The Daily Signal - How Is the Left of the ’60s Different From the Left of Today?

Episode Date: July 15, 2020

How do the radical movements of today—Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and others—compare with their counterparts of the 1960s, such as the Black Panthers and the Weather Underground? What would the leftists of the ’60s say about the rioting that followed the death of George Floyd, the toppling of disfavored statues, and efforts today to "defund the police"? Lee Edwards, a distinguished fellow in conservative thought at The Heritage Foundation’s B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies, joins the podcast to discuss the similarities and differences of the left of then and now. We also cover these stories: New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut have added four more states to their quarantine list.  California is shutting down most indoor businesses—again. A federal prisoner on Tuesday morning was executed, the first such execution since 2003.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Wednesday, July 15th. I'm Virginia Allen. And I'm Kate Trinco. Today, our colleague Rachel Del Judas speaks with Lee Edwards, a historian and distinguished fellow and conservative thought at the Heritage Foundation. They'll discuss the evolution of the modern left in America from the 60s to today. Don't forget, if you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to leave a review or a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and encourage others to subscribe.

Now onto our top news. New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut have added four more states to their required quarantine list. On Tuesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy added Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, and Wisconsin to the list of states. Last month, Cuomo held a joint press conference with Lamont and Murphy announcing that anyone traveling into one of their best. their states, from a state reporting more than 10 cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 people, would be required to quarantine for 14 days. If caught in violation of the requirement, individuals are subject to a large fine and a mandatory quarantine. Delaware, which was added to the list last week, has now been removed,

but the addition of Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, and Wisconsin bring the list to a total of 22 states. California is shutting down most indoor businesses again. The Office of Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, and the California Department of Public Health announced this week that various indoor operations, including wineries, bars, restaurants, movie theaters, museums, and more must end. In addition, in California counties where coronavirus cases are beyond a certain threshold, churches, gyms, and hair salons must cease operating indoors. About 80% of Californians live in a county deemed high risk. Dr. Kevin Pham noted in a recent Daily Signal op-ed that the case of California is curious, writing, California has been cautious in reopening

and is maintained many of its mitigation measures during this time. In the time that Texas was well into its third phase of reopening, California had only begun moving into its second, yet is seeing a similar surge in cases. FAM speculated that improper mask wearing and large protests could have been two factors that contributed to the rise of cases in California. A federal prisoner was executed on Tuesday morning for the first time since 2003. In 1996, 6. Daniel Lewis Lee, a white supremacist, brutally murdered three people, a man, a woman, and an eight-year-old girl, and stole guns, ammunition, and thousands of dollars in cash in an effort to establish a whites-only nation. Lee was convicted in 1999 and sentenced to the death penalty. The execution took place Tuesday, only hours after the Supreme Court ruled five to four that the Department of Justice's approved lethal and guilty. injection method of execution is not cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment,

which was the claim of a lower court. An Indianapolis star reporter who was present at the execution reported Lee's final words to be, You're killing an innocent man. Attorney General William Barr said in a statement, Today, Lee finally faced the justice he deserved. The American people have made the considered choice to permit capital punishment for the most egregious federal crimes, and justice was done today in implementing the sentence for Lee's horrific offenses.

Two more federal executions are scheduled for this week, and one more next month. Britain is turning its back on Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications company. According to the UK government, in a statement to the House of Commons, Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden said, By the time of the next election, we will have implemented in law an irreversible path for the complete removal of Huawei equipment from our 5G networks. Earlier this year, Heritage Foundation's Nile Gardner and Clon Kitchen wrote for the Daily Signal. Huawei, a state-controlled Chinese enterprise, poses a significant national security risk to the United Kingdom and U.S. allies across the world. Barry Weiss, the opinion columnist and editor for the New York Times, has resigned after facing

continuous bullying by colleagues at the paper. Weiss reported being called a racist and a Nazi for her writing, which often featured moderate to conservative views. In her resignation letter published on her personal website Tuesday, Weiss wrote, My work and my character are openly demeaned on company-wide Slack channels. And she continued, there, some coworkers insist I need to be rooted out if this company is to be a truly inclusive one, while others post ax emojis next to my name. Still, other New York Times employees publicly smear me as a liar and a bigot on Twitter with no fear that harassing me will be met with appropriate action. They never are. Wice expressed her disappointment in the New York Times writing, Twitter has become its ultimate editor and added,

