a distraction from the main issue, that in their view being how the DNC cheated Bernie Sanders. These people are doing the entire human race a grand disservice.
By turning a blind eye to the machinations of the most nakedly aggressive power to arise in the world since Hitler's Third Reich, they are in fact helping to make possible the same specific chaotic social conditions that in the past allowed far right populist movements like Germany's National Socialism to thrive in the first place.
They don't understand that they are being duped by people who long ago grew cynical and bored regarding the sorts of dreams and theories Bernie Sanders is espousing. After all, they invented most of it, and more a hundred years ago.
The "socialism" advocated for by the mountebank Bernie is a cheap regurgitation of Marx and Lenin, two writers among many that your average Sanders supporter has not read. Having been dazzled by these ideas during their conception, the Russians now understand only too well how they can dazzle others also.
By now it has become clear to all but the deliberately blind and woefully ignorant that what happened in November here in America was not an isolated event, nor one that should have been unexpected. Rather, it is part of a consistent and growing phase of aggressive Russian attempts to rebuild at the expense of NATO and the United States.
The rest of the European world has been dealing with this as it grew, for the last decade. Attempts to warn us have mostly fallen on deaf ears, and so our opportunity to catch it early has already long passed us by.
The citizens of Ukraine have already had to suffer the indignity of physical Russian violence inflicted upon them, and their plight remains dire. The Minsk Agreement is a flimsy Band-Aid and an abject disgrace to the pilfered Ukrainians, and therefore a disgrace to all of NATO.
The day has come to face up to the bullying Russian. They have consistently gone too far, and they have got to be stopped while we still have the strength to stop them. It is that, or lose our spot as the leader of the world.
