T. Belman. I agree with the first sentance but strongly reject the second sentance. No distinction between them. Just like trying to distingish between Hezbollah’s political wing and military wings. In both cases, there is no distinction. Both parts serve the same cause with different tactics.
By BRUCE ABRAMSON, EPOCH TIMES
The demonstrations that have broken out around the country are part of a strategic plan to transform the United States into a progressive utopia. The riots into which they quickly devolved are not. It’s important to understand the difference between them.
The strategy itself is hardly a secret. It appears, for example, in Paul Engler’s “Resistance Guide,” published shortly after Donald Trump became president.
Engler is the rare and dangerous combination of a theorist and an activist. In 2014, he launched a “movement incubator” called Momentum. Within five years, he’d incubated groups promoting climate change, pushing for open borders, and spreading anti-Israel activism. As a theorist, Engler has brought forward the work of two significant predecessors: Saul Alinsky and Gene Sharp.
Alinsky, the premiere labor organizer of the mid-20th century, is best known for his “rules for radicals.” Engler has applied lessons learned from open source development, networked organizations, and social media campaigning to bring Alinsky’s tactics into the 21st century.
Sharp, a scholar of nonviolent uprisings, proved even more influential. Sharp distilled and cataloged the lessons of history. He drew a distinction between ideological and tactical nonviolence—and showed that the nonviolence driving Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. was tactical. In Sharp’s view, had either of these leaders possessed superior weapons or commanded superior armies, they would have fought more conventionally. Because those assets belonged to their opponents, they drew instead upon the assets they did command: a large following and moral suasion.
Engler brought Sharp’s nonviolent disruption tactics to play in today’s America, where progressive assets include academia, the media, Hollywood, Silicon Valley, and the civil service. That gives them a significant edge in shaping what people hear and believe.
George Floyd’s death provided the excuse to roll out a long-planned campaign of nonviolent resistance. Friday’s events outside the White House provide the clearest demonstration of the strategy in action. Protestors holding their hands in the air moved forward slowly to break through Secret Service barriers. Their goal was to create an untenable choice. If large numbers of unarmed civilians march on the White House, the president could either let them through and appear weak or employ force and appear brutal. To their great credit, the Secret Service was able to defuse the situation—this time. In the long run, however, the tactic is devastating.
In this round of protests—unlike those during the Obama years—Black Lives Matter (BLM) not only insists upon its own nonviolence, but seems genuinely distressed at Antifa wreaking havoc on innocent citizens and businesses. The distress is real, but it has little to do with the minority-owned businesses set aflame. BLM set out to win and hold the sympathy of enough swing voters to cost Trump the election. Their hope was to unveil a campaign of nonviolent resistance tied to the moral cause of preventing further deaths like Floyd’s. Antifa’s violent overlays undermine their entire game.
The president’s instincts in countering this strategy have been excellent but insufficient. He’s taken Floyd’s cause as his own, vowing and delivering swift high-level involvement. He could do more. He could, for example, emphasize that even though police brutality is neither pervasive nor common, it remains a problem that a presidential commission would address.
He has also wisely stuck with the proper deference to federalism he has shown during the COVID-19 pandemic. Maintaining law and order, and protecting the life and property of citizens, is a local obligation. President Trump has made it clear that federal resources are available—but will be provided only to mayors and governors who request it.
Furthermore, Antifa’s anarchic violence creates certain openings by upending Sharp’s playbook. The BLM organizers violated a cardinal rule. They neglected to get signoff from all of their allies. No one bothered to tell Antifa not to use its standard tactics. That’s a fatal flaw. Effective nonviolent tactics really are nearly impossible to defeat without committing atrocities against civilians. They are, however, quite difficult to implement well. America’s progressives have implemented them poorly.
The president needs sharp and emphatic messaging to accompany his instincts. He needs to come out loudly in favor of communities and victims. He needs to call upon local officials to accelerate their efforts to protect civilians and private property. He needs to emphasize the devastation that these rioters are having on local communities. He needs to announce that the Department of Justice will coordinate claims against identifiable agitators and responsible organizations. He needs to highlight the extent to which celebrities and selected progressive leaders are siding with rioters rather than citizens.
Finally, he needs to remind everyone that we’ve still got social distancing guidelines in place—and recommend that anyone arrested at the riots be put into a 14-day quarantine with full contact tracing. He also needs to remind America that there’s now an experiment underway; if these riots do not spike COVID-19 cases, we can relax social distancing guidelines sooner than expected.
All told, two groups of progressives are devouring each other. That gives America an opportunity to defeat strategies and tactics that have brought down regimes around the world. It’s an opportunity President Trump must seize if he is indeed to keep America great.
