Communism Winning The Battle Of Ideas: In this episode, we are talking about the Cold War and how the philosophies of Marxism and Communism are still a part of so much of what goes on in America today. Tune in now to learn how we can turn this thing around!

Air Date: 06/11/2018

Guest: Tim Daughtry

On-air Personalities: David Barton, Rick Green, and Tim Barton

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Transcription note:  As a courtesy for our listeners’ enjoyment, we are providing a transcription of this podcast. Transcription will be released shortly. However, as this is transcribed from a live talk show, words and sentence structure were not altered to fit grammatical, written norms in order to preserve the integrity of the actual dialogue between the speakers. Additionally, names may be misspelled or we might use an asterisk to indicate a missing word because of the difficulty in understanding the speaker at times. We apologize in advance.

Faith And The Culture

Rick:

You”€™ve found your way to the intersection of faith and the culture. This is WallBuilders Live! Where we”€™re talking about today”€™s hottest topics on policy, faith, and the culture. We always do that from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. You get those three perspectives, you’re going to find the right position on every issue and every discussion in the culture.

We’re having that discussion today with David Barton, he’s America’s premier historian and our founder here at WallBuilders. Also Tim Barton with us, national speaker and pastor and president of WallBuilders. And my name’s Rick Green, I’m a former Texas state legislator.

You can find out more about us and the program at our two websites. The first one is the radio site, it’s WallBuildersLive.com, WallBuildersLive.com. You can get archives of the program, which stations we”€™re on, a lot of other great information.

And then WallBuilders.com, that”€™s our main website, there’s just a ton of tools and things that will equip you, inspire you, you can download articles, you can read some of the news we have there on the home page. And then also get some of those DVD programs and classes that you can bring to your home. Open your home up to others to join you or do them in your Sunday school class, your homeschool co-op, but get your family study in those things so they could be good citizens and help restore America’s constitution.

David, Tim, we’re going to talk about a topic today that even some of the phrases we’re going to use might be a little outdated. There’s probably a lot of our listeners when we even say the “€œCold War”€. There are going to be going, “€œCold War? Wait, okay, so I’m thinking maybe that World War II, is that between Korea? Korea was cold, right, when the had that?”€

What About the Cold War?

Tim:

No, the Cold War is what happens at my parents house every night when my mom goes for the thermostat. It is a Cold War.

David:

Yeah, because I’m trying to go the other way on it. And, yes, it is a Cold War, but she always wins. In every good marriage that’s just the way it works. And so “€œyes dear”€ is the right phrase and great peace in the house, great wife too, by the way.

But Cold War, Rick, you’re right. That’s a 45 year war, quite frankly. And it’s not something we think about any more than we think about the Barbary Powers Wars being a 32 year conflict against Islamic terrorism back in the founding era. But the Cold War really started after World War II and it went through the fall of the Soviet Union about 199o when the Soviet Union started breaking apart.

There were communist nations long before World War II. They go back nearly a hundred years before that. But what happened was those communist nations really got very, very, aggressive in evangelizing and in taking over other nations. “€œWe”€™re going gonna cram communism down your throat and we’re going to take this nation and make it communist.”€ And so the free nations really stood against that and you had kind of a standoff.

That’s what the Korean War really was, was when Korea was divided at the end– because Korea had been really occupied and run by Japan. And now that Japan’s defeated in World War II, that territory has to be administered by somebody other than Japan. So, the southern part of the Korean peninsula they said, “€œAmerica, you administer that part.”€ The northern part of the Korean peninsula they said to Russia, to Stalin, “€œWill you guys take care of that part?”€ Because Russia was an ally and America was one of the Allies in World War II. So, they kind of said, “€œYou guys administer these areas.”€

“€œWe’re Going to Cram Communism Down Your Throat”€

David:

Well, suddenly within just a few years you’ve got the Soviet administered part from Stalin attacking the free part. “€œWe’re going to cram communism down your throat.”€ Which is, again, what happened in Vietnam. North Vietnam attacked South Vietnam to force them to be communist. And so that’s part of the Cold War is the very aggressive nature of communism. That’s what President Kennedy had to deal with in the Bay of Pigs when the communists moved missiles into Cuba area which could reach the mainland of the United States and “€œNo we’re not going to allow that to be close to us where you can attack us.”€ So, a very aggressive mentality on the part of communists.

Well, the communists, as they were doing this back in those years, they laid out their objectives and goals. They wanted the whole world, they wanted to take the world, even back in the 60s. Khrushchev over with Russia laid out how they were going to take over the United States and he went through all the objectives they had and how they would do it. We kind of laughed them off and so now the Cold War is over. You go to 1990 and as a result largely of what Ronald Reagan did in economic policies that strangled the Soviet Communist blocks, communism was not gone, but the Cold War is gone. It is just not a threat like it was.

