America’s Useful Idiots

By Steve McCann, AMERICAN THINKER

Many years ago, a phrase was coined by the leaders of the Soviet Union to describe those in the West who naively promoted the cause of Russian Communism when in reality they were held in contempt and were being cynically used by the Soviet hierarchy. The term “useful idiot” more than ever applies to a vast swath of citizens in the United States who have been cynically used by the hardcore left for a cause they are unwilling to understand.

Among the mysteries confronting those of us who have immigrated to the United States from countries that have experienced the devastating outcome of socialist/Marxist ideology is why seemingly successful and educated people could be so easily swayed to support those whose end-game is to transform the country into a socialist “utopia” and to control the day-to-day lives of all Americans. Among these “useful idiots” are a seeming majority of the Jewish population as well as many in business, and nearly all in entertainment and the media.

The answer appears to be that despite the hardcore left accounting for less than 20% of the population, their influence extends far beyond thanks to the apparent inability of their peripheral supporters to use any modicum of reasoning — as the left in the United States has been able to identify and manipulate those susceptible to emotional arguments.

Traditionally, the age-old Marxist strategy of fomenting class warfare and demonizing capitalism has been an effective tactic with those in the lower-income and education strata, who can be easily swayed to blame others for their perceived misfortune. However, in a nation, such as the United States, which has experienced great peace and prosperity for nearly seven decades and whose population is overwhelmingly middle-class, this argument alone cannot sway a sufficient number to support the ascension of those dedicated to socialist/Marxist ideology.

Therefore, while still using the class-warfare dialog to keep the lower classes stirred up, the left has, beginning in the 1930s but accelerating in the 1960s, combined class warfare with the promotion of guilt for one’s success and falsely portraying their ideological enemies as being intolerant extremists whose single-minded determination is to limit and control everyone’s lifestyle, and who are at their core virulent racists. Yet leftists are just what they accuse their opponents of being.

The tactic of fomenting guilt for one’s success is a codicil to overt class warfare. The argument begins with the benign assertion that in a nation this wealthy, surely everyone can be guaranteed a minimal level of support at the taxpayers’ expense. Particularly wealthy taxpayers should be willing to part with a “fair share” of their income (as defined by the left) in order to assuage their guilt for living in a country that “facilitated” their becoming rich. Not desiring to be branded as insensitive or evil, many simply acquiesced to this not-so-subtle extortion. Further, in an attempt to buy peace, many contributed vast sums of money to the Democratic Party — now dominated by the far left.

The management of many large corporations as well as numerous successful business owners, entrepreneurs, and inheritors of wealth refused to understand that as in all protection rackets, there is never an end to the demand for payment. Additionally, these dupes were funding a political party whose end-game was to destroy the system that made them successful in the first place. All the while the money being siphoned out of the economy by the government in order to establish a so-called “safety net” was being used to create an ever-expanding dependent class who would vote to keep the left in power.

The Obama administration represents the culmination of this process, as leftists have, through an avalanche of mandates, regulations, and laws, begun weaving a suffocating web around the American free market, as they assume complete control of the economy. Firmly in their clutches will be those who fall into the ever-changing definition of rich and successful.

In the 1960s, America experienced a social revolution against historical and societal norms. An era of peace and prosperity unprecedented in the history of mankind was underway, allowing a new generation to focus on hedonistic pursuits, self-aggrandizement, and a search for so-called “meaning” in their lives. Traditions, based on the religious foundation of the country and the societal mores that sprang from them, came to be viewed as standing in the way of allowing the population to experience absolute freedom.

Coupled with the Johnson administration’s mishandling of the Vietnam War, a broad movement began. The true believers of the left promptly injected themselves into this landscape, proclaiming to the gullible that not only was the United States waging an unjust war, but the U.S. was by its nature a repressive country. The siren song of a society wherein all are treated fairly and there are no absolutes found eager ears.

In short order, the left began to portray their political adversaries as intolerant religious zealots whose primary objective was to deny personal freedom and cast a beady eye toward whatever was happening in the bedroom. An unfettered lifestyle as well as being part of the in-crowd is of paramount importance to not only the vast majority of those in the entertainment and media arena, but also many in the general population. They were willing cast aside any disbelief and wholeheartedly swallow the premise that only the political left or the “progressives” could protect them from this narrow-minded right-wing horde.

This attitude was further entrenched when many conservatives and the religious community began to organize and rightly object to abortion on demand and the concomitant coarsening of the culture. The left now had a virtual stranglehold on the self-centered, whose personal pleasure and egocentrism were the primary driving forces in their lives. They were now completely in the thrall of the left, but what has this blind loyalty wrought?

A cursory examination of those nations that fell under the control of socialist/Marxist ideology reveals that among the first actions the new regimes institute is to put in place laws to greatly limit personal freedom as a prerequisite in subjugating the populace.

The passage of ObamaCare is not a health care plan; rather, it is a blueprint to allow the government to control the day-to-day lives of all Americans, and under the guise of budgetary expediency, the bureaucrats in Washington can and eventually will declare any behavior they choose unacceptable. Meanwhile, Barack Obama and his administration have been busily issuing edicts and regulations aimed at telling the American people what food they can eat, what medicines they can take, what cars they can drive, what houses they can live in, and in due course what they can do in their bedrooms.

One of the most consistent supporters of the Democratic Party is the Jewish population, as the Party has been portrayed over many decades as the defender of the downtrodden and in recent years a bulwark against the supposed racist fanatics on the right. However, this is a party now dominated and controlled by hardcore leftists, many of whom are virulently anti-Semitic and opposed to the state of Israel. A hallmark of all socialist/Marxist regimes is discrimination against and persecution of minorities, in particular the Jews.

That history coupled with the policies of the Obama administration in the Middle East, the Democrats’ class-warfare tactics, the past and present associates of the president, and the anti-Semitic rhetoric of many on the left should alarm the American Jewish citizenry and cause them to cast a wary eye toward the party they have blindly supported over many decades. Unfortunately, the desire to believe that the worst could never happen seems to have permeated the psyche of a people whose history should serve as a cautionary tale as they continue to vote for and financially support a party that views them with disdain.

Barack Obama would not be occupying the Oval Office if it were not for the people over the past sixty years who have blindly supported those who have lied to them. The overriding stratagem of socialism/Marxism is “the ends justify the means” — thus, no lie is too big to tell, no promise too outrageous to promote, and no tactic out of bounds. The overall strategy of the Obama re-election team confirms this mindset as it conducts a demagogic campaign based solely on emotional appeals to that part of the population its operatives consider “useful idiots.”

Those who thoughtlessly supported the left in America over the years are beginning to reap what they have sown. Unfortunately so is the rest of the population.