Long March Through the Institutions
– By Tom Garrison –
“Long march through the institutions.” I’ll bet not one in a hundred Americans have heard the phrase, and if they have, do not understand what it means. They should, it succinctly encapsulates the Left’s unrelenting drive to change American society at a fundamental level.
It is generally accepted that the phrase originated with the Italian communist Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) and then popularized as a succinct mission statement by German Communist student activist Rudi Dutschke (a leader in the West German Socialist Students Union) around 1967.
The phrase is used to describe the intellectual takeover of a society without need to resort to a military conflict. Instead, the strategy focuses on slowly winning over the chief institutions that determine the direction of a culture and thereby creating a soft revolution from within those institutions—social engineering. The focus is on universities, unions, government, the arts, K-12 schools, the media, then corporations, and finally society as a whole. In the past 50 years, the Left has infiltrated and does exercise power, a great deal of power in some cases, in all institutions on the list.
Why is this important? Well, if you support leftist values, this is a good thing. However, if you find leftist values to be divisive, often racist, and counter to American values such as freedom, this development could be the death knell for America.
What are leftist values, and have they really infected our society?
To get a handle on these questions, let’s look at a major institution that helps define and inculcate values and information (or, much of the time, misinformation)—universities and colleges.
Have colleges and universities really changed? If you consider that virtually all leftists are Democrats, then simply looking at political party identification over time provides evidence. (While virtually all leftists support Democrats, the obverse is not true—not all Democrats are leftists, but even the non-leftists are mostly liberal who tend to share many leftist values.)
Essentially, leftists, and too many liberals, fight like hell to promote diversity in skin color, sex, and sexual orientation, but man the barricades against any diversity in thinking. Read up on conservative/libertarian blacks such as Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, Larry Elder, Candice Owens and other black people who do not adhere to the leftist dogma. They are vilified by leftists and many liberals because they are “traitors”—the right skin color, but the wrong thinking.
A 2016 study investigating political identification at 40 leading US universities looked at the voter registration of 7,243 professors in five departments (economics, history, journalism, law, and psychology). In those five departments Democrats outnumber Republicans more than 11 to 1. Republicans in history departments are quickly vanishing, the ratio was 33 Democrats to each Republican.
A 1968 study found the Democrat to Republican ratio in history departments to be to be 2.7 to 1. Thus, in 48 years between the studies there were more than 10 times the number of Democrats compared to the 1 lonely Republican.
The 2016 study found that among professors 65 and older, the Democrats outnumbered the Republicans by a 10 to 1 ratio. Unfortunately, it gets much worse. For professors under the age of 36, the ratio is 22.7 to 1. It sounds like a long march through this institution.
In a column published more than six years ago, Thomas Sowell wrote, “At one time, 50 years ago or earlier, exposing students to a different viewpoint was considered to be a valuable part of their education. But that was before academia—and the education system in general—became virtually a monopoly of the political left.”
Look at the attack on merit by the Left. Identity based preferences are replacing merit. How about a peek at one of the most respected of all professions—doctors.
The American Medical Association’s (AMA) 2021 Organizational Strategic Plan to Embed Racial Justice and Advance Health Equity is virtually indistinguishable from a university’s black studies department’s mission statement. Medical schools are disregarding traditional standards of merit in order to alter the demographic characteristics of their profession.
For example, from 2013 to 2016 only eight percent of white college seniors with below average undergraduate GPAs and below MCAT (Medical College Admission Test) were admitted to medical school. In contrast, more than 56 percent of black college seniors with below average undergraduate GPAs and below average MCAT scores were admitted to medical school. A black student in that range was seven times more likely to be admitted to medical school as a similarly situated white college student.
I don’t care a bit about the skin color of my doctor if they got where they are on merit. And we don’t know if the black doctor is there due to their work or because of the push for diversity. In addition to simply being wrong, this casts a doubt on every black doctor.
As of 2022, more than 1,300 colleges and universities have become “test optional” meaning potential entering students do not have to submit SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) scores. Some state systems, like the University of California and the California State University system (they sound alike, but are two different higher education systems), won’t even look at the scores.
