'Levin' on requiring children to wear masks at schools, teachers unions
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This is a rush transcript from "Life, Liberty & Levin," August 1, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
MARK LEVIN, FOX NEWS HOST: Hello, America. I'm Mark Levin and this is LIFE, LIBERTY & LEVIN.
We're going to do something here that I don't think is typically done on television, not even on this program.
Before I bring on our two great guests, Congressman Jim Jordan and Professor Paul Kengor, I want to have a little chat with you.
Look at what's going on in our school systems. Look at the abuse our children are taking.
We have Federal bureaucrats -- whether they are medical bureaucrats or educational bureaucrats -- telling our children that they are going to wear masks even though the science doesn't support it in the least. Even though what the science does show us it is having an incredibly deleterious effect on the psychology of that generation.
Now, if we don't defend our children, and we don't stand up for our children, then what use are we? We didn't turn our children over to the government. We didn't turn them over to school systems. We didn't turn them over to the teachers unions.
And that's what I want to talk about briefly this evening. "American Marxism" -- and I want to thank you, well over 600,000 copies sold in a little over two weeks. It's not because my name's on this. It's not because I'm on FOX or on radio. There's a lot of people on FOX and on radio with books and so forth.
Why is this a runaway bestseller? It's not because of me, it's because of you. It's the contents of the book, "American Marxism."
And at the end of the book, the last chapter, I have an entire section called "We Choose Liberty." And there's a section within that section called "Education." Now, we need to address this.
I am thrilled that parents are starting to show up in numbers at School Board meetings, but they are abused at the School Board meetings. The entrenched unions, the entrenched educational bureaucracy, and administrators, the School Board members, this cabal, they have no intention of doing what we demand.
We spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year for these institutions. They call it public education. Yet, we have no sound anything that takes place. We don't even have transparency.
Well, that's going to end, and I've got a plan. I've got a plan. And it's not just for parents, it's for those of us who care about this country, it's about taxpayers. It's about grandparents.
It's about all of us, whether you have children or not. And it's this.
A couple of the things, generally. We need to adopt the strategies of the left in some respects. They have the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Movement. That is an anti-Semitic movement intended to destroy the State of Israel. Well, we don't intend to do that, hardly. But we can use boycott, divestment, and sanctions too against institutions that are undermining our country and destroying the minds of our children, this BDS movement. We can apply it against school systems.
More importantly, we can apply it against the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, and their state and local affiliates. What else can we do? We have the power of the Freedom of Information Act in every state. We ought to be using that act in numbers. Hundreds of people at every school district should be filing Freedom of Information Act requests, for what? How do they hire teachers? How do they promote teachers? What exactly is in this contract that they have with the teachers union?
You can FOIA the texts and the e-mails and other forms of communications of the union representatives, teachers in these schools, assuming those computers and laptops and telephones have been given to them or are being leased by them by the school system. That's covered by FOIA, too.
It is time to dig in, not just to come in from the outside and protest. I'm all for it. But it's time for us to get tactical in what we do.
How are these budgets decided? How are these budgets decided? These School Board meetings, they have these executive sessions. Where are they having the executive sessions? What's discussed in the executive sessions?
And ladies and gentlemen, lawsuits can be brought. Obviously, they are expensive, but there are legal groups throughout the country. I have links and contacts throughout the last chapter of the book. What? The Civil Rights Act of 1964 amended -- Education Amendments of 1972. Your children are not supposed to be subjected to a hostile educational environment that preaches, that indoctrinates about racial stereotypes.
There are some of these suits going on now. They ought to be all across the country. Offense. We need to become litigious, just like they are.
What else? Well, ladies and gentlemen, if your kid is being taught by a teacher who is teaching them Marxism and Louis Farrakhanism dressed up as critical race theory, you go into that School Board and you tell them -- or better yet the principal -- I don't want my kid being taught by that teacher. Period.
What kind of training materials are being given to the teachers? You have a right to FOIA that information and get it, too.
Cloward and Piven, overwhelm the system. Get all the information and find out what's going on.
But here's the other shoe that should drop.
