Allen West Ends Myth Progressives Aren't Extreme

 

IBDEditorials.com

Politics: The left had a fit of the vapors after GOP Rep. Allen West of Florida insinuated that there were boatloads of communists in Congress among Democrats. Well, maybe not, but where there's smoke, there's fire.

Speaking before a town hall in Jensen Beach, Fla., the popular congressman said: "I believe there's about 78 to 81 members of the Democratic Party that are members of the communist party."

A staffer later explained that he was referring to the far-left congressional Progressive Caucus, all of whose members have truly radical pasts.

West's statement ignited a firestorm. How dare he suggest that any of us could possibly be communist?

"Calling fellow members of Congress 'communists' is reminiscent of the days when Joe McCarthy divided Americans with name-calling and modern-day witch hunts," huffed the congressional Progressive Caucus.

Oh, please. Actual party members? Maybe not. But the Caucus is up to its ears in far-left, and yes, genuinely communist politics, feeding off its agenda and belonging to its groups and allies. They know that nobody wants to live under communism, so they mask that extreme agenda as mainstream Democratic Party politics.

Members of the Progressive Caucus have in fact been members or close allies to the hardest of hard-core Marxist groups, from the Democratic Socialists of America, to the New Party, the Committees of Correspondence, and yes, the Communist Party USA itself.

All of these seek to destroy private property, seize the means of production and turn America into a vast prison using democratic institutions to destroy the system from within, just as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Chile's Salvador Allende did to destroy democracy in their countries. Take a look at the backgrounds some of the eminentos of the Progressive Caucus:

Co-Chair Raul Grijalva of Arizona drew gushing coverage from the CPUSA's house organ, People's World, during his congressional campaign in 2002. In 1993 — two years after the fall of the USSR — he contributed an article to it railing against free trade. He was also a member of MEChA, a Chicano separatist group known for its fealty to Cuba and Marxist guerrillas.

Co-chair Keith Ellison called the 9/11 al-Qaida attacks a Reichstag fire-style plotted attack to trigger the rise of a police state like the Nazis in Germany. He now champions the crime-ridden mobs of Occupy Wall Street, declaring he's "more than happy" to push their agenda.

Illinois Rep. Danny K. Davis is, according to KeyWiki.org, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and the New Party. In 1990, 1998, 2000, and 2011 he attended CPUSA banquets in Chicago, calling the communists "steadfast in the fight for justice."

Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern has a soft spot for Latin American Marxist "revolutionaries." In 2008, a captured terrorist computer in Colombia revealed McGovern's unauthorized ties to FARC and his efforts to undercut the Colombian army by defunding it in Congress as well as blocking free trade, all FARC goals.

Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey, along with other progressives, took cheap heating oil from Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez and defended his agenda in Congress.

Michigan Rep. John Conyers was active in Soviet front groups like the Institute for Policy Studies and U.S. Peace Council that undercut the U.S. defense buildup, as well as the CPUSA-linked National Lawyer's Guild.

This just scratches the surface of the Progressive Caucus. While not actual members of the 500-member CPUSA, they don't need to be. They just do what it says. Allen West, to his credit, just called them out.