It was a few years ago when I first saw Katrina Vanden Heuvel on panel shows. I was shocked. Considering how far left the Nation and Vanden Heuvel I thought was rather disgraceful that they were given attention as if they were a source of anything resembling mainstream thought.
But has time has gone on I’ve seen that the Democratic party has become more and more left it Vanden Heuvel opinions have become more and more typical within the party. Yet to the great public, the true nature of their beliefs were obscured hidden by quiet and reasoned words and the comments of friends in the MSM.
Which brings us to Francis Fox Piven.
Francis Fox Piven has for decades preached a far left and dare we say revolutionary agenda in Vanden Heuvel’s magazine. As a person of the left, she clearly and unabashedly proclaimed a desire to see what has happened in England and Greece happen here, to wit:
Local protests have to accumulate and spread—and become more disruptive—to create serious pressures on national politicians. An effective movement of the unemployed will have to look something like the strikes and riots that have spread across Greece in response to the austerity measures forced on the Greek government by the European Union, or like the student protests that recently spread with lightning speed across England in response to the prospect of greatly increased school fees.
Now the riots in Greece resulted in blood as the Blaze pointed out. The further took the liberty of showing Piven on TV condoning violence. Glenn Beck took the trouble of pointing out Piven philosophy as a Marxist and her willingness to condone violence. The public not caring for this has been outraged, and the NYT being the NYT is angry at the reaction and blames…Beck:
The Center for Constitutional Rights said it took exception to the sheer quantity of negative attention to Ms. Piven.
“We are vigorous defenders of the First Amendment,” the center said in its letter to Fox. “However, there comes a point when constant intentional repetition of provocative, incendiary, emotional misinformation and falsehoods about a person can put that person in actual physical danger of a violent response.” Mr. Beck is at that point, they said.
The irony level here is earth shattering as Powerline notes:
Glenn Beck has pulled back the curtain on this disgraceful specimen by quoting her accurately. No one has identified any statements he has made about Piven that are incorrect, or claims that he has in any way threatened her. Unlike Piven, Beck is a staunch opponent of political violence. But the mis-named Center for Constitutional Rights–another Orwellian touch–thinks there is such a thing as too much free speech. They want Fox News to shut Beck up because of the “sheer quantity” of Beck’s references to Piven.
Just as a lot of American’s projected their beliefs on the president I think the radical left looked at the election and deceived themselves concluding that their time had come with one of their own in the White House to openly advocate what they’ve said all along. This week on ABC and Morning Joe seeing the president’s numbers and the apparent power of the left included these their voices that they
When speaking to and among their own the left do not restrain their true feelings. Anyone paying attention to any ANSWER march or can tell you this. When I covered the Mayday march in Boston the 300 marchers there, when asked directly did not hide the fact that they wanted open borders, supported socialism and opposed capitalism.
Piven and their crowd have no cause to object, they have expressed these opinions for years, the only difference now is that the public at large is now exposed to them and doesn’t like the view.
So in the end I was wrong. Put the Nation and its editor out there. Let her defend every word she publishes. It is a visible and unapologetic left that we need, not hidden in obscure magazines and only excerpted by their friends, but out in the open for all the world to see their true colors melt in daylight.
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