Understanding Antifa

I have long been warning you that Antifa is marxist. For the longest time they denied this. They claimed to be just like the boys who stormed the beaches at Normandy to fight the Nazis. They are not. They’re more like the thugs who stormed the streets of Petrograd in 1917 and went on a nearly 110 million-person killing spree until the Soviet Union was finally put to sleep some 70 years later. Now they finally admit to who they are.

A “menacing” group of Antifas recently pulled down their cowardly black bandanas from their faces and showed themselves to the world on Twitter. Their now-familiar logo of the two waving flags, one red and one black, is the exact same logo as the Communist Party of 1930s Germany. This particular chapter in Denver has now dropped any pretense that it’s not marxist. Their logo uses the 1930s nomenclature, “Antifaschistische Aktion,” which means “Antifascist Action.” Only this chapter has added a nice little logo to their flag: The hammer and sickle of the former Soviet Union.

I’ve done a lot of studying on these modern Antifa types. Basically they hate capitalism because they think the capitalist system is broken. The truth is it’s not capitalism that’s broken, it’s them. And I mean this in all sincerity. They believe capitalism is a failure and they are the failures. That’s why socialism and communism have, for so long, attracted the misfits of society.

It’s easy for us to ridicule them. I’ve certainly done my share of that. For this moment I would like to try a different approach. To fully understand disgruntlement one must first understand the disgruntled. These people aren’t losers in the conventional sense. Many a communist has come out esteemed institutions like Columbia University, which was a hotbed of communists during the Cold War. What attracts these people to marxism? To be blunt, many just don’t fit in. Many are socially awkward. They lash out at society in general for their inability to function normally within it. Marxism or Antifa give them a sense of purpose, like they’re changing the world.

I don’t want to sound patronizing, nor do I want to excuse their conduct, but many of these Antifa types are very smart. They’re that nerdy smart we all remember from high school. I’m sure many of these people were made fun of, or at least thought everyone was making fun of them. They also obsess over things including the state of society. It’s easy to look around at the have-nots and assume it’s not their fault. It’s even easier to look at the haves and hate them for what they have. That’s how marxism is bred and spread. It is quintessential class warfare.

Notice you don’t see many Antifas outside of their twenties. Once people grow up and take on some responsibility, perspective starts to change. At 25, my emphasis was solely on me. By 45 my emphasis was primarily on my family and their well-being and their future. Growing up necessarily changes your perspective.

Capitalism provides a competitive atmosphere that continually makes us all better. Is it fair? Not always, but I can’t think of anything more unfair than taking from those who produce and giving it to those who don’t. Capitalism and the United States are inseparable. Capitalism is what made America great, despite what New York Governor Cuomo may tell you. If you are anti-capitalist you are, by definition, anti-American.

The nanny state is for those who need a nanny. For the rest of us, capitalism equals prosperity.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning, nationally syndicated talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show.

Trump Derangement Syndrome is a disease

They first tried to keep Donald Trump from being president. That conspiracy reached the highest levels of the FBI, maybe the highest levels of our government. When that didn’t work they demanded a recount. Then they demanded the Electoral College not seat him. That failed and they moved to impeachment talk, impeachment over nothing remotely resembling an impeachable offense. Then they tried to shout down his policies. The tax cuts would be ‘Armageddon,’ remember? Again they were wrong and the economy is at the best place it’s been in decades.

They thought they had created a lethal issue in family separation at the border. The left-wing media have been exposed for lying to the American people about it. They didn’t tell them that Obama detained children in far worse conditions. They didn’t tell them that 80 percent of the children held in detention came with no parent at all. They didn’t tell them that the viral photo of a little boy in a cage was a fraud or that the little girl, looked down upon menacingly by the president on the cover of Time, was never separated from her mother. In fact, her mother had kidnapped her from her father in Honduras. They didn’t tell them, but word got out. Now a majority of Americans, according to a CBS poll, favor building the wall. This isn’t how this issue was supposed to end.

What’s more troublesome to the left is now, according to a CNBC survey, the majority of Americans favor the president’s handling of the economy. That’s a tipping point in American politics. Pocketbook issues usually hold the strongest sway over American voters. Pretty soon some of the staunchest opponents of Trump will say, “I still think Donald Trump is a vulgarian, but…” Once that ‘but’ creeps into the conversation, it’s all over.

So, there’s only one thing left for those with Trump Derangement Syndrome to do. Sow utter chaos in the country.

Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, is kicked out of a Virginia restaurant because the owner says she works for an ‘inhumane’ administration. DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is screamed at and harassed out of a Mexican restaurant in Washington, DC. Florida’s AG, Pam Bondi, can’t even attend a screening of a Mister Rogers movie without being accosted by deranged anti-Trump fanatics. Maxine ‘Mad Max’ Waters throws gasoline on the fire by encouraging everyone everywhere to harangue Trump administration officials. “If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”

They’ve lost. Not just their minds, they’ve lost the cause. It’s no coincidence that the better the country does the more deranged they become. America’s prosperity through tax cuts and capitalism is the worst news these people could get. They felt they were so close to fundamentally transforming this country under eight years of Obama only to see most of what he built on sand washed away in a torrent of supply-side economics.

If you’ve been waiting for these Never-Trumpers to calm down it should be clear to you that they’re not going to. The more they see their precious socialist utopia slipping away the more hysterical they become. Many of these people are ashamed of what made this country great. They think capitalism is cruel and capitalists are evil. They despise the direction we’re going.

They see only one option left, and that is to burn society to the ground.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning, nationally syndicated talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show.