Many years ago when I was President of Landmark Legal Foundation, we have a wonderful President there now and I am the Chairman, we filed complaints with the Internal Revenue Service against the National Education Association and a number of its state affiliates, a lot of them. You can do this, too.
You don't have to be a lawyer to do this. But again, there are legal groups who will help you. It is time to liberate our school systems. It is time to prevent them from being the playthings of these Marxist movements in the Democratic Party. It's time that we start subsidizing these movements and the Democratic Party.
Here is a complaint that was filed many years ago. Many of you may not know this, but the unions are required to file a Form 990 -- that is an Internal Revenue tax form -- and they are required to provide that information on their websites to make it publicly available. If they don't, they're violating the Internal Revenue Code, and you can still contact them and demand a copy of it.
And what about that form? They are explicitly required to provide the government with certain political expenditures that they are using. So, it's public to you to know what they are doing with the moneys, what they're doing with the dues.
"If all such political expenditures and activities are fully accounted for and reported to the I.R.S. as taxable income." What we found at Landmark Legal Foundation, it is not. You have indirect contributions, you have all kinds of in-kind contributions that aren't reported. "Political expenditures are not limited to money transactions. They include the cost of using in part or whole, any facilities, personnel, equipment, supplies, automobiles," that are not really supposed to be used for political purposes.
Now, how do you find out all this information? FOIA. How else do you find out all this information? The internet.
A lot of times, they confess to the things that they are doing, even though they may violate the Internal Revenue Code.
"The time spent by an organization's employees directing volunteer campaign efforts, or appearing on behalf of candidates must be accounted for by the organization if these activities are being subsidized by General revenues." Mark, this is too much information. No, Mark, this is great.
Look at the newspaper articles. Look at their press releases. See how much time they are involved in political activities where they are coordinating with the Democratic Party or the Republican Party, almost never, or they are coordinating with other unions, and so forth. That is to be reported on their tax returns, and rarely is.
The NEA doesn't report, we recorded, political activity on IRS Form 990. But they're supposed to and you go on.
The point is you're trying to also show not only are they not reporting all the moneys of general operating funds that they're using for political purposes, thereby violating their tax status.
What else? "These expenditures demonstrate the NEA's use of tax exempt resources to support political activities. It shows the NEA funnels general revenues from its own Treasury to state affiliates, which in turn use those funds in support of political activities."
You can look for this. They have to report every plug nickel that they're using for political purposes.
They're very sloppy. They're very arrogant.
The other thing is on their websites and in their press releases. They tell you about all these political things that they're doing, get copies of information. Compare it to their tax returns.
I've said in this book, we should create community committees. Now, in these community committees, maybe have a local account, maybe have a local lawyer, maybe you'll just have people who are earnest and want to dig into this. Start comparing what they are doing to what they are reporting. The information is out there, nobody looks at it.
"The NEA and its state affiliates must comply fully with I.R.S. reporting requirements," as we pointed out. Here is the conclusion. "IRS enforcement of the Internal Revenue Code enables the public, NEA members, and non- member fee payers to receive accurate and complete information about the NEA's political activities." This goes for the AFT and all their state and local affiliates.
"The evidence presented in the complaint," that we filed, we argued is, "... that they failed to disclose the full extent of their political activities and expenditures as required by the Internal Revenue Code."
Now, I am not going to go through this and read it all. You can probably go to Landmark Legal Foundation website. All that said, you have enormous tools at your fingertips. Enormous tools.
Think outside the box. I help you in "American Marxism" at the back of the book. This suggests with respect to the unions. They have thumbed their noses at you. They said we're teaching critical race theory whether you like it or not, we're pushing this Marxist agenda whether you like it or not.
I'm sure they are working with the C.D.C. to require your kids to wear face masks. Why am I sure of that? Because they did that two months ago. Kids that shouldn't be wearing face masks. These unions are at war with your kids. They're a war with parents. They're at war with our communities.
We are subsidizing the whole damn thing to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars a year.
We don't run our school systems, they run the school systems. And who are they? You don't agree with them. I'm not talking about every individual teacher, I'm talking about the institution of these public sector teacher unions.