High school grades predict 33 percent of college grades while standardized tests predict 32 percent. However, combining grades and SAT scores predicts 42 percent of college grades. Why would college admission offices delete a factor which helps predict how well high school students will do in college?
The Wall Street Journal columnist, Jason Riley (who is black), says colleges scrapped standardized tests to make it easier for administrators to control how many people from each racial group attend. Without an objective indicator such as the SAT, who’s to say an administrator’s admission picks are wrong. Riley wrote, “It really is about making these campuses look right … It’s not about learning.”
Another fundamental American value is free speech via the 1st Amendment. Liberals and leftists used to be staunch supporters of free speech. The modern day free speech movement began at the Berkeley campus of the University of California in 1964.
But since then, the Left, and too many liberals, have twisted free speech so that uncomfortable speech is labeled hate speech or violence. An example of campus intolerance for free speech involved Dr. Christina Hoff Sommers at the Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon in 2018.
Dr. Sommers, a Democrat and self-identified feminist, was attacked by liberal/leftist student groups and their professor allies who demanded the withdrawal of her invitation to speak. The students called her a “known fascist.” Dr. Somers is a critic of radicalized feminism. If you read her writing, you will quickly learn that Dr. Sommers may be many things, a fascist is not one of them.
While dozens of conservative speakers have been disinvited or shouted down on college campuses, when was the last time you read about a liberal or leftist denied the ability to speak on a college campus? Never, it doesn’t happen.
In 2017, a poll of 1,500 undergraduate students nationwide found that 20 percent say it’s acceptable to use physical force to silence a speaker who makes “offensive and hurtful statements.” In 2021, the same question was asked of more than 37,000 students at 159 of America’s largest and most prestigious campuses. The situation had worsened—23 percent agreed that it was acceptable use physical force to silence some forms of speech. Amazing that a substantial portion of the new generation of leaders would use violence to silence a speaker.
In the same poll 2017 poll, half of the students agreed that it is appropriate to disrupt the speech by loudly and repeatedly shouting so the audience could not hear the speaker. The 2021 poll found 66 percent agreeing that it is okay to shout down a speaker. Incredibly a large majority students favored disrupting speech they did not like rather than rebutting or even ignoring it—the hecklers veto.
The 2017 poll also found that 40 percent of the undergraduates said the 1st Amendment did not protect “hate speech.” Speech promoting hatred—or at least speech perceived as promoting hatred—may be abhorrent, but it is constitutionally protected with three narrow exceptions: incitement to imminent lawless action (incitement); speech that threatens serious bodily harm (true threats); or speech that causes an immediate breach of the peace (fighting words).
Who always initiates the idea of “hate speech” when someone says something they do not like? Virtue signaling liberals and the Left. When will the vile rantings by elected Democrats such as Maxine Waters be labeled hate speech?
Keep in mind the question of who determines what speech is offensive and hurtful. On college campuses that judgement is made by leftist college bureaucrats.
It is very disturbing that the 2021 poll found more than 80 percent of students reported self-censoring their views at their college at least some of the time, with 21 percent saying they censor themselves often. Given the rampant leftism on many college campuses, I wonder which students, the conservatives or liberal/leftists, are more prone to self-censorship?
The 2021 poll also discovered that students showed much greater intolerance for campus speakers with conservative views.
Perhaps all of us, especially college students, should memorize the words of Hanna Holborn Gray, former president of the University of Chicago, who said, “The central purpose of a university is not to make young adults comfortable, it is to make them think.”
In October 1989, the New York Times published an article titled, “The Mainstreaming of Marxism in US Colleges.” The article noted that orthodox Marxism with its emphasis on economics was no longer the clarion call for leftists. At that time Eastern Europe was breaking away from communism and American workers never really embraced Marxism. Unfortunately, Marxism was not retreating, it was simply adapting to survive.
How it adapted was to replace predicted strife between capitalists and workers with racially privileged (white people) versus racial minorities; men (the patriarchy) versus women; heterosexuals versus gays and lesbians (and later, transsexuals, non-binary, etc.); and so on. The emphasis became cultural Marxism.