However, when you look back at what Khrushchev said they were going to do to defeat the United States, communism is pretty well gone, the Cold War is gone, but you look you say, “€œOh my gosh, most of what he said and most of how they said they were going to do it has actually come to pass. They’re winning this war.”€ Well, they don’t exist as a nation anymore, but the ideology behind that, it is amazing how much of that ideology of Marxism, and Marxism was really the philosophy that produced communism, and how much that philosophy has infiltrated so much of what goes on in America today. At the university level it”€™s really evident to see that that mentality is really prevalent.

And so we have one of our friends, a great author, great academic guy, great intellectual guy, who recently wrote an article about, “€œDid We Really Win the Cold War?”€. And he points to the stuff that, really, the Marxists said they were going to do and points out how much of it is actually coming to pass in America right now even though we no longer have a Soviet bloc or Cold War. Pretty interesting article. We thought it”€™d be worth sharing.

Rick:

So even though we win the war, they still got the policy implemented in America as a result. At least that’s the case he”€™s going to make. We’ll find out what he’s saying to back that up. Then, of course, we’ll share the article where he details this. That’ll be available at WallBuildersLive.com today. Dr. Tim Daughtry with us when we return. Stay with us. You’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

Moment From American History.

This is Tim Barton from WallBuilders with another moment from American history. American Patriot Paul Revere road to alert Americans of the impending arrival of the British. But he also sought patriot leader Samuel Adams and John Hancock to warn them that the British were seeking their execution.

Adams and Hancock were staying with the Reverend Jonas Clark in Lexington. When they asked Pastor Clark if his church was ready for the approaching British he replied, “€œI’ve trained them for this very hour. They will fight and, if need be, die under the shadow of the house of God.”€

Later that morning 70 men from his church, and several hundred British in the first battle of the War for Independence. As Pastor Clark affirmed, “€œThe militia that morning were the same who filled the pews of the church meeting house on the Sunday morning before.”€

The American church was regularly at the forefront of the fight for liberty. For more information on this pastor and other Colonial Patriots go to WallBuilders.com.

Rick:

Welcome back. Thanks for staying with us here on WallBuilders Live. Dr. Tim Daughtry with us. Great article on Townhall called “€œLook Around You, Do You Still Think America Won the Cold War?”€ Dr. Daughtry, thanks for joining us.

Dr. Tim Daughtry:

Oh, thank you so much for having me.

Maybe We Didn”€™t Win the War?

Rick:

Hey, you actually make an argument for maybe we didn’t win because the ideas of the Soviet Union have not just kind of seeped into the American culture, they’re dominating in many ways.

Dr. Tim Daughtry:

Well, I think a case can be made for that. Certainly, the Soviet Union died in 1991 as an entity. But the argument I make in the piece that I wrote on Townhall is that the intellectual and moral virus that killed it, and that’s the Marxist worldview, has actually spread to the United States and is flourishing here. And it’s flourishing in a number of the ways that we talk and think about politics.

Rick:

Now, you point out in the article that they purposely chose the universities to start with. That if they could start there, they could infiltrate the rest of the culture.

Dr. Tim Daughtry:

It was an absolutely brilliant strategy when you think about it. Early Marxists in the 1920s, people like Antonio Gramsci, realized that violent revolution was a very difficult thing to push. Particularly in countries that had a strong Judeo Christian foundation. And so they realized that if they could wear away that foundation, the way people think about things, the worldview, the way we look at the world, if they could wear that away then it would be easier for Marxist ideas to take hold. And of course the logical place to start was the universities.

I think of it as “€œtrickle down Marxism”€. If you get enough students who have gone through and listened to enough left wing professors, and have simply absorbed their thinking, than those ideas eventually make it out into the news media, and secondary schools, and primary schools, and eventually around your dinner table. When your kid comes home from school and suddenly says something that actually stuns you about American history or about the role of government.

Rick:

I’m telling you, Tim, parents all over the country right now are nodding their head with you as they’re thinking about that moment when they first heard that from one of their kids and they’re going, “€œWhat happened? This is not the value system that I raised them with.”€ And so there’s no doubt what you just said isn’t just theoretical. It’s happening and parents are beginning to question, “€œHow did we how do we get to this point? How do we take the campuses back? Or can we? How do you turn what they– well, you point out, this is a what, 40-50 year– How long would you say an effort to turn our universities?

