Cloward-Piven-ing the Left

Governors Abbott and DeSantis are helping Progressives show how Diversity is Strength!

In 1966, Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven published a piece in The Nation calling for “an end to poverty.” Not a bad goal, really; what was questionable by everyone who wasn’t a socialist looney was the method they proposed to get there: overloading the welfare system to create a crisis, then have government step in and solve the crisis by imposing a massive wealth-redistribution scheme, a “guaranteed annual income.”

The idea was quite simple: even in 1966, there were large numbers of people on welfare, but even larger numbers who were eligible but not receiving all the benefits the law allowed. Cloward and Piven—sociologists, “political activists” and professors at the Columbia University School of Social Work—proposed getting the poor organized, getting as many as possible signed up for benefits, thus overloading and bankrupting the system at local and state levels. This would then bring pressure on the federal government, especially the Democratic Party (which controlled the White House and Congress at the time) to step in and impose a guaranteed annual income, among other panaceas that would be the final solution to poverty.

Cue socialist Utopia theme song. Can you hear it?

Obviously, the ultimate goal—that mythical socialist Utopia—won’t ever arrive. For some odd reason, they never seem to make it past the socialist hell hole stage. Just ask anyone who’s ever lived under a socialist/communist system. And yes, I’m conflating the two, because in the real world they all devolve into the same thing—dystopian, authoritarian hell holes.

But, since reality has never stopped a good collectivist, Cloward & Piven’s strategy was embraced by looney socialist lefties with a vengeance. Riding on the back of the Great Society, welfare rolls expanded greatly, and lots of meetings with lots of looney socialists were held to figure out more and better ways to forcibly redistribute the wealth of the nation via the government.

At its most basic level, Cloward and Piven proposed a classic dialectical formula of thesis—antithesis—synthesis. Or if you prefer the Marxist version, problem—reaction—solution. Find a problem, poverty. Create a crisis to provoke a reaction, crashing the welfare system. Lean on the government to force a solution, guaranteed income as a “basic right”.

The bankruptcy of New York City in 1975 and the housing crisis of 2008 have been cited as examples of Cloward-Piven’s strategy in action. It’s also the reasoning behind allowing free-range looters to shoplift in San Francisco without penalty because “they have needs”. We’re still waiting for the “solution” to that particular crisis to play out, but I guarantee it won’t be pretty.

See how well it works? The strategy itself is sound, as a means to destroy systems. This has been amply demonstrated. That the outcomes are never good; well, looney socialists gonna looney. What more needs to be said? They’re absolutely certain, like they’ve been for the last umpteen decades, that the NEXT time it’s all gonna be perfect! Just wait!

That last bit was sarcasm, if you couldn’t tell.

What we haven’t really seen until recently was the Cloward-Piven strategy being successfully turned back on the progressive Left.

Enter Texas Governor Greg Abbott and (occasionally, when he’s not running a Presidential campaign into the ground) Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Both of these two red-state Governors have managed to overload the immigration system in deep blue areas by the simple expedient of shipping illegals (or migrants, or asylum seekers, or WTFever we’re calling them this week) into those blue zones.

Martha’s Vineyard? Migrants gone in 44 hours, buh bye. New York City, the most welcoming of Sanctuary Cities? About to be destroyed by migrants. Los Angeles? Whining about a paltry 435 migrants, less than two months after officially become a Sanctuary City. Black communities in Chicago rising up in protest of migrants, with one resident saying, “send them back…I don’t care where they go!” In outrage, veritas? Somebody get that xenophobe a red hat and a mug shot shirt!

Isn’t it amusing how quickly “good progressives” start sounding like build-the-wall MAGA deplorables when they actually have to deal with the tsunami of illegals up close and personal? It’s so much easier to virtue signal from a distance, isn’t it?

NYC Mayor Eric Adams even got himself booted from the Advisory Committee to Re-Elect the Dementoid, just for calling out Sniffy Joe on his asinine border policy. If he keeps this up, they may even pull his Marxist for Life card! He needs a hat and a shirt, too!

Do you think I should send him a copy of Beyond MAGA? Seems like he’s primed to read it right about now. Can a Trump endorsement be far behind?

Nah, probably not.

Thanks to Governors Abbott and DeSantis for showing America First Patriots just how to fight the progressives of the looney Left—give them what they claim they want. Let them experience first hand just how “diversity is our strength”, over and over and over again. Allow the people who keep voting for America Last, wide-open-border progressives the pleasure of footing the bill for these illegals. Keep reminding them that according to the latest jobs report, “they took our jobs” isn’t just South Park predicting the future.

Evil person that I am, I highly recommend quoting their own catch-phrases back at them, like “diversity is our strength” and “we’re a nation of immigrants” and “they’re only coming here for a better life.” Uh huh, a better life, and the free phone and $2,200/month on arrival, courtesy of the U.S. Treasury and the printing presses at the Federal Reserve.

So, kudos to Governors Abbott and DeSantis! Hopefully, they’ll not only keep the Migrant Express buses rolling to those blue Sanctuary Cities, but double and triple down. Progressives like NYC’s Eric Adams, Chicago’s Brandon Johnson and LA’s Karen Bass need all the asylum seekers Texas and Florida can give them. Martha’s Vineyard needs at least a plane a day. Two would be better. The street outside Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home needs a few dozen, too.

I can’t think of any better way to get Atlanta ready for President Trump’s trial than to start shipping 1,000 migrants a day to the ATL, right now! Atlanta’s just a “Welcoming City”, whatever that means, but surely it needs some more diversity strength. Right?

Just remember, socialism always wants someone else to bear the costs of socialism—never the socialists themselves.

I think that’s just a darned shame. I say it’s unfair, and red states owe it to the blues to share all the diversity they can! Isn’t that what “equity” is all about?

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