the paper itself has increasingly become a kind of performance space. Stories are chosen and told in a way to satisfy the narrowest of audiences, rather than to allow a curious public to read about the world and then draw their own conclusions. Next up, we'll have Rachel's interview with Lee Edwards about the rise of the radical left. Do you have an opinion that you'd like to share? Leave us a voicemail at 202-608-6205 or email us at letters at dailysignal.com. Yours could be featured on the Daily Signal podcast. I'm joined today on the Daily Signal podcast by Dr. Lee Edwards.

He's a distinguished fellow in conservative thought at the Heritage Foundation's B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies. Dr. Edwards, it's great to have you on with us at the Daily Signal podcast. love to be with you, Rachel. Thanks for asking me. Well, thank you so much for being with us and for taking the time. So to start off our conversation, in what ways would you say the left has changed their strategy and the tenets of belief from the 60s to today? Well, back in the 1960s, which I happened to sort of fairly well, I lived through it, they were semi-organized through something called the SDS, Students for Democratic Society. And they were the youth group of the socialists,

and they wanted to bring about a new world, a new America, in which there would be no more capitalism, in which there would be socialism. They were not pro-communist or pro-Soviet, but they definitely were socialist. So they did have, my point being, they did have a structure, a political structure in SDS, which wound up with tens of thousands of members.

What they did was to work with two big issues in the 1960. If you want to understand that decade, you have to understand that in the first half of that decade, from 1960 to 65, the big issue was civil rights. And, of course, the hero and the leader was Martin Luther King. And then in the second half, 1966 through 1970, it was the Vietnam War. And both of these issues did tend to divide America, but particularly the Vietnam War divided America into two different camps, those who were for it and those who were again. and SDS and other left people of the left took advantage of the emotions, the public concern about those two issues and parlayed them into a fairly significant political movement, which, however,

resulted in the weathermen who literally blew themselves up at the end of the decade. So what would you say, Dr. Edwards, is driving the changes of the left today in what we see? I think a couple of things. Because of the great recession, which happened now, although it was not so many years ago, young people, particularly college educated and so forth, felt that capitalism had failed. Capitalism had blown up, and they began looking for alternatives. And they found them in socialism, a word and a concept which, hasn't had much traction here in America for some time.

But because the great reception was so great, here was an opportunity. And then, of course, we had the political divisions in this country, red and blue, the coastal liberals and the middle American conservatives. And that also added, again, to a divided country. and the left has taken advantage of that as well. And more recently, of course, they have gone all out on racism, what they see as the inherent racism, what they call the systemic racism in America,

through various organizations, the Democratic Socialists of America, Black Lives Matter, of course, becoming that as well. And so I would say that today, the big difference between this decade and the decade of the 60s, is that there were certain successful reforms which happened in the 1960s. Yes, there were riots, there were demonstrations, but there were certain things which happened, which addressed the problems, such as the Civil Rights Act of 64, the Voting Rights Act, 1965, and the fact that we began getting out of the Vietnam War,

stop fighting it and let the Vietnamese handle it. And so here we are today, and we don't see, you know, what are the solutions? Where are we going to find them? We're going to find them with the Socialists, the Democratic Socialist America, AOC, and what all that she stands for, or is it something else? So that to me is the big difference.

between this decade and the past decades. Well, Dr. O'Dardt, you mentioned Black Lives Matter. What about that group as well as Antifa and others? Would the left of the 60s be on board or would it not recognize what their party and, you know, movement, so to speak, has become? This has been a revelation to me, and we started out with actually our president,

