Violence Is Politics by Other Means

American progressives often take to the streets when government actions displease them. Of late, many of their demonstrations are coordinated by well-funded Marxist and anarchist groups. Whether an antisemitic encampment at Columbia University, a protest opposing the arrest of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, or a physical attack on ICE agents, the organizers include many of the same organizations, foreign money, and consistent goals.

The FBI is investigating Signal group chats used to coordinate anti-ICE protests. These groups, uncovered by journalist Cam Higby, use a network of activists with assigned tasks, including stalking ICE agents to report their locations and dispatching protestors to disrupt ICE operations. Other activists distribute signs, water, and food.

In Minnesota, administrators of this network include elected officials, and current and former senior staffers for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. Considerable funding for radical left protests comes from foreign sources, particularly those associated with Neville Roy Singham, an American-born billionaire who lives in Shanghai and is closely aligned with the Chinese Communist Party.

Singham and his socialist and Marxist organizers broadly foment anti-American hate, agitating protests for progressive causes with the goal of sowing dissent and turmoil to undermine American institutions and power. Numerous congressional committees are examining Singham’s ties to the CCP.

Active measures taken by the Soviet Union during the Cold War to infiltrate American unions, media, and politics to destabilize the United States and achieve Soviet dominance provide a close analogy.

Local demonstrations can develop spontaneously, or widespread disorder and violent encounters can be incited by Democrat leaders, progressive activists, and paid professionals. Particularly for anti-ICE protests, the goal for Democratic leaders is enduring power through mass migration that changes census counts. More broadly, progressive activists seek to change our culture to advance DEI, ESG, the Green agenda, decarceration, and other far left objectives. They are inspired by the success of mob violence in France during the 1790s, and worker revolts in Russia following World War I and in China during the 1940s.

Coveting financial and organizational support, Democratic and progressive leaders accept malign foreign support and pursue their goals as unwitting or indifferent tools of foreign powers.

Prussian general and military theorist Carl von Clausewitz’s “On War” was published in 1832. The seminal Western analysis of the interplay of politics and war, “On War” is best remembered for the trenchant observation that “war is a mere continuation of politics by other means.” Though Clausewitz was speaking of war between nations, his analysis is equally valid for the orchestrated violence that started with BLM riots in 2020.

A few brief excerpts from “On War” are illuminating (italics in original):

We see, therefore, that War is not merely a political act, but also a real political instrument, a continuation of political commerce, a carrying out of the same by other means.

War therefore is an act of violence intended to compel our opponent to fulfil our will.

Violence, that is to say, physical force … is therefore the means, the compulsory submission of the enemy to our will is the ultimate object. In order to attain this object fully, the enemy must be disarmed, and disarmament becomes therefore the immediate object of hostilities in theory. It takes the place of the final object, and puts it aside as something we can eliminate from our calculations.

Two motives lead men to War: instinctive hostility and hostile intention.

If our opponent is to be made to comply with our will, we must place him in a situation which is more oppressive to him than the sacrifice which we demand; but the disadvantages of this position must naturally not be of a transitory nature, at least in appearance, otherwise the enemy, instead of yielding, will hold out, in the prospect of a change for the better … [T]he disarming or overthrow of the enemy, whichever we call it, must always be the aim of Warfare.

The far left seeks to abolish ICE, or failing that, to disarm it. To achieve the former, congressional Democrats are threatening to defund at least immigration enforcement, and potentially the entire Department of Homeland Security as soon as next week if ICE does not end patrols, change its rules of engagement, wear name tags, and remove masks that protect agents and their families from doxing and assaults. To advance the latter goal, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer demands judicial warrants in order to arrest illegal migrants, which would effectively end enforcement of most immigration laws, while Democrat-led states enact laws and file lawsuits with the futile objective of overcoming the Supremacy Clause by which federal law overrides dissenting states.

Progressives who asserted that Trump’s election would bring the end of democracy actualize their prophecy as agents of mob rule. Walz, who has longstanding ties to the CCP, threatened to deploy Minnesota’s National Guard to oppose ICE. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasnow wants to unmask and hunt down ICE agents. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes believes the use of deadly force against ICE agents could be justified under Arizona law. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker likened Trump to Hitler and warned against complacence. California Gov. Gavin Newsom told reporters that Trump is trying to “stoke a Civil War.”

When Democratic elected officials falsely claim that enforcing U.S. immigration laws is unconstitutional, or that deporting criminal illegal and unvetted aliens shamelessly admitted by the Biden administration is unlawful, or akin to the Holocaust, they employ incendiary hyperbole and lies to incite violence in an effort to effect political change.

Protestors on the street may hate Trump, America, Israel, and police, or love criminal illegal aliens, Maduro and the adrenalin rush of anarchy. They are being used by elected Democratic officials and progressive activists for their respective purposes. And all of them are dupes for foreign-funded socialist-Marxist cut-outs directed by the CCP and other hostile powers intent on disrupting and defeating the United States.