PHASE I: INFILTRATION
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Phase I was the genesis of the modern progressive movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It was launched by the cast of characters we covered at the beginning of this book, people such as Teddy Roosevelt, William Jennings Bryan, Margaret Sanger, Wayne Wheeler, John Dewey, and others. It got especially heated during the 1912 presidential election, when Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson tried to out-progressive each other. Wilson won out, and his administration was the first wave of the progressive movement. It would be followed by three more waves, each of which shared the following goals of the infiltration phase:
• Goal 1: Organize groups for control. The collectivization of society began. Instead of focusing on individual rights and freedoms, progressives focused on organizing people into groups that set them apart. Sanger organized around “birth control” (i.e., eugenics), Wheeler organized around temperance, labor groups organized workers, and so on. This was the genesis of “community organizing,” and it has changed little from then to the days of Obama—herding people into groups, motivating them with fear.
• Goal 2: Infiltrate. Slowly but deliberately, progressives inserted themselves into key American institutions, including the government, the labor movement, academia, the media, the military, and the courts. Progressives not only ran for high office, but they also made a point of inserting their operatives into a permanent government bureaucracy. They took control of the labor movement and of academia, which became a hotbed for progressivism at all levels. The leading “race-theory” eugenicists came from America’s top universities such as Princeton and Johns Hopkins, the latter of which was designed specifically to bring the “German university” model to the United States. Progressives such as Dewey influenced the education of the youngest Americans.
• Goal 3: Weaken the social fabric. For the collectivization of society to succeed, the natural, organic fibers of our social fabric—faith, tradition, family, heritage—needed to be ripped apart. Progressives systematically drew wedges between different segments of society by collectivizing and organizing them against one another. And all with an unceasing agenda of political correctness to revise history and remove all traces of faith from public life.
• Goal 4: Confuse the concept of right and wrong. Sometimes it feels as if we’re living in a moral house of mirrors—up means down, down means up, and everything is distorted. That is exactly how progressives want it. By preaching moral relativism and shaming us into thinking our traditions are wrong and outdated, by convincing us that our moral compass needs to “progress,” they can lead us ever closer to the final step of phase I . . .
• Goal 5: Bring society to a state of near crisis. At some point, the confusion becomes too great, and those who could stand up to bring some sanity to the public sphere are successfully shamed into silence. The nation is brought to the edge of collapse so that progressives can step in and take power, all in a false-prophet effort to relieve people’s fears and anxieties.
PHASE II: SOWING POLITICAL TURMOIL
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I believe this is where we are right now. This is the phase of turmoil that was accelerated by Obama and precedes the introduction of Chase’s Political System X. Look at the characteristics of this phase, and see if anything sounds familiar:
• Allow chaos. Chaos is an essential ingredient for the eventual rise of a new order. Progressives and authoritarians of all stripes understand this. It’s why the Occupy movement was allowed to disrupt American cities for so long. It’s why leftist commentators such as Al Sharpton encourage protest movements that lead to rioting, looting, and communities in flames. It’s why violence breaks out at Trump rallies and the supposed leader offers to personally pay the perpetrators’ legal fees. Chaos is becoming part of our society, and their hope is that very soon we will call out for order.
• Enforce negative stereotypes. This is an ongoing part of progressives’ efforts to divide our society. Efforts in the media, academia, and elsewhere—even in government—to shame certain segments of Americans are simply accepted. Concerned (peaceful) Americans in Tea Party groups are dismissed as radicals, while disenfranchised (and often violent) youths in Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter groups are held up as heroes. White people are automatically assumed to be racist, and the wealthy are assumed to be covetous and out to screw over everyone else. People of faith are seen to be hateful and closed-minded. Another stereotype frequently reinforced is that “white people are hate mongers” and racists, or faith-seekers are “backward” and closed-minded. We stop seeing each other as individual countrymen and simply as stereotypes.
• Isolate, destroy, and discourage “truth.” Progressives have a narrative, and they’ve been sticking with it for more than a hundred years. If you attempt to question them, you must be stopped. That’s why those who attempt to explain their strategy are mocked, ridiculed, and condemned—as I’m sure this book will be by those who’d rather its message never got out.
• Encourage reckless habits. Progressives want us to become ever more reliant on the government. In order to make that happen, they degrade our ability to rely on ourselves, even when we want to. Even something as rational as preparing for a natural disaster is mocked. Meanwhile, Americans are running themselves into debt—just like their government—and we are told that destructive personal habits should be accepted, or even embraced, as some states have legalized marijuana. Once these individual reckless behaviors get out of control, where are we all supposed to turn for help? To the government, of course.
• Remain in shadows. It is important in phase II that progressives stay out of the spotlight or at least that they define themselves as basically conventional liberals, offering no real damage to the country. They will have an important hand in controlling events, as they always have, but they are not yet ready to reveal themselves. The revolution is still in a gradualist phase at this point.