K. James, saying it, that Black Lives Matter had a strongly, Marxist element to it and that its leaders are going around bragging about the fact that they were Marxist and I wasn't even aware of that at the beginning of it and I've since done some study myself and Mike Gonzalez and Andy Olivestro have done it as well and it's true that they they are not just moderates they are not just looking to sort of politics as usual if they're talking about bringing about a Marxist tone, not a socialist, but a Marxist solution to problems, and I think then we're in an entirely different world and an entirely different challenge

here in America. Well, just in general, the 60s were a time of great unrest. How is the current moment like as well as unlike the 60s? Well, as I try to point out back in the 60s, there were generally speaking just sort of one major issue as I say in the first half of the decade it was civil rights in the second half of the decade it was the Vietnam War

and that was enough to divide the country that was enough to produce when Dr. King was murdered in in 1968 and then Robert Kennedy was murdered as well just a couple of months later you know, strong and very meaningful divisions. But what is different about the current is that we have a trica of crises. We have the pandemic. We have the economic, we have the economic, we won't say collapse, but certainly an economic crisis. And then we have, of course, the charge of racism in

America following the death of George Lloyd. So having all three of those at the same time, I think, has put increased pressure on all of our structures and all of the ways that we usually resolve problems. And I think that's something that makes this a much more dangerous decade, if you will. We're not quite sure how is it going to turn out. So many questions about the pandemic. Now that if they're talking about is the economy, does the stock market truly reflect a recovering economy or is the fact that there's still so many people at 20-some percent unemployed? So all of these questions are putting tremendous strain and stress on Americans. And I think they're looking around for answers and they're difficult to find when you have

so many problems confronting you. Well, Dr. Edwards, you just mentioned the death of George Floyd. What would the left of the 60s have to say about the continued riots and unrest we've seen following his death, as well as the increase in police brutality, the toppling of statues? I mean, the list just goes on. Right. Of course, what I say, I've lived through the 60s, and I was in Washington, D.C. in the summer, the spring of 1968, when Martin Luther King was assassinated,

and i was here when washington went up in flames so having flames and and smoke circling our nation's capital is not anything new uh... and it uh... it took uh... that section of washington d c where there was widespread rioting and demonstrations and destruction decades to to come back

uh... but it did it did and i think that uh... we don't know what is going to be the outcome of where we are right now. I think that the toppling of monuments and memorials here in D.C. And in capitals and cities and towns across the country, that is something new. And I think that is something which is troubling and worrisome to me because I can see where you can make an argument for,

toppling somebody who led the Confederacy, which after all was talking and led a drive to not only secede, but to support and to maintain slavery. I can see that. What I can see is that people now going around and destroying monuments of Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant and who were not part of the Confederacy. And these are attempts which strike at the very foundation of our republic. If you're talking, if you're going to start doing away with George Washington, what does that do to the Constitution? What does that do to the Declaration of Independence?

What does that do to the war that we fought to achieve independence, and which was led by George Washington, notwithstanding the fact that he did have an own. enslaved. So the difficulty, it seems to me, is that today's activities are going on is really more like the French Revolution, that what Marxists and socialists are talking about is not just a political transformation, but a cultural transformation as well. And that comes out of the French Revolution, not the American Revolution. As we've discussed briefly already, race has been a constant issue in American history, and how do you think the current moment fits into our larger historical pattern?

Well, we've had this problem from the beginning, and it comes out of the compromise which was made in bringing about the Constitution in which there was a deliberately no mention made of slavery. It is a major sin of a continuing sin of our history. But at the same time, I look at finally, there was reform made with back in the 60s that decade, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965. And then the ability of reformers to force southern governors like George Wallace and others to open up schools. So to me, that shows that reform is possible. What concerns me about the current debate, this question of systemic racism. Now, if you accept that as a premise, then it seems to me you're going to say,

then the reform must be everything. It must touch our culture. It must touch our politics. and must touch every aspect of our society. And that way can lead to anarchy. It can lead to an entirely different kind of country. And that concerns me deeply, and I think it concerns many others as well. Well, looking back on what you have experienced, is there a time period, and even what you've studied as well,

is there a time period in American history excluding the 60s that our current time period reminds you of? Well, we have, there have been what we called transformational decades. And so if we look back at our history, and let's put aside the founding, the time of the founding, which was a very special one. Although I think it's certain that the 1770s were a transformational decade, if you consider, that this was the decade in which we challenged and said, we're going to declare independence, which we authored the Declaration of Independence, which we undertook a war with the most powerful nation in the world, which you had something called the Constitution, which also was accomplished in the following decade.

