Progressive ideologies undermine Western resolve

By PHILIP MAHONEY
Rightwise
Amidst the Israeli-Gaza war, now entering its fourth week, there has been a chorus of discontent from the progressive left that has left many Democrats equally befuddled and horrified. America’s future, those at our college institutions, brandish their support in the streets for jihad and erode any credibility the term “highly educated” once held. Democrats, and the moderate voices on the left, have remained ignorant to the warnings of conservatives for years; that the left’s romanticized quest to expunge imperialism has indulged deluded fantasies. Liberal democracies, the West; the bedrock of the free world are now the villains in the eyes of this new thought process.

Although it isn’t exactly a new left. This rhetoric of “decolonization” and “Western oppression” by so-called “progressives” really bears a striking resemblance to a specific leftist ideology, one that should have been banished to the history textbooks with the fall of the Berlin Wall. Even in the 21st century, Marxist-Leninist thought percolates through our media, echoes within the walls of our schools, and manifests itself onto our streets in, often violent, protests.

The survival of this degenerate ideology is the culmination of the failures of our educational system, a failure to educate each successive generation on the horrors Marxism has wrought throughout history.

We are witnessing a collective failure of understanding, and somehow the allure of fantastical utopia has blinded our young to the history of the dystopian outcomes that have always followed. The brutal tragedies enacted by communist regimes under the guise of equality should have been enough to relegate communism to the “ash heap of history.”

We are now collectively left to ponder the wise warning of George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This stubborn survival of Marxist-Leninist thinking is the perfect illustration of this axiom, the specter of a failed and destructive ideology continues to haunt our present and collective future. These progressives do not offer any viable solutions to the challenges we face, instead, they remind us that we have failed to inoculate the consciousness of society against the allure of tyranny and false promises.

This stupidity, and it is pure stupidity, has now trickled down to the State Department. Our “expert” diplomats find themselves marginalized, as President Biden rightfully does not trust them on just about anything. These “children”, the most common age range in the department between 20-30 years, do not understand anything relating to the complexities of war and the realities of geopolitics. These youths have spent the entire month protesting the alleged brutality of an administration that does not leap at every opportunity to stop the eradication of a brutal terrorist group — they are the “youthful idiots” that Lenin referred to in the past.

Whatever the humanitarian toll of this conflict is, or will be, and despite the insistence of these staffers, is not found in the lack of American intervention in negotiating a cease-fire. It lies, instead, in the reality that the people of Gaza have supported, aided, and sheltered terrorists for far too long, and the the terrorists must be met with an unrelenting response, lest we suffer another repeat of October 7th.

Democratic administrations have always struggled to handle the nature of this enemy and the complexities of statecraft. Though, Mr. Biden has thankfully sidelined his cabinet and decided to “take command” himself. Yet, the series of incompetent foreign policy displays throughout Mr. Biden’s administration have all manifested in the State Department.

And, at the risk of sounding like an angry baby boomer, it is the fault of those damned kids. The State Department has become a refuge for young progressives who are attuned to the sensitivities of a college faculty lounge rather than the realities of realpolitik. This blend of stupid idealism and inexperience was tragically on display in the Summer of 2021, during the Afghanistan withdrawal. The haphazard and chaotic exit, that killed 13 Marines, was the result of imprudent pseudointellectuals treating our military forces like an embassy security detail.

In the Biden administration, we are being guided by policymakers who cannot distinguish a drawing room from a battlefield. When presented with any crisis, these children at the helm trade the chessboard for a shoebox, reminding us that they are more suited to academic “safe spaces” than any global crisis. We are not just blundering on the world stage, we are seeing a forfeiture of American leadership — and that of the West itself.

The West cannot have any political, moral, or strategic authority if it is being run by people who hate the West. Mr. Biden needs to get these young staffers out and bring in some serious diplomats from the Cold War and War on Terror era who understand the unyielding strength of resolute foreign policy.

The rest of us, the people of the West, must be relentless in our pursuit and spread of the intellectual truth, that Marxist-Leninist doctrines are disastrous, foolhardy, and an indictment of everything we stand for. Only then can we hope to steer the West away from the brink of its self-destruction and towards a safer and better future.

— Philip Mahoney is a college student majoring in political science, focusing on New Hampshire’s First in the Nation Primary and events surrounding the election.