The Frankfurt School

Dr. Tim Daughtry:

It’s really been going on since– the ideas were birthed in the 1920s. But it really began to take hold in the 1930s and 1940s. The Frankfurt School in Germany attracted a number of Marxist intellectuals and they were what we call “€œcultural Marxists”€. They were not pushing violent revolution. They were looking to undermine traditional notions of religion, traditional notions of the role of government, of even things– sexual morality, the whole sexual revolution. So, much of the intellectual basis for that came out of the Frankfurt School or some of their writers such as Herbert Marcuse.

And so this has really been going on since the 1930s and 1940s. They called it, “€œthe long march through the cultural institutions”€. The more we are aware of that, I think the more parents can be aware of what their kids are being taught. And I’ve argued elsewhere that like it or not, we are all homeschoolers now. Even if your kids are in a public school you need to be watching what’s in their history books, watching in anything that’s coming home. Because so much of the cultural ideas of Marxism have permeated the way basic subjects are taught.

Rick:

You mentioned Marcuse. In the article you talk about his repressive tolerance treaties. Tell us how that worked and how we see that now playing out on campuses across the country.

One of the Scariest Things

Dr. Tim Daughtry:

That’s one of the scariest ones to me is that back in 1965 Marcuse argued that because basically the Judeo Christian worldview was so dominant. In essence he had had an unfair advantage. So, the idea of repressive tolerance was that the left could legitimately push and put pressure on traditional ideas and be intolerant toward those ideas. Particularly in university settings in order to make room for the “€œmore enlightened leftist ideas”€.

So, the idea was you get a foothold in the universities, you talk about the First Amendment, you talk about freedom of speech, and so forth, in order to protect Marxist speech. Then once you are in positions of power you gradually began to squeeze out and delegitimize any opposition to the Marxist worldview. And what we’re seeing right now on the on our college campuses is right out of Marcuse”€™s thinking. The intolerance, it’s not just intolerance – the actual threats of physical violence against conservative speakers is truly frightening.

Rick:

They’ve succeeded so well at the labeling, and the terminology, and the whole hate speech. And anything that is outside their worldview and what their teaching is not even  allowed. Not even, certainly not tolerated certainly not– you can”€™t even have a debate on the subject.

Dr. Tim Daughtry:

And that’s a tremendous concern because nobody wants to be accused of hate. So, it’s such a powerful label and the left has learned that instead of debating the idea, you label the person, you go after the person. And this was right out of Rules for Radicals, it was right out of Saul Alinsky. I think it was rule number 13 that you freeze the target, marginalize the target. One way to do that is through the accusation of hate speech. And once you’ve defined it as hate speech, and this is what we’re seeing on college campuses, the idea is, “€œWell, that speech cannot be legitimate.”€ They simply define hate speech as any speech that contradicts their worldview.

Cultural Capital

Rick:

Man, I wish we had a lot more time because you touch on several really powerful subjects. We’re gonna have a link to the article on our website today WallBuildersLive.com. But before I let you go, you also mention the way that the class by– class against class struggle of Marxism has shifted to the black against white, women against me, the whole thing, and how that now has created in any discussion of even economics, and economic opportunity, it’s always about oppression and discrimination. And not what, as you mentioned, my favorite Thomas Sowell calls “€œcultural capital”€. Touch on that one in our last few minutes.

Dr. Tim Daughtry:

I think this is another major change that the left has successfully pushed. Years ago if you saw people who had different economic standing, or people who did differently in school, different levels of achievement, we would think of that in terms of, well, some people try harder, some people have different values, some people sacrifice early on in their lives and save money in order to invest and accumulate money. Others like to spend their money and in a free society you’re going to have diversity.

What the left has done is taken the old idea of the capitalists against the workers and simply transformed that into other classes again classes. And so you have black against white, women against men, homosexuals against heterosexuals, immigrants against native born. This whole idea of that anywhere you see anything other than absolute equality then by definition that is the result of discrimination or oppression. Once you’ve made that argument you’ve opened the door for government intervention to right what they see is wrong.

Rick:

And you’ve totally destroyed the work ethic mentality, the desire for success, the willingness to work hard for it. Because you created, especially in the young people, this mindset that when they see success they immediately assume that person lied, cheated, stole, or whatever, to get that success instead of worked hard for it.

Dr. Tim Daughtry:

Oh, I think that’s such an important insight. And if you really think about it it’s demoralizing to the people who can be most hurt by that and that’s people who are trying to work their way up the economic ladder.

How Do We Do It Faster?

Rick:

Yeah. Man, dangerous. I always like to end on a positive note. Your advice for how we turn it? h=How do we, if it took 80 years for them to do it, how do we do it faster? How do we turn it back around in a quicker fashion?

