Back in the days of my misguided leftist youth, there was a lot of concern, especially among the older radicals, about “agents provocateur.”
It’s not a term with which most Americans are familiar. It refers to those who induce others to break the law, or incite violence, to further the cause. The old timers saw agents provocateur wherever they looked. They seemed to imagine them under every bed.
Slowly, I figured out why.
Because that’s what they were.
While the left of the ’60s and ’70s accused the FBI and political opponents of employing agents provocateur, they did so because they themselves used them so effectively.
It certainly looks to me like history is repeating itself in 2017.
The Charlottesville “alt-right” rally, bringing together a motley collection of neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan members and other white supremacist scum, has all the familiar trappings of a setup by the left, designed to incite violence and mayhem that could then be blamed on Donald Trump.
Take the case of “Unite the Right” leader Jason Kessler. He had been a big-time supporter of Barack Obama, an Occupy Wall Street activist, a gun-control supporter, and, for some reason, suddenly shifted gears to become a “pro-white activist” in 2016. I suppose that could happen. Anything can happen. But this strange turnabout certainly came at a convenient time for the left. With the “Russian collusion” narrative fading as the focal point of the “Stop Trump” movement, the left needed a new cause.
The left got what they needed in Charlottesville, tragically, propelled by the death of Heather Heyer.
Did Kessler have any regrets?
Not at all. Instead he tweeted this disgusting message: “Heather Heyer was a fat, disgusting Communist. Communists have killed 94 million. Looks like it was payback time.”
There’s one thing I can absolutely assure everyone. Jason Kessler was never a right-wing activist, a conservative, a constitutionalist or even a rational American nationalist. My guess? Agent provocateur.
In fact, in a 2015 blog post, he may have given himself away. He wrote: “I can’t think of any occupation that I admire more than the professional provocateur, who has the courage and self-determination to court controversy despite all slings and arrows of the world.”
Then there’s the de facto creator of the so-called “alt-right” movement – Richard Spencer, who heads something called the National Policy Institute, a white nationalist “think tank.”
Does that make him a member of the political right? No, it doesn’t. Remember, he’s the inventor of the “alt-right,” meaning, in normal parlance, the alternative to the right.
What does he say about his own political and ideological beliefs? “To be honest, I am not totally opposed to socialism, when done right. I think we actually should use the government to benefit ourselves, and the people of this country. I think we should have a national health-care system. I think we should quadruple national parks. I think we should make this world a better place. I think government has a role to play in that.”
In other words, he’s not of the political right, not a conservative, not a constitutionalist. He calls his brand of nationalism “rainbow nationalism,” and adds: “Homosexuality seems to be a kind of last stand of implicit white identity.”
I don’t know if Richard Spencer is an agent provocateur, but he apparently aided Kessler in organizing the Charlottesville fiasco.
My intent is not to weave a conspiracy theory here; it’s to point out facts about this national tragedy that has left our country on the brink of a new civil war.
Who was it that told the police to stand down in Charlottesville – leading to things getting uglier than almost anyone could image?
Two people come to mind:
- Virginia’s Democrat Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a big supporter of Bill and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama; and
- Charlottesville’s Democratic Mayor Mike Signer.
Since Charlottesville, we’ve seem similar clashes occur in big cities like Boston. But the police remained engaged, and tragedy was averted.
Let’s hope and pray Charlottesville was one of those unholy “perfect storms,” aided, perhaps, by overly zealous puppeteers who actually welcomed violence, mayhem and death – with the united purpose of hurting the presidency of Donald Trump.
Media wishing to interview Joseph Farah, please contact [email protected].