They are the enemy of public education. They fight school choice in the inner city. They demand tenure, even for teachers who shouldn't get it. They demand pay raises, even when they're not working. And I could go down the list.
Now I know, I'm not going to be the most popular individual in the world when it comes to teachers, but I want teachers to understand, I'm not attacking you. Many of you don't even want to be associated with these unions.
What does Joe Biden want to do? He wants to get rid of Right to Work laws. So, in every state -- every state -- these public sector employees are unionized, and individual teachers can't break free from them.
My point is, there's a lot we can do. There is a lot with litigation, with FOIA, with protests, with the Internal Revenue Service, there is a lot we can do. And getting those cameras in the classrooms that is critical.
The next time that contract comes up with the teacher union, you want those cameras in the classroom, and if they threaten to strike, and if they're in a non-strike state, they should be fired. And if they threaten a strike and they are in a state that allows them to strike, then move your kids, at least temporarily. This is a battle worth fighting, and a battle worth winning.
And so this is just one little area I wanted to discuss. It's tough to do it in 10 minutes. You can check it out yourself and "American Marxism." But we don't have to take it. These organizations that we subsidize directly and indirectly, they are supposed to work for us, we're not supposed to work for them.
Do you like the kind of education your children are getting? Do you like the fact that test scores are dropping like an anchor in the ocean? Do you like the fact that they are being taught radical ideologies? I mean, incredibly radical ideologies -- and that the teachers union tells them, you're going to have to take it whether you like it or not.
And then your tax bill comes every year, typically property taxes and you have to pay it. And if you don't pay it, they're going to take your home away? Folks, folks, let's claw our way back. Let them stand on their heels. Let us go on offense.
I'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEVIN: Welcome back, America. We have a great patriot, Congressman Jim Jordan.
Jim Jordan, January 6. Let me just put a little context, then you can take it from there.
In 1978, Jimmy Carter released from prison three Puerto Rican terrorists who shot at Members of Congress from the House gallery in 1954, wounding five, and he released them.
On the last day of his presidency, Bill Clinton granted a full pardon to Susan Rosenberg, 16 years into a 58-year sentence for possession of guns and over 700 pounds of explosives. A member of the Weather Underground and numerous of its succeeding splinter groups, and she allegedly participated in the 1983 bombing of the United States Capitol. The explosion blew off Senate Minority Leader Robert Byrd's door, ripped through a painting of Daniel Webster and damaged the Senate cloakroom.
A year after, Bill Ayers girlfriend -- this is a close friend of Barack Obama who helped launch his career and he and Michelle Obama were close to Ayers for many, many years. After two of his friends blew themselves up in Greenwich Village Townhouse turned bomb factory, Ayers took part in the 1971 bombing of the U.S. Capitol.
"We had already bombed the Capitol," he wrote in his memoir, "We'd cased the White House, The Pentagon was like two of the trifecta." And Bill Ayers was off on a technicality.
We see Black Lives Matter, a Marxist organization, enormous violence in our cities, what was done to the Portland courthouse, what was done to the White House Lafayette Park, billions and billions of dollars of damage. Maybe 15 people killed, all through in the summer, all through that period of time.
I do not support breaching any government building. I spent my life standing up for law enforcement. I was Chief of Staff to the Attorney General of the United States in the Reagan administration. But I know a political motive when I see one. And I know a phony committee hearing when I see one, when they don't want to get to all the facts, but when they're promoting politics.
What's your take on this, sir?
REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): You're exactly right. We're the ones who have been consistent.
We condemned the violence on January 6 and we condemned all the violence last summer. Democrats are the ones who have been inconsistent.
You're right. This is all about politics.
You know, look, I'm like you. The Capitol Hill Police risked their lives that day. They do it every day to protect us, protect visitors, and protect the staff, everyone on Capitol Hill. God bless them and God bless all the other law enforcement around the country who do that every single day.
But it would be nice if the Democrats had some consistency here, they don't, because everything for them is about politics. This is now about, you know, obviously about politics. They don't want to -- I said this last week, they don't want to address one of the fundamental questions, which is, why wasn't there a better security posture that day?