Bruce Abramson, Ph.D. J.D., is a principal at B2 Strategic, senior fellow and director at ACEK Fund and the author of “American Restoration: Winning America’s Second Civil War.”
@ Adam Dalgliesh:
I think there will be more lockdowns up to and including martial law, mandatory vaccinations, forced contact tracing, annual quarantines, permanent social distancing with mandatory self-muzzling, total dependency on the government (no jobs) with more and more rules and regulations telling everyone what to do, when to do it, where to do, how to do it, and the punishments for not doing it.
@ Adam Dalgliesh:
“all I know is that there are severe storm clouds heading our way. Whether their will be political-financial tornadoes ravaging the land, I just don’t know.”
In 1980, some friends of mine wrote a book entitled “The Coming World Crisis”, which predicted an “End Times” crisis coming and gave suggestions on how to physically prepare for it. It’s been out of print for decades; but it could probably sell today without revision.
We’ve just had our windows replaced, so you can bet we’re not planning on getting hit by a physical tornado any time soon. Political and economic tornadoes? We’ll see. God is shaking our world in an unprecedented way. Think of it: This is the first time since Moses’ day, that virtually all Jews all over the world had Pesach seders in their homes instead of in mass gatherings. It’s also the first time when people all over the world have been doing exactly the same thing at exactly the same time — namely, staying at home and/or wearing masks.
When one considers that God is the One doing all this, it all makes more sense: We know Who is doing it, and whose attention He’s trying to get (namely, EVERYONE’s). My response, is that He probably has something important to say in near future. Stay tuned. I’m all ears.
@ Adam Dalgliesh:
I believe there will be a civil war. Left against everyone else.
@ riverfred123:Also, your insights, Riverfed.
@ stuart:
@ Adam Dalgliesh:
I really appreciate when you respond to my comments with your own opinions and insights. I woulsd appreciate it if other readers would also share with us their insights into America’s future. While I am very apprehensive about my country’s future, I admit that I have no clear idea or special knowledge as to what will hapen to America over the next few years. From my wide reading of the internet, all I know is that there are severe storm clouds heading our way. Whether their will be political-financial tornadoes ravaging the land, I just don’t know. A penny for all of your thoughts and insights.
@ Adam Dalgliesh:
Another trend could occur: the deurbanization of America. It is no longer the case that big cites are needed for employment, culture and easy transportation. Manufacturing left first, now we see that non-factory workers can work from anywhere. Urban schools and sanitary services are nothing to write home about since unionized governmental employees ( unthinkable to FDR ) have ruined both
the services and the finances of cities ( and some states ) that have knuckled under to them.
Ports will still be important ( and they have been for millennia ) but NYC as the financial and cultural capital? Not necessary and, increasingly, not even desirable. Who needs pollution, overcrowding, congestion, bad services and high taxes? And now disease?
@ Adam Dalgliesh:
We have allowed the left to brainwash the younger generation into believing the police are racist supported by the media, liberal professors, etc. Apparently facts do not matter as blacks make up 13% of the population and commit approx. 50% of the crimes of which 90% of blacks are killed by other blacks. Racism stats do not indicate the police are racist against blacks. If the young people want to demonstrate they should check facts first, unfortunately the left has an agenda to remake America.
@ Ted Belman: Thanks, Ted, for your commendation.
I wish there were words to describe the horror and outrage, shock and fear that I feel when my beloved native country descends into anarchy, criminal acts become accepted as legitimate “protests,” and the population is denied police protection, the courts cease to function, dangerous criminals are let loose, all while legitimate businessmen are denied the right to operate their businesses by government decree, while their their stores are freely looted with government permission. I just don’t see how America can avoid disintegrating completely and becoming a “failed state” like Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya and Venezuela. Probably within a year.
@ Adam Dalgiesh:
Thanks for driving this home.
Absolute rubbish. BLM was never peaceful. No real difference between Antifa and BLM. Antifa is just the white branch of BLM, and vice versa. The police brutality narrative is just an excuse to get police off the streets so street gangs can commit crimes and sell drugs with impunity. The reason so many black people hate the police is that drug-dealing, property theft and gang violence have become an excepted way of life in black American communities, and people want them to be conducted freely, without fear of arrest and imprisonment. Drugs are actually the principal industry and income source in many of these communities.
The political motive behind the riots is to fire up the leftist political base literally as well as figurately) in
anticipation of the coming elections. Replacing moderate Democratic congressmen with radical leftists in the primaries, which will be held very soon in many of the states, may be among these “electoral” goals. Intimidating state legislators from opposing the mail-in-voting-cum-ballot-stuffing scheme is another, and intimidating Republican poll-watchers from chalenging possibly illegal voters is another. The riot organizers may also want to intimidate legislators from opposing legislation to legalize voting by convicted felons and illegal immigrants.