Dr. Tim Daughtry:

That”€™s a great question. The first thing I think is awareness, being aware of what’s going on and being aware that it’s taken a long time. So, we need to realize that the real battle, the political battle, that you hear about on television is really a cultural battle. It’s a battle about our fundamental assumptions, our fundamental beliefs about right and wrong. And so I think that’s the first thing is awareness.

The second thing is the more people can inform themselves, yune into what you’re doing, listen to your show, do more reading find out more about this. But as I mentioned earlier I think one of the big things is that it has to start with our children. This generation can buy time. Our generation, I think, can slow down the march of the left and can buy time. Any real change, I think, is going to have to come from the next generation.

And that means we need to be very aware of what messages our kids are getting and take the time to sit down and talk to them and listen for the underlying message. If they start to talk about discrimination or whatever you need to be patient, and take the time, and get down to the underlying assumptions about why different people sometimes do different things.

The Pivot Point

Rick:

I love the way you describe that. We have to fight the battles of the day, but we must, if we really want to turn it, we’re kind of the pivot point but we’ve got to raise next generation to understand these things. And they’ve got a remnant there that I believe is. I’m seeing some great things out of some portions of this next generation that they can lead their generation to actually turn it in the right direction and re-establish these values. So, I appreciate your optimism there as well.

Tim, really appreciate your time today. The best place for folks to go to find out more about you. I know your book Waking A Sleeping Giant they can get at Amazon and other places. What about your website?

Dr. Tim Daughtry:

I don’t have a website, but I publish frequently on Townhall.com. So, anyone who wants to see some of my articles can certainly go there.

Rick:

Excellent. So, the link to today’s article that we’re talking about will get to the rest of your articles as well. Appreciate your time, sir. Let’s do it again soon.

Dr. Tim Daughtry:

Thank you so much.

Rick:

Stay with us folks. We’ll be right back with David and Tim Barton.

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Rick:

Welcome back thanks for staying with us on WallBuilders Live. Back with David and Tim Barton now. Thanks Tim Daughtry for joining us today.

David, Tim, when he starts listing off all of those things that are happening in our culture right now and you go into it, that’s what the Communists wanted and it’s happening. You do have to step back and go, Did we really win or not?”€

David:

Well, I love the point he made about that Marxism has failed everywhere except in the university system. It lives on, and big time, in the universe system. It’s very healthy in the university system. And all the things that the Marxists were advocating is still being advocated today to our young people. So, Tim really points out that the battle is on for the next generation. And so the Cold War may be over in terms of nuclear threats and etc. But it’s not over in terms of philosophy.

Using Words and Definitions

Tim:

And I thought it was interesting, too, where he pointed out that the next generation, this younger generation, doesn’t even know that what they’re getting is Marxist philosophy. One of the things that we’ve talked about before is one of the things the Left does pretty masterfully is they’re able to use words and definitions and they’re able to change things. Where it used to be that love, or tolerance, or acceptance, or– there were certain words that you use in certain contexts and they meant certain things. And now we see things like if you’re a Christian and you don’t support homosexual marriage then we”€™re told, “€œWell, you’re not loving, and you’re bigoted, and you’re intolerant, and you’re–“€ these labels are put on us.

Actually that’s not at all what that position is, it’s not what that actually means. But words are now used in a different way. And just like words are used to convey something that wasn’t the original context, words are now also used to communicate something in a different level. So, where these Marxist ideas are being communicated. We’ve just changed words long enough that we now no longer even know what Marxism is or recognize it when it comes. And that’s why you see so many young people that go, “€œOh no, we need to make it fair and equal and the government has to step in and do all these things.”€

These young kids are embracing the socialism, embracing the marxism, and these communistic ideas because we don’t identify where they’ve come from. And the left does such a good job of kind of changing the direction of what the words are and what they mean to make them palatable. When ultimately, they’re still very destructive.

David:

So, when we look at terms and we don”€™t have a really good handle on terms that the left uses, and the philosophy they use. A really good place to go to kind of see how they think about certain things is going to be Wikipedia. They take a position that moves toward that progressive left. So, when you look at the definition Marxism in Wikipedia, this is going to be something that they’re going to be good at knowing what Marxism is. They say that it’s a method of socio economic analysis that views class relations and social conflict.