Press reports indicate that Nancy Pelosi vetoed having the National Guard here before the January 6, before that day, and then press reports also indicate on that day, she hesitated in calling them up. Now, why would that be, Mark? Why would they -- why would she hesitate to call the National Guard? Why not have the National Guard here if those press reports are accurate? We should get to the bottom of that.
But what could be the reason?
My hunch is what we saw all last summer is we saw the Democrats talk about defunding the police, we saw them actually defund the police. We saw Democrats, the rioters and looters who attacked law enforcement, who destroyed small businesses, who attacked innocent civilians.
We saw Democrats raise money to bail them out of jail.
So with that, backdrop, it's kind of hard to say, hey, we need more of you here on January 6 to protect the Capitol Grounds and protect the personnel inside the Capitol.
So, I don't think they want to get to that question. I think that's why they kicked Mr. Banks and me -- why the Speaker kicked us off or I guess not kicked us off, didn't even let us go on the committee.
LEVIN: And Congressman Jordan, did she not call Federal law enforcement in Portland Storm Troopers? Did James Clyburn not call Federal law enforcement in Portland Storm Troopers? Were they not attacking a Federal courthouse, which had Federal employees night after night for three months with Molotov cocktails and worse?
Did they not attack the White House and harm over 50 Secret Service personnel and the Park Police? Did they not burn a church almost to the ground, a historic church? Did the media not come to their defense every step of the way? Did they not paint Black Lives Matter initials from one boulevard in one city to another city?
Did Nancy Pelosi ever speak out in defense of the cops and against violence at that time, sir?
JORDAN: No. Democrat Members of Congress, while there was unrest in the street, Democrats members of Congress said we need more unrest in the street. I mean, while it's actually happening. So, there was over a hundred-day siege, frankly, it's never really stopped in Portland, Oregon. So no, that all took place.
And then just last weekend -- just last weekend, I think there were 12 people murdered in Chicago in one of our major -- in one city alone just that weekend.
So, part of this is also, Mark, I think part of this January 6 committee, I think part of it is, they have nothing else to talk about.
I mean, they can't talk about crime in the streets driven by everything they said about the police, what they did to the police last week. They can't talk about that. They can't talk about the crisis on our southern border. And they certainly can't talk about the fact that the price of every good and service is increasing dramatically.
So, what are they going to do? Attack President Trump one more time.
LEVIN: You make a very, very important point. Nancy Pelosi is in charge of security. The Sergeant-at-Arms reports to her. The Sergeant-at-Arms who is -- or the head of the Capitol Police has been ousted, has not been called to testify.
We know the NYPD and our Norfolk F.B.I. Office got some rumblings about events that were going to occur. They apparently passed that on to the F.B.I. Christopher Wray, I don't know what the hell Christopher Wray does every day. Apparently, it hit his desk for three or four days. He didn't do anything about it.
It seems to me here the only person who was concerned about security was the then President of the United States, Donald Trump who offered 10,000 National Guardsmen who were turned down.
When we come back, let's pursue that a little bit, Congressman Jordan.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JILLIAN MELE, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, and welcome to "FOX News Live," I'm Jillian Mele.
The U.S. Senate meeting in a rare Sunday session to hammer out the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer says a vote on the vast package could be held in a quote, "matter of days." But so far, lawmakers have not seen the final text of the bill.
Now, if the infrastructure bill passes, Democrats are expected to set their sights on a $3.5 trillion spending package. Republican support for that bill is not likely.
Meantime, anger mounting as millions of Americans face being forced from their homes now that the moratorium on evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic has expired. Some Democratic lawmakers say they were blindsided by the President's inaction. He decided against challenging a Supreme Court ruling that signal there could be no more extensions without congressional action.
LEVIN: Welcome back, America.
Jim Jordan, the effort here is to paint January 6 as an insurrection, nothing that took place this summer, this as an insurrection. I'm not aware of a lot of unarmed insurrections quite frankly. But that said, the effort here is also to paint President -- former President Donald Trump as the person who incited it.
Let me ask you a question. If you're going to incite an insurrection, do you send unarmed civilians to take over the Capitol Building? And on top of that, offer 10,000 National Guardsmen a day or two before to protect the Capitol Building? Does that make sense to you, sir?
