Bernie the Maoist (sadly, few Americans see it).

Summary: Mao’s thinking was influential in the 1960s and 1970s, the formative era for Sanders’ thinking. Understanding it tells us much about what to expect from President Sanders. Our ignorance of history makes it more likely to be repeated, in some form, here.

We are all shaped by our early experiences. Some outgrow it; some do not. Sanders was shaped by the politics of the Left when Mao’s thinking was ascendent. Mao developed methods by which a society could be molded like clay on a potter’s wheel.

From the NY Review of Books review of
Maoism: A Global History by Julia Lovell (2019).

“British historian Julia Lovell provides, by contrast, a richly detailed and wide-ranging account of the emergence of Maoism and its evolution as a political force, first within China and then, to a remarkable extent, overseas. Her book proceeds from the claim that despite its impact on nearly every continent, Maoism remains woefully underexamined. …

“Paradoxically, as Lovell makes clear, despite {Mao’s} rampant killing, as well as China’s generally woeful economic performance under Mao, it was also the era of China’s greatest soft power – its ability to influence others through its political ideals or culture – that the country has enjoyed in modern times.”

Lovel describes the key aspects of Mao’s thinking, and how it differs from that of Soviet thinking

“Some of these differences are in kind, others in degree. In the former category, there is Mao’s veneration of the peasantry as a revolutionary force and his lifelong tenderness for anarchic rebellion against authority. In the latter category belong central elements of the Leninist–Stalinist project, with its veneration of political violence, its championing of anti-colonial resistance, and its use of thought-control techniques to forge a disciplined, increasingly repressive party and society.”

This describes Sanders.

Veneration of the peasantry

Sanders, like much of the Left, venerates the underclass as the source of energy and shock troops for the revolution. In America today, that means ethnic and racial minorities, Muslims, gender minorities, and (America’s majority group) women.

Political violence

“This affection for political violence underpinned the cult that Mao would create over the next half-century. …After his ideas began to go global, legitimisation of violence for political purposes was associated closely with Mao.”
— Lovel, ibid.

Political extremes are noteworthy for their love of political violence. It is a major source of their power, especially as moderates often tolerate it as “well-meaning” – until too late.

The Left demonstrated that during their last period of strength. Militant leftist groups set bombs across the nation, so that NYT called 1969 a Year of Bombings (e.g., the Weather Underground). Other Leftist terrorist groups were even more aggressive (e.g., the Symbionese Liberation Group). Now a new cycle of Leftist violence has begun. ANTIFA and Black Bloc are successors to the Leftist thugs who helped shape the 20th century. Here are a few posts documenting this violence (it’s not news fit to print, so mostly ignored by the major news media).

Sanders does the typical Leftist two-step of “condemning” violence, but only after how he explains it is understandable and just (e.g., here). To get a better understanding of what we can expect from candidate’s administration, see these candid video interviews of Sanders’ campaign staff: here, here, and here. They are true believers in the Left’s doctrines. Listening to them it is easy to imagine them using violence (preferably government violence, it is safer and more effective).

Anti-colonial resistance

Colonialism was the big baddie for the Left in the post-WWII era. But now they have new big baddies: patriarchy/sexism, white nationalism, white power, and fascism – all as one big ball of evil. As with colonialism, these are evils justifying extreme measures to overcome. This is the engine driving the Sanders movement.

Thought-control methods …

to forge a disciplined, repressive party & society.” This has been the Left’s long-term project, now come to fruition, on America’s major universities. Controls on speech, indoctrination programs, reeducation programs, and tribunals to enforce compliance.

Now they launch the project to reshape America in the same way.

Debating the Left is a waste of time

“Practice is the sole criterion of truth.”
— Title of radical 1978 paper by Hu Yaobang, who became General Secretary of China. It said that words meaning nothing. Only deeds matter.

To the Left, words are just a means to influence the public. They say what is necessary to get power. They promise what is necessary to gain power. It is all for our own good of course, which they know better than we do.

Conclusons

Looking at Sanders reveals a foundation of Maoist doctrines. We do not recognize it because amnesia about history is a defining characteristic of modern America. So we get to repeat past mistakes.

So far as I can tell, Sanders’ beliefs have remained consistent since the 1970s. He has expressed them in a fashion, to a degree, acceptable to voters at that time and place. Obama was a moderate on the Left. He used the presidency to execute citizens, implement a law never passed by Congress (his Clean Power Plan), and execute a treaty without Senate approval (the Paris Agreement). Imagine what a bolder Sanders and his radical team could do!

Source: https://fabiusmaximus.com/2020/03/02/sanders-the-maoist/

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