But setting that aside, it seems to me there have been two other decades, that of the 1860s, which was the time of the Civil War, of the time when Abraham Lincoln, a political genius and some God given to us who was able to unite the union and to end slavery. And then in the 1930s, with the Great Depression, we had the leadership of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Now, he was a liberal Democrat with policies in mind. the New Deal, which were questionable, and which certainly did not end the recession, but he did provide an inspirational kind of leadership and a sense of optimism, in a sense the American spirit could overcome even something like the Great Depression. So I take encouragement,

Rachel, from the 1930s, from the 1860s and from the 1770s, that I don't care what kind of a challenge you're talking about, something which strikes fundamentally at the very core of our country and our history, and yet we were able to overcome it. We were able to seize the day to come up with the necessary victories and to move on and continue to develop this marvelous thing we call the Home of the Brave in the Land of the Free. So that's why even as daunting as today is, I have confidence in that American spirit that we can overcome it. Well, thank you for sharing that. You recently wrote a piece about our modern revolution and you said that all of us must take measured steps to protect our most precious possession, ordered liberty.

How would you encourage people, Dr. Edwards, to go about doing that? Well, I think what we have to do is to realize, when I talk about ordered liberty, I'm saying that on the one hand, we have this great gift of individual freedom, which we've been given by the Declaration, by the Constitution, and by her history. But at the same time, we have a communitarian. and responsibility. So we can't just think about ourselves. We must think about a galatechic,

not only about our family, but about the community. That community can be the town, the city in which we live, and the state, but also the country in which we live. And what can we do? What can we do?

Well, it seems to me, one of the things we can do is to be politically active to make sure that we do vote. These are all, perhaps some people might call them, bromides, but our country lives on the participation of an informed citizenry. And part of that means getting out there and voting for good people to take over and to run the government.

At the same time, there is a responsibility that we have to take care of and to be responsive to the, you might call the individualism of America, that wonderful spirit that we have, whereas, you know, live free or die, don't tread on me, all those wonderful phrases from the founding. So the idea that we can find the right balance to be individually free, to live the best possible life that we can, at the same time to accept that we have a community responsibility, not just to ourselves and even to our family,

but in a greater sense to the community in which we live. Well, Dr. Edwards, you're a historian, and as a historian, when others who study history look back at the first half of 2020, do you have any predictions as to what they'll focus on? Well, an historian should be very careful not to get into the, the pretextual. predicting business. I would say that the economic system that we have, that of the idea that supply and demand of capitalism, if you will, market capitalism, is so strong that it's going to carry us through.

And we will see in a couple of years that the economy will, be humming once again. So I have confidence in that based upon history. I think that with regard to the pandemic, although we don't like what we're living through right now, I certainly don't like to be here isolated in my apartment as comfortable as it is, rather be with my fellow workers at the Heritage Foundation, particularly enjoying the stimulation of young minds and brains and spirits. And I think that that vaccine is going to be discovered sooner rather than later, and that there'll be plenty of doses to go around. I am concerned about this question of racism in America, which has been a besetting sin of ours, all of these many, many years. And we need

to face it. And I think that that can happen through, for example, and I think Heritage and Mrs. James, President James, has already begun talking about some of these things, the idea of bringing together white and blacks to talk and debate, how can we meet this problem of racism? How can we do it without bringing about greater government controls? We don't want government dictating to us what we can say, what we can't say.

And I'm concerned how this might spill over into our universities and colleges with politically correct codes and all the rest of that. So in grappling with racism, which is a problem, no question about it, we must not overreact and bring about a greater role for government. dictating to us how to solve that problem. Well, Dr. Edwards, thank you so much for joining us today on the Daily Signal podcast. It's been great to have you with us. Thank you, Rachel. My pleasure. Hope I've been able to maybe throw out a few ideas that might encourage some thinking

and maybe even some prudent action. Definitely. It's been great having you. Thank you, Rachel. All the best. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to the Daily Signal podcast. Please be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or Spotify,

and please leave us a review or a rating on Apple Podcasts to give us your feedback. Thanks again for listening, and we'll be back with you all tomorrow. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. It is executive produced by Kate Trinko and Rachel Del Judas, sound design by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. For more information, visit DailySignal.com.