JORDAN: Yes, Mark, you're exactly right. The former Chief of Staff Meadow said in an interview the other day that the White House offered National Guard ahead of time; again, press reports indicate Speaker Pelosi turned that down. I think leaving these police officers in a situation where they shouldn't ever have been in.
And then you're right. How do you incite a riot? How do you incite anything when you say -- when President Trump said "peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard"? When everyone saw his entire speech, no one thought there was anything wrong with the speech. But now after we had the unfortunate incidents on January 6, you've got the left, you've got the Democrats going after this.
And as I said before, I'm convinced they have to do this. What else can they talk about? This has been the worst start to any administration in my lifetime.
I mean, you think -- you think about this, we went from a secure border to chaos. We went from peace in the Middle East to thousands of rockets being fired on our friend and ally, Israel. We went from energy independence to gas lines. The border situation, the chaos on our border. Mark, March was the worst month on record for illegal crossings until April.
April was the worst month on record until May, and then May was the worst month on record until June. That's what you call a bad trend. And they are doing nothing to correct that, nothing to deal with it. In fact, they are making it worse. So, they've got nothing else to do. So, what's their playbook?
Their playbook is always the same. Attack President Trump. They did it with Mueller, $30 million, 19 lawyers, 40 agents and all the other things they did. They did it with impeachment round one, they did with impeachment round two. And here we go again.
So, I think the American people see through this. They see it for what it is. The answers that need to be -- or excuse me, the questions need to be asked, and the answers we need to get, deal with why there wasn't a better security posture that day, only the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives can answer that.
And that's the one question -- Chairman Thompson said everything is on the table. Well, excuse me, everything is on the table except that question. So this tells you the political nature of this entire committee.
LEVIN: I agree a hundred percent, and I would add this, why should we trust Pelosi and the Democrats? The murder and mayhem going on in our streets right now is something their party has unleashed by trashing police forces across the country.
They have embraced Black Lives Matter, which is a Marxist anarchist violent organization, and they are led by Marxists. They've been trashing police officers from sea to shining sea, and now, they have this show event with a handful of tray picked officers. How come more officers from that day aren't testifying, including the ones that opened the doors and let people in as a matter of fact? Including the ones that have questions, as you pointed out with Nancy Pelosi and the leadership of the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives. There's a lot of questions here, but she doesn't want to pursue them, does she?
JORDAN: Yes. Like the guy who heads the police, the Capitol Police Union. He'd like to talk. He put out the letter the other day. So yes, yes. Why not? Again, everyone sees this for what it is. You talk about the Democrats not being square with the American people. They keep using the term, "the big lie."
How about every lie that they have told us over the last few years? Remember, they told us the protests were peaceful. They told us that it was actually Republicans who tried to defund the police. I mean, that would be laughable if it wasn't so serious. They told us that President Trump colluded with Russia. They told us the dossier was real.
For four years, they told us the 2016 election was stolen, as recently as October of last year, just days before the election, Hillary Clinton said her election, the 2016 election where President Trump beat her. She said it was stolen.
I guess the rule, Mark, I guess the rule is only Democrats -- only Democrats are allowed to object to election results. You and I can't raise any concerns about the fact that states unconstitutionally changed their election law.
I mean, you did a great piece on this six months ago, seven months ago on the unconstitutional changes made by -- when they went around state legislatures and changed elections. And Pennsylvania is the best example. Pennsylvania says the election -- the law said -- passed by the legislature, it says election ends at eight o'clock, Tuesday. Democrats just sued in the State Supreme Court controlled by Democrats and the State Supreme Court said, no, no, no, no. It doesn't end at eight o'clock Tuesday, it ends five o'clock Friday. They just extended the election.
So Jim Jordan is not allowed to object to the electors from Pennsylvania when they do something unconstitutional. But Jim McGovern, Democrat Chair of the Rules Committee on January 6, 2017 objected Alabama. Jamie Raskin, lead impeachment manager on January 6, 2017 objected to Florida. Maxine Waters -- Maxine Waters on January 6, 2017, Mark, she objected to the electors from Wyoming. Maybe the only state President Trump won by a bigger margin than Alabama was Wyoming, won it like 40 points.
