In an appearance on Life, Liberty & Levin with host Mark Levin, Attorney General William Barr said on Sunday that the continuing riots across America in several cities are a form of “urban guerilla warfare,” driven by organizations — Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Antifa — that are “essentially Bolsheviks.”
The Bolsheviks were the revolutionary wing of the Social Democrats in Russia that imposed a communist dictatorship on the country under Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and Leon Trotsky. Barr said that BLM, characterized by the media as just an activist group fed up with alleged police mistreatment of black Americans, is led by individuals who want “some form of socialism, communism.”
Barr added that the Left “really represents a Rousseauian Revolutionary Party that believes in tearing down the system, and that what’s wrong about America today all has to do with the institutions we have and we have to tear them down.”
Jean Jacques Rousseau was one of the many radicals emerging during the 18th Century Enlightenment in Europe who advocated the destruction of the Christianized Western Civilization of the time. Rousseau and other such radicals inspired the French Revolution, which began in 1789 and led to mass murder by the revolutionaries who took over there. Much like today’s leftist revolutionaries, they tore down statues, desecrated churches, and tried to change society by force. Those who opposed them could face imprisonment and even death on the guillotine. Eerily, revolutionaries in Seattle in the so-called CHOP Zone appeared to hint at bringing back the guillotine to eliminate those who stand in their way of bringing a revolutionary system to the United States.
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Interestingly, Russia’s Bolsheviks specifically identified the Jacobins who directed the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution as the model for their own efforts to uproot their society.
While there is no doubt that many who support BLM out of concern for black Americans do not realize that the founders and leaders of that organization are actually dedicated Marxist revolutionaries who want to destroy the nuclear family, for example, Barr’s assertions are correct. Communists gladly use any grievance — real or imagined — to gain power.
Barr explained how Antifa — named after a communist organization that originated in Germany — uses what often begin as peaceful protests to advance their revolutionary goals: “The way the guerilla … hides out among the people as a fish in the ocean … what they do is they are essentially shielding themselves or shrouding themselves in First Amendment activity. They go into the demonstrations, which are exercising First Amendment activity, and they insinuate themselves in there to shield themselves. That’s where they swim. And what they do is they hijack these demonstrations and they provoke violence.”
During his recent hearings before House Judiciary Committee, Barr asked the Democrats on the committee who were hectoring him, “Can any of you just come out and say it’s not OK to burn down federal courthouses?” Barr told Levin that “not one of them piped up to say, ‘No it’s not OK to be burning down federal courts.’”
Barr contended that the reason for the refusal by Democrats to condemn arson of federal property in Portland and other cities is because some “are true believers” who are revolutionaries themselves, and they favor “tearing down the system.” “But many of them are just cowards and are afraid from, you know, about a challenge from the Left. So for them, it’s careerism.”
Barr condemned the left-wing media for “projecting a narrative” with their watered-down coverage of the demonstrations, failing to show the burning, looting, and violence. “You don’t see it on the networks. You don’t see it on the other cable stations. And yet you hear about these peaceful demonstrators. So it’s you know, it’s just it’s a lie. The American people are being told a lie by the media.” Barr added that the media has become “extremely monolithic,” and that they are “wedded” to the Democratic Party.
We are in a different world, Barr told Levin, than the one of several years ago. “The Left has pulled away from the umbrella of classical liberal values that have undergirded” America. Instead, they have replaced these values with what Barr called their “secular religion” of seeking a “complete political victory” for their far-left views.
“They want to run people’s lives so they can design utopia for all of us,” Barr said. “It’s the lust for power.”
Trump’s victory came as a shock to them, halting their progress toward that leftist “utopia,” Barr added. “They weren’t expecting Trump’s victory. And it outrages them.”
The Left began undermining Trump the day he won in 2016, Barr argued. “They were trying to impeach him from Day One. They have done everything they can … and I think it’s because of the desire for power that the Left wants.”
Photo: AP Images
Steve Byas is a university instructor in history and government and the author of History’s Greatest Libels. He may be contacted at [email protected].
