Pollsters at the Cultural Research Center of Arizona Christian University projected that 104 million people of faith, including 32 million Christian churchgoers, will abstain from voting in November
“Intellect is not wisdom.” ― Thomas Sowell
Considering Communism’s dark and bloody past, sensible people have been inclined to ask why scores of American intellectuals remain inspired by socialist models for the future of humanity.
One answer is located in the chaotic history of the last century. The horrific consequences of the First World War (1914-18) created a level of despair and resentment that shook Western civilisation to its core.
Victims of the carnage were attracted by the idea of a Marxist revolution that promised to resolve economic disparity and end war. The Marxist-Leninist blueprint for social transformation inspired legions. It rejected Western religious traditions and aimed to produce a secular, new-world order.
Among these troubled intellectuals was one Whittaker Chambers. While attending Columbia College in New York City, Chambers told his friends he was ready to join the Communist Party. The young man was surprised when nobody could tell him exactly where to sign up. He discovered that most of his upscale university friends preferred to serve the revolution as fellow-traveling influencers. They were busy preparing for comfortable careers in government or the arts. In 1925, Chambers had to find his own way into the Communist Party.
Whittaker Chambers’ indoctrination into the Communist movement is chronicled in his 1952 autobiography,“Witness.” In this, almost forgotten, Cold War classic, Chambers also explained why he finally rejected the Marxist creed and chose to testify against fellow Communist Party member, Alger Hiss.
In the late 1930s Chambers rejected Communism and exposed the underground organisation which included Hiss and other CPUSA members.
Alger Hiss and the ‘Pumpkin Papers’
Some ten years later the FBI revealed that: “In August 1948, Whittaker Chambers—a senior editor at Time magazine—was called by the House Committee on Un-American Activities to corroborate the testimony of Elizabeth Bentley, a Soviet spy who had defected in 1945 and accused dozens of members of the U.S. government of espionage. One official she named as possibly connected to the Soviets was Alger Hiss.” (fbi.gov)
As a repentant ex-communist who had turned to Christianity, Chambers was initially reluctant to give evidence that would send his old friend to prison. But, in November 1948, he was convinced to produce documents which proved that both he and Hiss had been involved in espionage.
Chambers revealed a package of microfilm and other information he had hidden in a pumpkin on his farm in Maryland. The evidence, which contained images of State Department materials—including notes in Hiss’ handwriting became known as the “Pumpkin Papers,” Because the statute of limitations on the charge of espionage had run out, Hiss was finally convicted of perjury. Much to the chagrin of the DC intelligentsia, the sophisticated former State Department attorney, and notable participant in the creation of the post-war United Nations organisation, was sent to prison for lying about spying.
A Curious History of Tolerance for Communism
In 1917 the Communist revolution in Russia transformed an Orthodox Christian society into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The Bolshevik regime rejected religion, oppressed its own people and menaced its neighbours.
Nevertheless, in 1933 Franklin D Roosevelt rewarded the tyrannous Soviet regime with official recognition. The Democrat President’s decision opened the door for decades of Communist influence in American institutions.
A few years after WW II, the Truman administration stopped supporting America’s Nationalist Chinese allies which led to their defeat by the Red Army of Mao Zedong. Anti-communist Chinese, who had been loyal to America during WW II, were forced to settle for an alternative republic on the Island of Taiwan. Thirty years later another Democrat President, Jimmy Carter, ended relations with Taiwan in favour of the regime in Beijing. The decision to favour Communism over Taiwan’s framework for democracy was one of the biggest mistakes in American history.
All of these errors were compounded in 2001 when the People’s Republic of China was welcomed into the World Trade Organisation. The recent entente between former Soviet KGB officer, Vladimir Putin and CCP leader, Xi Jinping now presents a clear and present danger to America and the Free World.
Outrage from Anti-Anti-Communists
Over several decades basic tenants of Communism have become part of American life. It began with “New Dealism” and a growing ideological affinity with the values of the global Communist movement. It accelerated with John Dewey’s “progressive education” movement at Columbia University and the ultimate Marxification of American education.
In fact, America’s liberal-progressive establishment has abandoned the liberating spirit of 1776. The Left has gained control over a powerful permanent state and an influential regime media. Cosmopolitan elites support higher levels of taxation, redistributive economics, speech and press censorship, the suppression of political opposition, corrupt election practices, prejudice against people of faith, moral chaos, divisive identity politics, justifications for crime, a weaponised Department of Justice, tolerance for drug addiction, and open borders. The potential for a single-party American police state is virtually unmistakeable.
In a forward to the 50th anniversary edition of “Witness” the late Robert D. Novak described Chambers’ exposure of Communist influence in the USA as a “masterpiece.” Nevertheless, influential members of America’s literary and political class will never accept that cultivated insiders, like Alger Hiss, could be lying; while inelegant, anti-Communist outsiders like Whittaker Chambers are telling the truth.
Millions of duped university graduates have acquired an utter contempt for traditional American virtues. They seek to silence opponents by replacing the longstanding Western custom of rational discourse with snickers, sneers, smirks and smug remarks. They have become furious anti-anti-Communists. The 20th century ideological schism exposed by Whittaker Chambers is now a permanent feature of American life.
Those who oppose the neo-Marxist agenda of our 21st century Wokerati are routinely branded as “Fascists.”
Trust in God and Cast a Vote
Whittaker Chambers has been criticized for expressing a pessimistic view of America’s future. In a cynical moment after leaving the Communist Party, he said to his wife: “You know we are leaving the winning world for the losing world.”
But, half a century after the original publication, Robert Novak insisted that “Witness” was not “a testament of doom.” He concluded that in the end Chambers delivered a message of hope. “Chambers the ex-Communist” Novak wrote, “is finally eclipsed by Chambers the Christian. His pessimism on political grounds is tempered by faith –in God and his fellow Americans.”
The 47th President of the USA will enter the White House some two-hundred and fifty years after the European Enlightenment gave birth to a free constitutional republic in North America. Should Donald Trump be re-elected he must continue to struggle against a powerful domestic enemy that seeks to undermine the foundation of the American Republic.
In the weeks prior to the forthcoming presidential election pollsters at the Cultural Research Center of Arizona Christian University projected that 104 million people of faith, including 32 million Christian churchgoers, will abstain from voting in November.
Considering the stakes for liberty-loving folks around the world, let’s all pray that they are wrong.
William Brooks is a Canadian writer and a Senior Fellow at The Frontier Centre for Public Policy
