Will the nation embrace cultural Marxist leadership?

By Bill Connor

In a previous column, I noted how Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci is considered by many to be the father of what became known as cultural Marxism. In his prison notes, Gramsci wrote of the importance of overturning the “cultural hegemony” of a nation to bring a proletariat (Marxist) revolution. Gramsci advocated what eventually led to Critical Theory in the 1960s. Cultural Marxism and the successor of Critical Theory was essentially the demeaning and criticizing the groups and ideals in perceived cultural hegemonic power of a society, while replacing them in power with perceived oppressed groups/ideals. We now have the successors to Gramsci’s ideas at the top of American leadership with the open question of national survival. Let me explain.

This is not the first time cultural Marxism has been used in a nation, and a previous example gives the full consequences. In the 1960s and early 70s, China under leadership of Chairman Mao went through what became known as the “Cultural Revolution.” This was an all-out attack on anything perceived as cultural hegemony of the ancient Chinese culture and ideals.

Helen Raleigh, whose family suffered first-hand through the cultural Revolution, wrote about it in a 2017 article published online by The Federalist, “How American Anarchy Parallels China’s Cultural Revolution”: “Mao’s Cultural Revolution movement was the darkest chapter in China’s history. It should be called ‘Cultural Destruction.’ It brought the Chinese people nothing but misery. It did fundamentally transform Chinese society: millions, including a generation of China’s intellectual backbone, perished, and an entire young generation grew up without any formal education. It tore the social fabric that used to unite people, and overturned traditional close relationships among families and communities. Its irreplaceable destruction of China’s cultural heritage left Chinese people in a spiritual and moral vacuum.”

Now consider the similar dynamic playing out at the top leadership of the Biden administration. Joe Biden has made a number of statements and even executive orders that further the aims of Critical Theory and its goal of overturning any alleged cultural hegemony. For example, Biden quickly ordered that the “1776 Project,” mandating the teaching of the most credible (according to most historians) and traditional narrative of American history, be stopped. It is being replaced by the “1619 Project,” which teaches a hypercritical view of America being founded primarily on slavery and even the Revolution being fought primarily to preserve slavery.

Joe Biden’s new secretary of defense has stated that white supremacist extremists permeate the nation’s military and must be rooted out through a “stand down.” Kamala Harris has made even more outrageous statements about existing systemic racism and that BLM protests/riots should continue seemingly indefinitely. Biden’s UN ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, recently stated: “I’ve seen for myself how the original sin of slavery weaved white supremacy into our founding documents and principles. … Racism is the problem of the racist, and it is the problem of the society that produces the racist.” The examples of outrageous and subverting statements about America abound.

Statements by President Biden and VP Harris after the Chauvin verdict went even further than before. After a jury found Derek Chauvin guilty on all counts in the George Floyd trial (Note: Biden had stated he “prayed” for the “right” verdict during jury deliberations), Biden went full Gramsci. He scolded Americans the incident “was a murder in the full light of day, and it ripped the blinders off for the whole world to see the systemic racism … that’s a stain on our nation's soul — the knee on the neck of justice for Black Americans.” Kamala Harris, who was invited to speak before the president, provided an even darker view of America: “America has a long history of systemic racism. Black Americans — and Black men, in particular — have been treated throughout the course of our history as less than human.”

According to Pat Buchanan’s prescient recounting of Biden and Harris’s post-verdict diatribe and the effects on the nation: “What Chauvin was doing to Floyd, said the president of the United States, is a reflection of the kind of justice America delivers to Black Americans. This is no aberration, Biden was saying. This is the routine reality … Our enemies have picked up on this. In Anchorage, after Secretary of State Anthony Blinken called Beijing out for repression in Hong Kong and ‘genocide’ in Xinjiang, China’s foreign minister was right back in his face.” This is despite the fact that for the past three years less than 20 unarmed black men were shot by police. That, with the reality that African American men ages 16 to 40 are roughly three percent of the U.S. population yet commit a third of America’s violent crimes.

What’s happening with this continuing defamation of American society is profound in terms of division we are seeing. Chinese dissidents learned the hard way the effects: “It tore the social fabric that used to unite people, and overturned traditional close relationships among families and communities.” Let’s demand it stop before it’s too late.

Bill Connor is a 1990 Citadel graduate, 30-year Army infantry colonel and combat veteran. He is a writer and attorney and lives in the Charleston area.