A brief article in the American Pravda equivalent, otherwise known as the New York Times announced that New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani will run in next year’s Democrat primary for Mayor of New York City. What is important in this article is that Mamdani, a Democrat, is also a socialist and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Is he a Democrat or a Socialist or what? He isn’t unique. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) is also a socialist and he ran in democrat primaries twice. He isn’t a democrat, but he caucuses with the Democrat majority in the US Senate and apparently gained the approval of the Democrat Party to participate in their primaries and caucuses. Congressional members of the “Squad” also adhere to the Democratic Socialists yet were elected or ran on the Democrat ticket. Some explanation of what is going on is required.
It is advisable at this point to define entryism. It is an infiltrative tactic utilized by a smaller organization to enter and ultimately seize control of a larger organization. Most members of various organizations, though supportive of their group’s goals are at best marginally active. On the other hand, the smaller organization consists of extremely dedicated and activist members totally dedicated to their group’s goals. The members of the smaller, infiltrating group join the larger group, become members and due to their active participation soon become influential and powerful within the larger group. Due to their increasing activity and influence, their goal to become dominant and seize control is realistic.
Sociologists and political scientists are very familiar with the structural organization of various interest groups and the participation of the associated memberships. All voluntary organizations basically follow the same general rules and principles. Of course, most organizations are of a non-political nature and are not the subject of infiltration by other groups.
A frequently cited example of entryism is the so-called French Turn. Leon Trotsky’s French followers infiltrated the French Socialist Party in an attempt to seize control of that party in the 1930s. A less well known example is the capture of the American Labor Party (ALP) by Communist activists who infiltrated that party in the 1940s. Founded by anti-Communist labor leaders and active only in New York State, the party was eventually overrun by members of the Communist Party with the result that the non Communist elements of that party were forced to leave it and founded in its place the Liberal Party, also active in New York State. The ALP, at its height elected a number of New York State legislators and a long-standing member of the House of Representatives, Vito Marcantonio. The ALP died in the 1950s and its descendant, the Liberal Party finally expired in the 1980s. New York State’s peculiar election laws, which enabled candidates to run on several parties simultaneously and then total their votes has continued to encourage third parties of various persuasions. All have in some sense been involved in various forms of entryism. In opposition to the Liberal party, a fourth party was formed in New York which is still active, the Conservative party. It was formed in the 1960s to challenge the NY Republican Party, at that time led by Governor Nelson Rockefeller and Senator Jacob Javits, both of whom were liberal Republicans. The Conservative Party has always remained independent of the NY GOP but it has reached a position of great influence where today the Republicans wouldn’t nominate a candidate who would not get the Conservative party endorsement as well. In this sense the Conservatives have taken over the Republican Party in New York. They reached the apogee of their influence in the senate election of 1970 when Conservative candidate James L. Buckley defeated incumbent Republican Charles Goodell and Democrat Richard Ottinger. Senator Buckley, though a registered Republican labelled himself as a Conservative-Republican and caucused with the Republicans in the Senate. In 1976, a democrat year after the Watergate scandal and Richard Nixon’s resignation, Sen. Buckley ran as a Republican and Conservative, but lost to Daniel Patrick Moynihan (Dem). However, the Conservative Party has continued to maintain its influence over the NY Republican Party which has moved sharply to the right.
The Democrat Party has not been immune to the effort of third parties to influence it. Organized in 1998 as an avowedly leftist party, the Working Families Party, founded in New York, has now spread across the country. It has endorsed candidates in many states for positions at all levels of government, from national to local. It has proudly endorsed members of the “Squad” who represent the so-called progressive or extreme-leftist tendency in the Democrat Party. They make no effort to hide their orientation, both in domestic and foreign policy, and are quite willing to split with the mainstream of the Democrat Party in an effort to achieve their goals. They have pulled the Democrats to the left and there is certainly grounds to fear that they may cost the Democrat Party the election of 2024. This will be determined on election day. Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the Democrat standard bearers have been the most far left Democrat candidates in history. The Working Families Party openly states on its web site that they will run candidates on either the Working Families line or in some cases on the Democrat line. This is an open effort of entryism and up to this point the effort seems to be unopposed. Another organization that is actively infiltrating the Democrat Party is the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) which describes itself as a movement rather than a political party. This organization has grown greatly since Sen Sanders ran in the Democrat primary for President in 2016. It has an extreme leftist quasi-Communist outlook and among its preceding organizations is the violence-prone Students for a Democratic Society. Its National Political Committee is dominated by Marxists and revolutionary socialists and it has succeeded in electing officials at various levels of government including the Congress. It is notable for its anti-Israel attitude as it led anti-Jewish demonstrations in New York’s Times Square on October 8, 2023 in support of Hamas after its vile massacre of Jews on October 7, the preceding day. It is noteworthy that Israel had not yet responded to the cowardly Hamas atrocities, but the DSA was there in praise of violence, murder and glorification of Hamas. Its National Political Committee effects discipline on its members elected to public office, even though they are nominally Democrats. Noteworthy is its National Political Committee statement of Dec. 2, 2021 condemning DSA member Rep. Jamaal Bowman for visiting Israel, daring to be photographed with the Israeli Prime Minister and voting to support the Iron Dome missile defense system. Rep. Bowman insisted that he remained a loyal DSA member. However, the haste to condemn an elected member of Congress seems reminiscent of Stalinist Communist Party discipline at its worst.
The Democrat Party faces serious problems as it must decide whether it will stand for its traditional principles or be pulled further and further to the left by quasi-Communist groups which masquerade at this moment as Democratic Socialists. Trotsky lost the power struggle with Stalin to succeed Lenin but he remained a brilliant tactician and entryism remains a powerful weapon threatening the Democrat party. Trotskyism was not a benign democratic movement but rather promoted violent world revolution. Its adherents have not renounced world revolution. The Democrat Party must pay close attention to its “members” and defend itself from this threat.
The Republican Party is not without its own problem of entryism. In l964, a political realignment occurred in the United States, particularly in the South. The Republican nominee, Sen. Barry Goldwater was a strong conservative who was widely admired in the south. He lost in a landslide to Lyndon Johnson. With the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, President Johnson famously declared “there goes the south”. The most conservative elements of the south, formerly the foundation of the Democrat Party “solid south” began drifting into the Republican Party which now was undergoing an irresistible push to the right. Liberal Republican senators such as Jacob Javits and Charles Percy, among others, lost their seats in primaries, general elections or retired after seeing the writing on the wall. The John Birch Society, active since the 1950s, at its peak in the 1960s elected several Republican members to the House of Representatives. The John Birch Society still exists but seems to be of little influence. Instead, its program, articulated through many think tanks has become the dominant tendency of the Republican Party.
The decline of bipartisanship, the bitterness in the body politic of the United States is due, in the authors opinion to the penetration of the two traditional American political parties by the virus of entryism. Ideas which are heinous and inimical to our tradition have infiltrated both parties. Immediate recognition of this is necessary to restore our political life to where it was for more than two centuries. Whether this can happen or it is too late will determine the future of the nation. Extremes of the right and left are not what the United States was or is. Fresh air, in the form of recognition of the threat and danger is the best hope to save our nation. Entryism is not American and must be defeated.
Garry S. Sklar
Las Vegas, NV
October 23, 2024
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