...Gonzalez begins by reviewing the history of progressive thinking with its origins in Continental philosophy and, in particular, in the work of Karl Marx. He studies the pathway to America of authoritarian ideas from German and French writers, especially those who immigrated to the United States around the time of the second World War, and the role of Antonio Gramsci, who “essentially provided the field manual for taking over countries.”
From his perch at several American universities, Herbert Marcuse was particularly influential on students such as Angela Davis. What Marcuse taught, however, was not reform of a flawed system but wholesale rejection of order and tradition and unbridled censorship of and assaults upon less radical individuals. In his 1965 essay “Repressive Tolerance” (the title reveals a great deal), Marcuse urged “shifting the balance between Right and Left by restraining the liberty of the Right” (quoted in Gonzalez). Contemporary leftists have gone much further, arguing for fines and imprisonment for “climate deniers,” opponents of affirmative action, and those whose religious values prohibit recognition of gay marriage....
Soon leftists such as Marcuse were able to enlist the efforts of sympathetic liberals in government, media, education, corporations, and nonprofits.... As Gonzalez states, “[a] particularly dangerous component of identity politics is the coercive diversity to which we must all pay lip service today. This is decidedly not the inclusive melting-pot idea that Americans come from many different lands but are united in a common cause.” ...the end result has twisted the concept of disadvantage to that of victimization requiring reparations and preference, or what Gonzalez calls the “recognition and restitution canard.”
A crucial element of the plot that Gonzalez exposes is the division of Americans into discrete groups based on race, national origin, gender, sexual preference, class, and other features. ...Along with Marxist academics, including many from the Frankfurt School who had fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, activists infiltrated powerful nonprofits and government agencies such as the Census Bureau, where for the first time identity labels other than “white” and “black” were included in the decennial reports. These labels were then used as the basis for government programs to address “inequity” among various groups, a lucrative reward for minority status that then spurred further creation of so-called disadvantaged groups.
As a result, the traditional idea of a common American civilization and of loyalty and obligation to that civilization has been weakened to the point that wide swaths of our population now voice antagonism toward our nation’s values and history. Nowhere is this more apparent than in our public schools, in which the teaching of CRT and of curricula such as the 1619 Project seem intent on replacing reverence for our nation’s founding principles with an intensely divisive and critical ideology that leaves no room for common values or patriotic belief....
Ironically, the intent of the New Left is the direct opposite of the Civil Rights Movement....
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