It is difficult to say with certainty how long we will remain in phase II. We saw that phase I took more than a century, although phase II is by definition more fast-moving and likely will not last quite as long. Its end point is phase III, the total shift of our free-market, republican system of government into Political System X.
PHASE III: POLITICAL SYSTEM X
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We’ve discussed what X itself will look like in detail, but phase III also contains some additional steps to stop the chaos of phase II and solidify X as the system of the future:
• Grab control for “protection.” This is the moment when progressives make their move in the open. When the reckless behavior that progressives have encouraged and the chaos that they have sown become overwhelming, they will arrive like the cavalry at the end of a western movie to save the day. But their help will come at a price: they will propose System X as the only way out of the mess.
• “Liquidate” those who oppose or allies who have served their purpose. During phase II, we saw condemnation or marginalization of those who did not agree with the government line. Silencing of opponents is a hallmark of autocratic systems, from Nazi Germany to Soviet Russia (which Chase so admired) to fascist Italy (which Wilson’s adviser Colonel Edward House so admired). Wilson himself threw political opponents into jail when they spoke out against World War I, and FDR imprisoned Americans in camps just for sharing heritage with the Japanese enemies in World War II. Remember these lessons of history the next time someone tells you it can’t happen here.
• Activate shadow system. This is the unveiling of the progressives who have been infiltrating government since the beginning. While it obviously won’t be the same individuals, inculcating a progressive culture in national institutions has produced ideological descendants of the Sangers and Wilsons and Roosevelts and Chases of the world, people like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Now, in their moment of triumph, they’ll be able to show their true colors.
• Remain in crisis mode. The crisis that began
in phase II will never end, despite the promises made by the white knights coming in during phase III to rescue us. It can’t. After all, if the crisis goes away, people might forget how much they need their government to take care of them.
This is a lot to take in. But it is our duty as active, thinking citizens of our republic to look at these issues with open eyes and clear minds. We shouldn’t refuse to see something simply because we have been conditioned to believe it is not there.
Fight, Flight, or Surrender
You’re sitting at your desk at work. You hear something, a loud thud. An explosion, maybe? Or more likely, just a car backfiring. It seemed too distant to be something to worry about. And then you hear the tap-tap, a rapid-fire succession of popping noises. A gun? Not likely. Not here. Not in the office.
The decisions made in these moments make the difference between survival and death.
Do we ignore the commotion because the idea of someone going on a shooting rampage in our workplace is too ridiculous to take seriously? Those are things that happen on the news. Things that happen to other people. The difference between what we expect to be normal and what is actually happening delays our reaction time.
There are the different reactions to the unknown that we all exhibit. The most common of these is fear. Fear can be paralyzing. It can be all-consuming. It can delay our reaction time. But fear—along with the flood of neurochemicals associated with it—is also what drives us to make decisions. We can choose fight or flight. Or we can surrender altogether.
When progressives use fear, they expect us to surrender. They want to drive us right into the arms of those who promise to save us. They want us to surrender our rights to an omniscient and omnipotent big government that can save us from the unknown and the dangers that lurk at home and abroad.
But we can do something else entirely. Our surrender isn’t foreordained. We can fight back. We can recognize that something is amiss and take action. We can train our brains to see the threat for what it is, and instead of surrendering like lemmings, we can choose a different path.
It appears that the progressive moment of crisis is now at hand. Thanks mainly to the efforts of Wilson, the Roosevelts, Johnson, and Obama, the structures are in place, ready for the next person to push things even further. We don’t know how long it will take to get to phase III, but thanks to Stuart Chase, we do have an idea of what that phase will look like: direct government control over nearly every aspect of our lives.
Progressives have been motivated by fear for so long, the fear that if given too much freedom, mankind will go down a dark path. They are convinced that they can save us from ourselves with more control. But this is the great lie and the great tragedy of progressivism.
We have a remarkable and unique gift: the U.S. Constitution. This document, the triumph of Enlightenment thought merged with Judeo-Christian values, protects our natural rights and freedoms while laying out the groundwork for a society that keeps everyone safe and free—including progressives. If only they could let go of their fear and see that we might have a chance of progressing toward more freedom, liberty, and, ultimately, happiness.
We need to show the progressives that there is a better way, that they don’t need to be “dazed and blinded” as Chase was. There is a better path to the ultimate light: the full embracing of our founding documents as a compass that always points us back toward liberty.
It starts with you, in your homes, your families, your schools, your communities. You must be on the lookout for creeping progressivism and, when you find it, fight it with ideas. Be firm in your commitment to your rights, and show others that true freedom comes from respect for the individual, not mindless collectivism. Be true to the ideas that have sustained us since our founding and remain enshrined in our Constitution.
They have saved us before, and they can save us again.
Epilogue:
Defeating the Fear Factory
It’s midday, downtown in a major American city.
You’re walking along at your typical brisk pace, almost striding, and before you know it, you’re quickly encroaching on the three people walking ahead of you on the sidewalk.