LEVIN: And Congressman, it was Joe Biden himself who said George W. Bush was an illegitimate President. After the litigation ...
JORDAN: Yes.
LEVIN: ... in Florida, and so did most of the media and the Democratic Party. We don't need lectures from these, but we know who they are and we know what they are.
JORDAN: Exactly.
LEVIN: Congressman, I want to thank you for your patriotism, for your willingness to speak out, and God bless you, my friend.
JORDAN: Thank you, Mark. Same to you.
LEVIN: We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEVIN: Welcome back. Professor Paul Kengor is one of the great experts and historians on communism and the Cold War. He wrote a great book, "The Devil and Karl Marx." He has written many great books. That's one of my favorites.
And Professor Kengor, I have written a book called "American Marxism." And I have taken the position after months and months and months of looking at this and reading what so many of the Marxist scholars and professors have said, past and present, that there is an Americanized form of Marxism that has taken hold in this country. This isn't a scare tactic or anything of the kind. I'm not Joe McCarthy.
It's them, it's their words, and they have secreted themselves into various parts of our culture, and they have devoured various parts of our culture. And at bottom, whether it's race, or whatever it is, they are promoting a Marxist ideology of them against us and the overthrow of our existing society.
You've had an opportunity to examine this as an expert. I'd be curious to know what your take is.
PAUL KENGOR, POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR, GROVE CITY COLLEGE: Yes. Well, well, thank you. And thanks for having me on, Mark. It really struck me, first of all, when I first heard the title of your book, "American Marxism" and, and I said, oh, great title, I wish I had thought of that. And then I got a copy of the book, and I started reading it, and what really struck me was that, yes, this really is quintessentially American Marxism.
It is an American form of Marxism that we're not seeing anywhere else in the world. And you know, the stuff in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, the founders of American Communist Party, Communist Party U.S.A., Earl Browder, William Z. Foster, Gus Hall, the Rosenbergs, the Hollywood 10, they all swore a literal loyalty oath to Stalin's Soviet Union.
I mean, you know, they put their hand in the air and they said, "I pledge myself to rally to defend the masses of the Soviet Union, the only party that ensures the triumph of Soviet power inside the United States." they called it a Soviet America.
Langston Hughes, who is now read in our public schools said, "Put one more S in the U.S.A. to make it the U.S.S.A. when we take over." But so what really hit me about your book is that, that's not where we are today. I mean, today's American Marxists, they have nothing to do with a Soviet common turn. There is no USSR. They're not working with a Marxist Vladimir Putin. They're not even reaching out to China, right?
This is a type of Marxism, an American strain that was borne and fashioned here, and in particular, in the modern manifestation, as you point out, based on issues like race and gender, that here too for, an American and even world experience in historical experience we've never seen before.
LEVIN: And Professor, I think it's very, very important that people understand this because on my radio show and elsewhere, people come up to me. They want to know what's going on, why it's going on. How could people believe these sorts of things? Which is why I undertook this enormous project, which is why I think so many people are interested in learning about it.
This isn't a fad. This isn't social activism, per se. This isn't democratic socialism as Bernie Sanders likes to self-identify. It's certainly not progressivism again as they self-characterize. And as I explained in another good book, progressivism is the bastard child of Marxism. Those so- called early progressives, John Dewey, and so Crowley and the others, they liked Marxism. They supported Marxism. They rejected the Declaration and the Constitution.
What we have today are people pulling down monuments, effectively burning books, shutting down debate, attacking free speech, trying to balkanize the nation on race, on gender, on income. Isn't this fundamentally quintessentially Marxism dressed up as something else?
KENGOR: Well, yes. It with Karl Marx, in fact, I quote in "The Devil and Karl Marx," that from a number of different biographers, Marx had a favorite line from "Goethe's Faust." In "Goethe's Faust" was the Faustian bargain. The line was from the Mephistopheles character, the devil demon character. And that line was, "Everything that exists deserves to perish."
