How To Destroy America

At a book signing event for the anthology “The Self-Destruction of the West” published by the Václav Klaus Institute, former Czech President Václav Klaus bemoaned the lack of a fitting term for the progressivist revolution that has gripped our civilization and is now rocking America in particular.

Labels such as radical socialism, neo-Marxism or the new left are insufficient for this unintelligible stew of identity politics, multiculturalism (white people as incurable colonists and slave owners reeking of racism), absurd fictional genderism, ecological hysteria and, of course, the socialist dream of total equality that will put an end to the exploitations of class-based capitalism.

In English-speaking countries, the term “woke” is commonly used. In the historical language of communism, this is equivalent to “conscious.”* This historical term accurately characterizes the activist efforts of junior partisans to inform on, discriminate against, forbid, shame, slander, censor and ostracize (that is, remove from public space) so-called unacceptable opinions along with those who hold them. The second phase of this anti-cultural offensive gives rise to dismissals from work, police investigations and trial for expressing oneself incorrectly. Therefore, I propose to simply call these people revolutionaries.

In the United States, the revolutionaries took over the Democratic Party some time ago. Now in the second phase of the revolution, they have forced the winner of the primaries, Joe Biden, nearly 80 years old, to choose Kamala Harris as his running mate. The choice of this U.S. senator and unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination was partly based on the fact that she is a woman (!), and what’s more, a woman of mixed African and Asian descent who speaks with pride of her Black heritage. Indeed, such bizarre reasons as these play a decisive role in ideological partisan thinking. It is just that easy to circumvent democracy and nominate the most radical leader of the revolutionary faction of Congress.

Due to the unyielding polarization of society, Biden’s lead over Trump has held firm at 6% to 8% of eligible voters since the beginning of the year. Biden’s lead is only marginally less in all 12 of the states which lean slightly toward one party or the other and play a decisive role in presidential elections (the swing states). So then, Harris could automatically become president if Biden does not live out his first term in office. In that case, she would be the inevitable candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in the next election, and because of the power of her office, she would have a good chance of winning. The success of revolutions is always decided by well-organized minorities, who are sometimes helped by a random turn of events.

London’s BBC has outlined the ways in which Harris represents the far left. [“Kamala Harris: Where does she stand on key issues?”] Together with socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, she announced a manifesto called “The Green New Deal” and a bill that would seek to determine the effect of the environment on low-income communities. Hidden behind this jargon are subsidies, a ban on fracking, a federal policy of punishing industry for burning fossil fuels and the reduction of carbon emissions to zero by 2045. Harris estimates the cost of these policies at $10 trillion. She also seeks the “decriminalization” of illegal immigrants (that is, open borders) and has referred to the border patrol as a modern Ku Klux Klan.**

In the Senate, Harris proposed using tax money to fund abortion, six months of paid leave for personal or health reasons, and fines for companies that provide unequal pay for men and women or unequal career access. Even the final refrain of the American revolutionaries is present in her program − a call for reparations for Black Americans. The idea of reparations would be rather comical if it were not so sad, because millions of Blacks have immigrated to America from Africa and the Caribbean since the 1970s, and the great majority of white Americans do not have ancestors who owned slaves.

Following the election, revolutionary lunacy will get the green light, and the division of American society will grow even deeper. As Roman Joch wrote in his commentary, let us pray that Biden lives out his term in good health.

*Translator note: This term was used to describe someone one who actively supported the communist regime and its program.

**Translator’s note: In a tweet from 2015, Ronald Vitiello referred to the Democratic Party as “NeoKlanist.” In 2018, at his confirmation hearing to become director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Harris raised this point and asked Vitiello if he was aware of a public perception of similarities between ICE and the KKK.

About the author: Alexander Tomský is a political scientist, translator and teacher. He lived in Great Britain for many years. After finishing his studies, he worked as a political scientist at the Keston Institute, where he specialized in research into church and state, state atheism and religious resistance in central Europe. Following the November [1989] revolution, he returned to the Czech Republic and occupied himself with translating and journalism. He has directed the publishing house Academia and the publishing house of the National Theater, and has lectured at New York University, Prague. He is a former member of the Realists political party, and ran as No. 1 on their candidate list in the Pardubice region.