They hear your footsteps coming toward them, and they peer back to catch a glimpse of you. Your eyes meet theirs, and you can’t help but notice a look of fear that you’ve rarely witnessed on city streets. Real terror.
It’s not because of you. You’re pretty unassuming. It’s not even because of them.
No, it’s because of where you are: Detroit, where nightmares of violence and decay long ago replaced the American dream. Motown has become the poster child for the failure of progressivism’s good intentions.
It wasn’t always like that in Detroit.
The city wasn’t perfect, of course. It always had its faults. In the early 1920s, Henry Ford spewed forth anti-Semitic venom in his Dearborn Independent newspaper. In the 1930s, the “Radio Priest,” Father Charles Coughlin, broadcast from his headquarters in suburban Royal Oak. Communists infiltrated Ford Motor Company’s massive River Rouge plant, fomenting labor strife. In 1943, an ugly three-day race riot rocked the city. Franklin Roosevelt dispatched federal troops to maintain order, and tanks, which should have been rolling toward Berlin, instead rolled down the city’s main drag, Woodward Avenue.
But for all its shortcomings, Detroit was the model for modern American industrial growth—world industrial growth, really. In terms of major northeast-quadrant urban areas, though, Detroit was a real latecomer. In 1900, the city had only 285,704 people (fewer than Anchorage, Alaska, has today). But once Ford and his newfangled auto industry arrived, the city took off like a rocket—or, rather, like a Model T.
Most major Eastern cities owed their population growth to European immigrants. But Detroit was different. Sure, it had its share of Irish and Polish and Italian immigrants, but a large chunk of Detroit’s newer citizens migrated not from Europe but from elsewhere in America. White Americans from Appalachia and blacks from farther South came in droves. They came to Detroit for the same reasons Jews and Italians sailed in steerage class for Ellis Island: opportunity, freedom, and a better life for themselves and their children.
Back then, Detroit’s economy, like that of America as a whole, was unfettered by regulations and bureaucrats. When America wanted better mousetraps—but mainly better cars—it counted on Detroiters to figure out not only how to make them but how to make them cheaper and better than anyone else.
They had a name for the way things worked back then. They quaintly called it capitalism.
The city boomed, and Ford wasn’t the only game in town for long. Newcomers Chrysler and General Motors muscled their way into his markets. But because capitalism isn’t a zero-sum game, people didn’t get poorer. Competition was good—for everyone. The Motor City grew from 285,704 people in 1900 to 1,568,662 in 1930 and then to 1,849,568 in 1950. From 1920 through 1950, it was the nation’s fourth-largest city. In 1960, it enjoyed the nation’s highest per-capita income.
Pearl Harbor caused Detroit to retool, moving from making autos and trucks to churning out tanks and jeeps and planes. FDR had vowed that America would become the Arsenal of Democracy. A lot of folks think that Detroit earned that same title. FDR tapped Ford’s once right-hand man Bill Knudsen to mobilize the country for war—and to do it within a matter of weeks. The six-foot-three former boxer and Danish immigrant had worked his way from the factory floor in his youth to the executive suites of Ford, eventually becoming the head of Chevrolet. With four military stars on his shoulder and the title of chairman of the Office of Production Management, Knudsen worked with CEOs and businesses across America to retool their factories to produce war machines—all for the exorbitant salary of one dollar a year.
Knudsen was, in many ways, Henry Ford’s opposite. Where Ford believed in centralized, top-down mandates, managed efficiency (“Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black”), and artificially inflated minimum wages
(his five-dollar-a-day wage, which nearly doubled wages at the time, shocked his fellow businessmen), Knudsen was a fervent believer in the spontaneous and voluntary actions of the free market. He persuaded FDR to scrap many of the New Deal’s burdensome regulations and onerous taxes and instead to implement incentives for private business to retool for war products. And he took away power from Washington, which earned him hatred from Eleanor Roosevelt and the more extreme progressives in FDR’s Cabinet, and gave that power to executives who knew better how to mobilize their businesses than bureaucrats who operated by fiat.
And it worked. America had virtually no war industry in 1940. But by the close of 1943, America’s industrial might surpassed that of Germany, Britain, and the Soviet Union combined. National GDP doubled, and unemployment was one percent.
This was capitalism, and its living, beating heart for half a century was Detroit.
♠
A couple of years ago, Pulitzer Prize–winning author David Maraniss, a native Detroiter, wrote a book called Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story. He set his story in 1963, when, even that late into the game, Detroit was still a great city, boasting 296,000 manufacturing jobs. Yes, its population had slipped to 1,514,063, but just about every American city was in decline back then. Many recuperated. Detroit, instead, committed urban suicide.
Motown went on to lose jobs and population as no other major American city had done—ever. Today, fewer than 700,000 residents remain, and no one’s quite sure that the city has even hit rock bottom yet. Remember that figure of 296,000 manufacturing jobs in 1963? Well, that dropped to just 54,000 in 2000, and now it’s down to a mere 27,000.