To listen to mainstream-establishment Democrats and their mouthpieces in the corporate media, you would think the socialist cadres now storming to victories across America in Democrat Primaries materialized out of thin air. No less a Democrat mandarin than James Carville has declared that he is not in the same party as those exposing some of the more extreme radical views.
It’s all a head fake.
Democrats have known for decades that socialists and more extreme Marxists were deeply embedded in the Democrat Party. They pretend otherwise now only because they suspect — or fear — that most Americans want no part of socialism’s insanity. I pray they are right. But whether the American electorate rejects Marxists or embraces policies of widespread poverty, social breakdown, and relentless attacks on our history and culture, one thing is clear: Marxists have been a core constituency of the Democrat Party for at least 80 years.
Even a cursory review of the relationship shows beyond any doubt the codependency of the neo-communists and Democrat establishment.
Today media and political commentators are “shocked” at the success and rise of candidates associated to an organization named the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Yet, the DSA has been active since its formation in 1982. The official history the controlled media likes to spread is that it was formed by author Michael Harrington. That sounds almost benign. A writer who split from the Socialist Party and wanted to bring a more open body together. You can almost smell the incense reading this soft story.
The truth is very different. While Mr. Harrington was the first Chairman of DSA, the Vice Chairman was William Winpisinger. Mr. Winpisinger was President of the International Association of Machinists (IAM), one of the most radical and active unions of the time. While their members had fallen it was still nearly 800,000 members when “Winpy” took on the socialist role. Winpisinger was a close adherent of another union boss, the notorious Walter Reuther of the United Auto Workers (UAW). Reuther had died in 1970, but Winpisinger was his Accolate and continued his work.
The core of the new organization was comprised of the leadership of the New American Movement (NAM). Who was the New American Movement? The NAM was the softer, less violent side of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the radical student organization that led mass protests across the country over the Vietnam War. In 1971, SDS had split into two main factions. The NAM went into socialist organizing. The other element came to be known as the Weather Underground led by terrorist Bill Ayers — the same Bill Ayers who admitted to bombings and violence and was to become the mentor of Barack Obama. The core of the people who formed the Democratic Socialists of America were close comrades of people bombing the U.S. Capitol, dozens of other government facilities and general violence.
But where did the SDS come from? How did it come to be so pervasive and damaging to the American society in the 1960’s? In 1962 the UAW union boss Walther Reuther paid for the first convention of the SDS. He used the dues of union members to create the radical “youth wing” of the New Left. In fact, the first convention and the creation of the SDS Manifesto, the Port Huron Statement, was held at a UAW convention center in Port Huron, Michigan.
At the time, there was no bigger, more powerful outside force in the Democrat Party than Reuther and the unions he either controlled or had influence over. Every Democrat of that era and all of their prodigy knew exactly who and what Reuther, Winpisinger the SDS, the NAM and the eventual Democrat Socialists of America are. For them now — whether a propagandist like Carville or elected Democrats at any level of government — to claim otherwise is simply a lie.
These people are hardcore, committed Marxists. If some Democrat member of Congress or aspiring national figure want to claim ignorance of their agenda that politician is either a flagrant liar akin to the Clinton-level or they are too blind to be trusted with simple directions to the store let alone policy.
To get a real flavor of Walter Reuther and the seeds he planted take a look at his history.
Reuther’s father was a committed socialist who immigrated from Germany. As a kid, the father took young Walter and his brother to a federal prison to meet with Eugene V. Debs, five-time Socialist Party candidate for President convicted of sedition in 1919. Once on the journey of radical activism, Reuther did not pull and punches. In 1932, he was fired from his job at Ford Motor Company for organizing a rally for Norman Thomas, the Socialist Party candidate for President. Franklin Roosvelt was just not radical enough for young Reuther.
In 1933 through 1935, Reuther and his brother went to the Soviet Union to assist in teaching Russian workers how to use obsolete Ford Company equipment at the huge Gorky auto plant. While the harshness of Stalinist communism did not appeal to Reuther, the core component of socialist doctrine was not dented during his time in the USSR.
Once back in the U.S., he worked diligently to organize and advance inside the United Auto Workers union, rising to become President of the union in 1946 and remaining in power until his death in 1970. This is the man who caused the SDS and today’s Democratic Socialists of America to be born. For any Democrat to deny him or his work is simply not credible.
While their messaging machine likes to present a kinder, gentler face of the Democrat Party to the American people, the facts simply tell a different tale. The components of socialist organizations and policies have been the central hallmark of the Democrat Party.
And just like socialism in eastern Europe or Third World nations, the result is always the same — a loss or outright denial of basic individual liberties, a failing economy that reduces everyone to the same level of depravation, and a ruthless disregard for the honest policy debate. This is what the DSA promises America and what their cronies in the Democrat Party will deliver — if given the opportunity.
Bill Wilson is the former president of Americans for Limited Government.
