Since attaining the scepter of power in Washington, the left feels more emboldened than ever before. The next two to four years could be an era of exacting revenge on the very people progressives view as deplorable and traitorous. Former CIA director John Brennan recently revealed on MSNBC that President Joe Biden's intelligence community would be targeting the pro-Trump "insurgency" that harbors "religious extremists, authoritarians, fascists, bigots, racists, nativists, even libertarians." Leftists are using terms that were common throughout socialist dictatorships, from cleansings to purges to blacklists. For the last few months, it has all been quite Maoist, perhaps all the way to the top of the Democratic food chain, transitioning from Mao Zedong's Four Olds to President Biden's Four Crises.
Mao Zedong's Four Olds
During the Cultural Revolution, the revolutionists initiated a critical campaign was the war on the Four Olds: Old Culture, Old Customs, Old Habits, and Old Ideas. Mao had employed the Red Guards to destroy remnants of pre-communist Chinese culture, an initiative launched in August 1966, also known as Red August.
China became first acquainted with the term in June 1966 when an editorial, titled Sweep Away All Monsters and Demons, explained the necessity to eviscerate the country's Old Things that were antithetical to the proletariat. According to the op-ed published in the People's Daily, these antiquated concepts had "fostered by the exploiting classes" and had "poisoned the minds of the people for thousands of years."
Out with the old and in with the new stage in the socialist revolution? The Central Committee proposed erecting the Four News: New Culture, New Customs, New Habits, and New Ideas. "Our objective is to struggle against and crush those persons in authority who are taking the capitalist road... so as to facilitate the consolidation and development of the socialist system," the Communist Party's Central Committee penned in a 16-point guideline.
But how did the Red Guards dismantle the nation's past? Like any good socialist regime, a reverberation of Maoism resulted in book burning, the destruction of architecture and painting, the desecration of ancient temples, and the persecution and mass killings of figures who employed these so-called Western instruments. It is apparent how Antifa learned its craft.
Joe Biden's Four Crises
The new administration is targeting its own four points: combat the coronavirus pandemic, offer economic relief, advance racial equity, and fight climate change. President Biden aims to "converge" these crises facing the nation by using a combination of executive orders, directives, letters, and memoranda.
Incoming White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said: "As we've previously announced, President-elect Biden will continue to take action over the next ten days — and over his entire time in office — to address the four crises that he's laid out."
But while the president's push to grapple with these subjects are not nearly as deadly as Mao's Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, there will still inevitably be consequences – economically and socially.
One of Biden's first acts was to put the kibosh on the Keystone XL pipeline, resulting in the loss of thousands of high-paying jobs and billions of dollars in economic benefits. Is this part of the new administration's broader efforts to kill off the oil and gas industry, as Biden revealed during the final presidential debate with Trump? It is no secret that Biden wishes to advance the progressive agenda by embracing alternative forms of energy that, according to numerous studies, would not be enough to power the nation. Although green technology costs have come down, they are still not as affordable as crude oil and natural gas, preventing households from saving money and staying warm in the winter.
Biden also rescinded the 1776 Commission launched by his predecessor, a fight to restore "patriotic education that teaches the truth about America." Biden would ostensibly double down on critical race theory in the federal government. This radical and pseudointellectual movement teaches students that America's founding principles are a lie and criticize the West's traditions and norms. Sound familiar?
Sign of Four
It would be CNN- or MSNBC-esque to compare a U.S. president to a brutal dictator of the 20th century. The left may champion the proposals of socialist regimes of yesteryear – purges, cleansings, and blacklists – but President Biden has yet to utilize this foul language. Still, statists implement the same progressive nostrums and spotlight their concepts for concepts they view as iniquitous, whether it is tearing down pillars of ideas that made a nation great or introducing policies that eradicate economic and social gains. Mao's Four Olds and Biden's Four Crises are not comparable on the surface, but the big government tendencies still lead to unfortunate consequences that take years to remedy.
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