Everything that exists deserves to perish. Marx called it in a letter to Arnold Ruge in 1843 for the ruthless criticism of everything that exists, so that he really sought to tear down the foundation, right, to raze -- R- A-Z-E, to tear it down. And with these modern Marxists as well, I mean, they are seeking to fundamentally transform the order. They really are revolutionaries.
And in their case, they're usually seeking to do it according to something else -- race, gender, sexuality. But what's really important to understand, and you point this out in "American Marxism," they take the general Marxist framework of putting people in categories, right, putting people in groups. You're not an individual made in the imago dei, in the image of God, right?
The Judeo-Christian understanding that we are all individuals, products of a loving God. That's not this. In fact, Marx was an atheist. What they're doing is they're hammering people into categories. Marx put them in categories of class or economics.
So it is the proletariat versus the bourgeoisie. The landowning class versus the workers, right? The capitalists versus the workers. And the modern people today, they will -- the modern Marxist strains today, including the Marxist influenced strains of critical race theory, they will put people in groups as well, according to race, according to gender, according to whatever they want to do.
But the important thing is, too, is that is that they pit you against one another and they tell you, you are in that group, and you are in that group, and they are your foe, they are your enemy. And in some cases, they even foment hatred against those people.
So, it's very divisive and in that sense, this is the commonality with classical Marxism. You know, Marx wasn't talking about sexuality and gender. But Marx was talking about this kind of pitting people in different categories or groups.
LEVIN: When we come back, what I tried to also to do in the book is go back and look at the history of these various Marxist American movements that have been spawned from Marxism, and who has been behind them and how they had been promoted, and where we stand today and what we can do about it. A little bit more on that when we return with the great Professor Paul Kengor.
I'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEVIN: Welcome back, America. Critical race theory actually rejects Martin Luther King, the Civil Rights movement, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 1965, the various decisions out of the Supreme Court because Marx said among other things that he really detested the socialists because the socialists were not even halfway Marxists. They were trying to steal the fervor of the revolution that we could never have a full blown Marxist revolution while the socialists were doing their half measures.
And critical race theory is of the same mindset, and I want to turn out a Professor Paul Kengor. Professor Kengor, what do you make of what I said?
KENGOR: Yes, there's a particularly really good quote in your book from Wyatt Tee Walker, who was very close to Martin Luther King, Jr. and Martin Luther King, Jr. rejected communism. He said, among other reasons he rejects it because communism is a strictly materialistic philosophy that rejects God, but Wyatt Tee Walker new King very well, very close to, I am confident of them, and he rejected critical race theory.
And he pointed out that this was a post-Marxist, post-modernist philosophy that put people in blocs, right? B-L-O-C, blocs, categories, and what it does, and you know, Reverend King -- and Mark you and I learned this growing up, especially, and, I guess, the last century, right, that we were to judge people by the content of their character and not the color of their skin.
And what a lot of these critical race theorists are dealing with is that they're defining people by categories, by race and they are putting people in different categories of oppressed versus oppressor. And you could be a white person and find yourself in this oppressor category.
And so this very notion, again, it rejects the humanity of the person, the idea of the person as an individual made in the image of God, and it forces you to treat people as members of groups rather than individuals, and that's why King would have been completely against it.
LEVIN: But I think Louis Farrakhan would probably celebrate it, don't you? I call this sort of the effort to take Louis Farrakhan and wrap him in scholarship. Because Louis Farrakhan talks exactly this way, views the world this way.
He detests the quote-unquote "white race." He calls it worse than that. He's an anti-Semite.
Black Lives Matter released its original mission statement and made it abundantly clear that they were anti-Semitic and there's a lot of overlap here, as well as the push for Marxism.
But it's not just critical race theory. It's the de-growth movement that came out of Europe half a century ago, which now is dressed up as the Green New Deal. It's the open borders movement called LatCrit, which has grown out of critical theory, which says basically, that the white man is the interloper, the illegal alien in this country, because they came out of Europe and took over this area, that the United States is an illegitimate country, therefore, the indigenous peoples coming into the United States can't possibly be illegal aliens.
And by the way, this applies to people of color, too. If you're not buying into these Marxist movements in this country, you are rejected. You are considered repulsive. You are considered compromised and conquered by the dominant white ideology.