Social Conflict

David:

So get that – class relations, social conflict – we’ve got to get groups going against each other. We have to have social conflict, we have to have gays against straights, we”€™ve got to have women against men, blacks against whites. So, they use social conflict and they use a materialistic interpretation of historical development. So, we’re going to get a really secular view of history. We’re not going to see God’s hand and God’s purpose in anything. We’re going to get this materialistic interpretation and it takes a dialectic view of social transformation. So, our thing is to transform it we don’t want stability in society, we want transformation.

You think about those those three things that we want social conflict, we have a materialistic interpretation of historical development, and we’re after social transformation. There you go. And if you say that’s the key elements of Marxism, man, that’s what does live on today at the university level. All the class conflict, and the secular materialist interpretation, and we want to transform society and become something different than what we’ve ever been.

Rick:

It’s not just existing there, it’s dominating there.

David:

They”€™re dominating there. And so from that standpoint, Marxism, we didn’t win the Cold War on that aspect. We may have gotten rid of the political structures of the Soviet Union etc. But we did not win the war when it comes to the war of ideas. Marxism right now has a really strong foothold in America.

Rick:

We going to take a quick break right now, guys. We”€™ll be right back. Folks, you”€™re listening to WallBuilders Live.

Leadership Training Program

Rick:

Hey, friends! We’ve got a great program to share with you today. It”€™s the WallBuilders Leadership Training Program and it’s an opportunity for 18 to 25 year olds to come spend two weeks diving into the original documents we’re always talking about here on WallBuilders Live.

Tim, you’ve already been doing this a couple of summers and seen the results of young people coming to this program. We’re going to see more of them coming this year.

Tim:

Yeah, Rick, it”€™s something that”€™s been cool to see the transformation with young people coming in. The emphasis, for us, largely is a pursuit of truth. We have a culture that doesn’t know what truth is. We don’t know what biblical truth is, or constitutional truth, or the American heritage that we have. And so we really dive into original documents and say, “€œWell, what did they actually write? What did they actually do? Not just what did somebody say, what is actually true, and the truth is what’s transformational.

David:

Yeah, guys. This really is a remarkable opportunity. And for those who want to spend time with us and spend time in the original documents, this is a great program. So, if you’re from 18 to 25, or you know someone who’s 18 to 25, send them to sign up for one of our three sessions this summer at WallBuilders.com/leadershiptraining.

Rick:

Welcome back. Thanks for staying with us on WallBuilders Live. David, Tim, just little time left today, but, obviously, like any problem the first thing here is just recognizing that it is a problem. I would have assumed, and have always assumed, “€œWell, we won the Cold War, so game over.”€ But no, in fact, we’ve been losing it, as you said before we went to break, David, on college campuses. We”€™re losing significantly in terms of these very issues. And so first just recognizing that and then beginning to recognize this terminology you guys are talking about. We’ve got to do that before we can actually turn the tide on this thing.

You Need To Be Aware

David:

I thought the way the Dr. Daughtry summed it up was really good. He said first you turn it around by awareness. It”€™s kind of like a vaccination. You need to be aware of what they’re doing. They will use terms like “€œoppression”€, and they will use all these terms like “€œdiscrimination”€. And rather than attacking your ideas, they”€™ll label you as a hater or a hate speech. So, they go after the person rather than the idea. Well, point that out and then when you see that happening, “€œOh, that’s what that is. Okay, I’m inoculated. I’ve had a vaccination. I recognize that.”€

He said second you turn it around by getting more informed. So, then you go after and say, “€œAlright, what is the substance of their ideas, what is it that they’re shutting out, what are we not talking about? And he says third you focus on the next generation and the messages that they get. You listen for keywords such as discrimination, or oppression, or hate and intolerance, or the labeling of persons. You focus on the next generation, help them to see that, and understand it, and recognize that. And I thought that’s three really good solutions for how to push back against us losing the philosophical side of the Cold War. We need to win that and we can.

Communism Winning The Battle Of Ideas

Rick:

Well, folks at home, you”€™re probably wondering, “€œWhat can I do? How can I make a difference in this and actually restoring not only our Constitutional Republic, but getting people to understand this battle of philosophies and ideas out there.”€ One of the best things you can do is spread this radio program. We’re going to continue to have guests in the coming weeks on this very topic and talk further about this, so that we understand it and so that we can actually teach other people about it, and make sure that we’re engaged in this thing and we’re not just handing our children over to these college campuses to be indoctrinated by these things.

So, if you want to be a part of that, spread the word. Take this program, spread it through Facebook, and Twitter, and Snapchat, and all your social media tools. Then also come alongside us as a financial partner. Go to WallBuilders.com and you can be a part of spreading this program by contributing on a monthly basis or a one time gift. Thanks for coming alongside us. Thanks for listening today. You’ve been listening to WallBuilders Live.