Op-Ed: Stop the Marxists from Indoctrinating Our Kids

By Steve Levy

In one of the most alarming developments in the history of the American educational system, a Marxist movement spearheaded by the radical leftists controlling the Chicago Teachers’ Association funded school buses to transport students to participate in protests and rallies supporting a communist agenda and attacking the sitting president.

This is not an exaggeration.

This is a blatantly illegal act by the mayor of Chicago and his supporters in the teachers’ union - and must be countered with strong action by the Department of Justice.

The actions by the mayor and the union go far beyond a left-leaning slant being taught in the classroom.

This is using taxpayer dollars to enlist our children in protests run in part by communist organizations.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that Marxists are now in full control of many of our school districts throughout the nation. Their woke agenda preaches the dangers of free market capitalism, the wonders of socialism and the degrading of traditional American values.

They also actively promote "gender transitioning" philosophies and load up our school libraries with blatantly pornographic materials. 

People can’t - and shouldn’t - be prosecuted for advocating a radically leftist agenda. We should instead defeat these dangerous people through political means. 

But there is no question that using our taxpayer dollars to encourage students to cut class and/or to attend rallies to promote communism over free markets, while attacking the president of the United States, is a clear violation of the requirement that our school personnel not use government resources to promote a particular partisan agenda.

This abuse of the law cannot be swept under the rug. It must be countered forcefully by firing the culprits who blatantly use taxpayer dollars for these purposes and potentially having them prosecuted for misuse of funds.

History books look back on the Red Scare and the McCarthy era with extreme vitriol, painting the picture of innocent Americans coming under attack by a rabid Congress and FBI because they held views sympathetic to communism. 

While there certainly were abuses from J. Edgar Hoover, Sen. McCarthy, and their ilk, we cannot ignore the fact that the underlying premise that there was an actual attempt by communists to infiltrate and crush America was, indeed, real.

Many naive observers implied that government employee Alger Hiss was framed by Richard Nixon and other communist watchdog groups. That was, of course, until the fall of the Iron Curtain and the opening of Soviet records, which confirmed that Hiss was indeed a communist spy working for the Soviet Union. 

The communists were on the rise again in the 60s and early 70s after America was jaded by the Vietnam War, Watergate and the struggle for civil rights.

Militant Marxist groups from the Black Panthers to the Weather Underground were employing egregious acts of violence to achieve their ends. Their influence eventually waned and we enjoyed the false sense of security upon the collapse of the Soviet empire that they were vanquished forever. 

But the communists never stopped their quest to control academia. The left wing constitutes up to 90% of the teaching positions in many higher education institutions. But more recently, we’ve been seeing Marxist control seep into K-12 programs as well. 

And now that the Marxists have leaders in many of our major cities, from New York to Chicago to Seattle, they have morphed from acting underground and behind the scenes to now blatantly calling for the use of taxpayer funds to topple free market capitalism.

They do this primarily because they believe no one will stop them. They will hide behind the fake outcry that they have a First Amendment right to call for the overthrow of the United States of America. They do not. 

The scary part is, they are winning. Two-thirds of young Democrats now view socialism favorably and a majority look at the free markets in an unfavorable light. 

And since the left has often been a movement that incorporates violence into its endgame, more and more of our young people are being taught that political violence is acceptable to achieve your political means. 

We are at a tipping point and how the Trump administration reacts to this threat against our western civilization will determine whether or not our system survives.

If we allow these Marxists to use our tax dollars to further their cause in destroying our way of life, there will be no turning back.

-------------------------------------

Steve Levy is President of Common Sense Strategies, a political consulting firm. He served as Suffolk County Executive, as a NYS Assemblyman, and host of the “On the Right Side Podcast.” He is the author of “Solutions to America’s Problems” and “Bias in the Media.” www.SteveLevy.info, Twitter  @SteveLevyNY, steve@commonsensestrategies.com