And then of course, we see in President Biden issuing executive orders, which basically embrace so much of this Marxist ideology.
And let me ask you about that, Professor. You hear it spewed in the media, there's not a dime's worth of difference between these movements than what most of the people in the media have to say. Not a dime's worth of difference between the major policy issues that the Democratic Party and these movements, and not a dime's worth of difference between the executive orders that President Biden has signed than these movements. They've done a hell of a job of devouring these institutions, haven't they?
KENGOR: Well, what's really sad about it is they really blurred the lines and to some extent, and I know I've heard you talk about this on your radio show, people will say, oh, you want to call everybody you disagree with a Marxist, right? Well, it's getting harder and harder to separate the lines of distinction, especially when you have groups and theories that are Marxist influenced or Marxist based, or borrow the Marxist framework or even say that they do.
And when you have somebody like you mentioned BLM, Patrisse Cullors, the founder of Black Lives Matter. I have her memoir, I've read it cover to cover, I go back to it often to quote it, and she said, "We are trained Marxists." And she said, "We, Alicia and myself," Alicia Garza and herself are two of the three founders of BLM. She said, "We are super versed in ideological theory. We are trained Marxists."
And she is telling you something really important about herself in that way, that's something that you can't ignore.
And when you see, too, and this is all part of the new left and how I think to get to your point, Mark, it's spreading and branching out everywhere. The new left in the 1960s and the guru of the new left was Herbert Marcuse, who you talk a lot about in "American Marxism." They were applying Marxism to sexuality.
This is going to really surprise people watching right now, but the term "The Sexual Revolution" was actually coined by a Freudian Marxist named Wilhelm Reich. He literally wrote the book, "The Sexual Revolution," read "The New Yorker" article on Wilhelm Reich. They were Freudian Marxists.
So, you've got Freudian Marxists, sexual Marxists, feminist Marxists, gender Marxists, race-based Marxist, all contrary to classical economic based Marxism, so it's getting more and more difficult to separate the lines of distinction.
LEVIN: I want to thank you for your career in focusing on this as it has evolved. And I've done what I can do, and I'm going to continue to do it to explain exactly what's going on to this country and exactly who is doing it.
So, Professor, we wish you well, and God bless you. Thank you, sir.
KENGOR: Thank you. It's not fun, but unfortunately, someone has got to do it. Right?
LEVIN: We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEVIN: Welcome back. You know, folks, we live in very weird times. I watch the Republican Party busy spending money like drunken Marxists while they stand up to the Democratic Party and complain about them spending money. Things are swirling around as if they don't even understand it.
Watch the American media which are the mouthpieces for these various spawned Marxist movements. It's incredible. And then you have somebody like Chuck Todd say, I don't know why they think we're liberal. We're not liberal.
I watch a president United States who can barely put one foot in front of the other and complete his sentences, bringing into this country the most radical agenda in American history. He is surrounded by these various movements and pushing that agenda as well.
This is why I'm talking to you, not to the establishment, not the American media. I've left Twitter and Facebook, I'm communicating with you, the American people.
Look, the fact is, there are only a couple of million of us at any time who are watching this network and watching me. It is up to you to be the Paul Reveres in this country. It is up to you to inform yourselves about these various movements that are taking place under the hegemony of the Marxist ideology.
We shouldn't shy from calling it what it is. We shouldn't shy because we're afraid we're going to be attacked. We are being attacked.
We need to understand exactly what's going on in this country, where it comes from, who is doing it, and then we need to do something about it in a lawful civil manner.
We're not them. They are the ones who are violent.
But it is important that we understand what this is. Calling this book "American Marxism." Really? That's exactly what it is. How do I know? Because that's what they call themselves. And how do I know that? Because like Patton said to Rommel after he defeated Rommel in North Africa in a massive tank battle, "I read your book."
I read their books, so you wouldn't have to.
But I want you to have hope. In the end, we are red-blooded Americans. They try to divide us based on physical appearance. We are red-blooded Americans. We are the heart and soul of this country and we love this country and nobody -- nobody -- is going to take it from us.
See you next time on LIFE, LIBERTY & LEVIN.
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