The Issue Is Not the Issue – the Progressive Left’s War on America

An old maxim from sociology borrowed from the ancient Greeks says, "Things are not always what they seem." This is certainly the case now with what's happening in American culture wherein given issues, incidents, demonstrations, and controversies, at least from the point of view of the political Left, are simply a means to an end. This issue and the chaos it generally generates are the means but the end is "power" for "the revolution." The Left makes no bones about wanting to tear down the American system and replace it with what the Left or so-called Progressives considers a fair, equitable, and just socialist or communist system in which - you guessed it - the Left's elites are in power. This may sound like a conspiracy theory, but extensive evidence can be marshaled to demonstrate the point reaching back to the 1960s. Key for conservatives, and Christians: wake up. Not "woke" but awaken to the reality of what's happening around them and stand firm for traditional values and principles that amplify truth, morality, justice, and tranquility. For more Christian commentary, see my website at www.rexmrogers.com or check my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers.  #Left #Socialist #CulturalMarxist #Progressives

Transcript

When we witness chaos in our streets and public squares, what really are we seeing?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #213 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

American society is polarized. We are daily beset with incidents in which one group, whatever the name or identity, faces another across a public square, on campuses, in the middle of highways or street intersections. These groups decry some perceived great injustice that is happening to them – or often, some other victim-group du-jour.

It seems no one is content. Certainly no one is pleased or even just optimistic.

But seemingly everyone in the street or online are unhappy and convinced they are the victim of some great if often manufactured wrong or inequity. We see this regarding social class, the Have Nots vs the Haves, regarding race, sex or gender, climate change, or just anti-Trump.

What we need to understand is that what we are seeing is the manifestation of a deeper problem. What I mean is, the issues or the cause about which American society is fighting, at least for the Progressive Left, are not really the issues or the cause at all.

An “SDS radical once wrote, ‘The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution.’ In other words, the cause — whether inner city blacks or women — is never the real cause, but only an occasion to advance the real cause which is the accumulation of power to make the revolution.”

So, what we’re saying is that the issue we see in the streets is only a means to an end, and the end is chaos, which the Progressive Left believes will lead to their power.

Now this all sounds like political or philosophic mumbo jumbo. But I assure you it is not. This is as real as it gets. 

Before I proceed, there’s another thing we need to understand – that some of our old and still-used political vocabulary is out of date.

Please note there is a difference between Liberals and the New Left or Progressives of the 2020s.

Classical Liberals believe in big government, which means taxes, regulations. Liberals believe the color of a person’s skin is insignificant. Does not matter. They are committed to racial integration, they are often pro-capitalism, and they favor free enterprise as the best way to lift people from poverty. They are usually patriotic and believe in America. Now I know so-called Liberals have been featured on media in recent days questioning all these values, but historically at least, this characterization is accurate.

Now, more often, we hear on media from the New Left, the loud and proud, people like Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Jasmine Crockett (TX), Ilan Omar (MN), and Rashida Tlaib (MI). There are many more than this, including former VP Kamala Harris or Gov Gavin Newsom (CA). These individuals call themselves Progressives, are sometimes called Liberals but are not. 

The New Left is now dominant in the Democrat Party, is the chief opposition not simply to Republicans but also to much that is historically American, and in many ways are anti-American. They focus on cultural or social issues like sexuality, climate change, and  social justice. “Their focus is on means rather than ends, and therefore they are not bound by organizational orthodoxies in the way their admired Marxist forebears were. Within the framework of their revolutionary agenda, they are flexible and opportunistic and will say anything (and pretend to be anything) to get what they want, which is resources and power.”
 

The New Left or Progressives is what conservatives and Christians need to learn more about. They are quite literally everywhere, at every level of government and society, and their plan to integrate and destroy from within has been enormously successful, including in education, Kindergarten to graduate school. “Propagandists, posing as teachers and professors, are brainwashing legions of hapless kids looking for purpose. Millions of kids enroll in colleges and universities looking for an education but end up with an indoctrination.”

The New Left or Progressives consider “(incidents or issues) nothing more than a convenient reason to destroy, and, more importantly, to further their goal — the destruction of Western civilization — and to fuel the incipient rise of communism in the United States. That also means that the Progressive apparatchiks don't care about black, gay, and/or trans people. Nor do they care about ‘due process’ for illegal immigrants.”

The intellectual North Star of the New Left is a late radical political activist named Saul Alinsky who argued for “the strategy of deception he devised to promote social change.” He recommended “Don’t sell it as socialism; sell it as ‘progressivism,’ ‘economic democracy’ and ‘social justice,’ the strategy of working within the system until you can accumulate enough power to destroy it.”

“What this amounts to in practice is a political nihilism - a destructive assault on the established order.” Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Bernie Sanders are a few of Alinsky’s leading adherents. Since they are older than AOC, these pols send off a mix of old Liberalism and attempts at New Left posturing. 

Radicals now work in a kind of Fifth Column infiltration, incrementalism, slow but sure revolution. “Radicals camouflage their agendas by calling themselves at different times Communists, socialists, new leftists, liberals, social justice activists and most consistently progressives.” They are willing to use any means, unethical, illegal, and immoral, even violent behavior, to accomplish their goal and the goal is always power, always the revolution. That’s why the issue we see protested in the streets is not really the issue. It’s just a means to an end – chaos – which leads to power for the revolution. The issue is the revolution. 

Former radical and author David Horowitz said this about Alinsky: “Recall how Satan tempted Adam and Eve to destroy their paradise: If you will rebel against God’s command then “You shall be as gods.” This is the radical hubris: We can create a new world. Through our political power we can make a new race of men and women who will live in harmony and peace and according to the principles of social justice.” Karl Marx thought that. Progressives think that today. 

No matter that the history of socialist totalitarianism in the 20th and now 21st Century is a record of hundreds of millions of deaths in the Soviet Union, China, and elsewhere in the world. People do not matter. Power matters. The issue is the revolution, because in creating it, the radical becomes a god. 

“Conservatives think of war as a metaphor when applied to politics. For radicals, the war is real. That is why when partisans of the left go into battle, they set out to destroy their opponents by stigmatizing them as ‘racists,’ ‘sexists,’ ‘homophobes’ and ‘Islamophobes.’ 

It is also why they so often pretend to be what they are not (‘liberals’ for example) and rarely say what they mean. Deception for them is a military tactic in a war that is designed to eliminate the enemy.”

For radical New Left Progressives, “politics is a zero-sum exercise, because it is war. No matter what (these) radicals say publicly or how moderate they appear, they are at war. They’ve been taught to be so.

So, as we watch the chaos in our polarized streets, we should remember that what we are seeing, the issue, is not the Left’s goal. The issue is not the issue. They do not often admit it, but they are at war and in war, there is no compromise, no quarter. “One side is fighting with a no holds-barred, take-no-prisoners battle plan against the system, while the other is trying to enforce its rules of fairness and pluralism.” 

Remember Dostoevsky? He famously wrote that “if God does not exist then everything is permitted.” What he meant was that if human beings do not have a conception of the good that is outside themselves, then they will act as gods with nothing to restrain them.”

Conservatives and Christians who believe in rules must awaken to the fact their opposition knows no rules. For New Left Progressives, the issue is not the issue. The revolution is the issue.

Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. For more Christian commentary, see my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com, or check my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers. 

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2025   

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