This led to certain predictable outcomes as college students entered the larger society—widespread “wokeness;” all-pervasive identity politics and its attendant discrimination based on skin color or sex; the claim that everyone excepting white heterosexual males are victims; cancel culture; attacks on free speech; rioters self-righteously destroying people’s livelihood; menacing anyone who dares disagree with them, etc. Many of these students worked their way to positions of power in the institutions noted above. Institutions don’t choose these leftist ideas democratically—they don’t ask people in general or employees to vote for them. They impose them by fiat, through bureaucratic, not democratic rule.
Why is this decades long development important? Because politics is downstream from culture. Culture refers to what is in the hearts, minds, and behavior of real people. The Left promotes a culture of division and often hatred. Our differences run deep, many Americans no longer share basic values. How easy is it to associate with folks who have radically differing political views? It’s not just about politics anymore. It’s culture.
If you do not want a leftist Orwellian world, continue to promote those wacky American values—freedom; individualism; judging people on their character and merit; equal treatment under the law; don’t succumb to victimhood; speak out against those denying free speech; and, most of all, accept and practice personal responsibility in your life.
References:
Elder, Larry. “Prepare kids for left-wing college bias.” The Spectrum. August 7, 2017. https://www.thespectrum.com/story/opinion/2017/05/05/parents-prepare-your-college-kids-left-wing-campus-bias/101263332/
Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. “The 2021 College Free Speech Rankings.” September 21, 2021. https://www.thefire.org/the-2021-college-free-speech-rankings/
Gecker, Jocelyn. “California’s public universities drop SAT/ACT admission requirement.” Las Vegas Review-Journal. March 23, 2022. https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/education/californias-public-universities-drop-sat-act-admission-requirement-2550157/
Harrington, Bobby. “The Long March Through the Institutions.” Renew.org website. Unknown publication date. https://renew.org/the-long-march-through-the-institutions-of-society/
Langbert, Mitchell, Anthony J. Quain, and Daniel B. Klein. “Faculty Voter Registration in Economics, History, Journalism, Law, and Psychology.” Econ Journal Watch. September 2016. https://econjwatch.org/articles/faculty-voter-registration-in-economics-history-journalism-communications-law-and-psychology
MacDonald, Heather. “The Corruption of Medicine.” City Journal. Summer 2022. https://www.city-journal.org/the-corruption-of-medicine?fbclid=IwAR2E2qk61jPg95BV9gD2C6xUZ2ICGfvd5jYCUdgXTtlXWi7sA2MW9cANFjI
Miltimore, John and Dan Sanchez. “The New York Times Reported ‘The Mainstreaming of Marxism in US Colleges’ 30 Years Ago. Today, We See the Results.” Foundation for Economic Education. September 10, 2020. https://fee.org/articles/the-new-york-times-reported-the-mainstreaming-of-marxism-in-us-colleges-30-years-ago-today-we-see-the-results/
Rampell, Catherine. “This chilling study shows how hostile college students are toward free speech.” The Spectrum. September 20, 2017. https://www.thespectrum.com/story/opinion/2017/09/19/chilling-study-shows-how-hostile-college-students-toward-free-speech/680582001/
Riley, Jason L. “MIT Leads the Way in Reinstating the SAT.” The Wall Street Journal. April 5, 2022. https://www.wsj.com/articles/mit-leads-the-way-in-reinstating-the-sat-admissions-policies-standardized-testing-college-students-11649185773
Sowell, Thomas. “The dry rot in academia.” The Spectrum. May 15, 2016. https://www.thespectrum.com/story/opinion/2016/05/12/dry-rot-academia/84146534/
Stossel, John. “Woke colleges eliminating academic standards.” Las Vegas Review-Journal. April 5, 2021. https://www.thefire.org/the-2021-college-free-speech-rankings/
Vahey, Emma. “Law Students at Lewis & Clark College Interrupt Appearance by Christina Hoff Sommers.” The Free Speech Project. Last updated June 30, 2019. https://freespeechproject.georgetown.edu/tracker-entries/law-students-at-lewis-clark-college-interrupt-appearance-by-christina-hoff-sommers/
Wikipedia. “Long march through the institutions.” Last updated January 27, 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_march_through_the_institutions
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Left / Right…. what is the center? Only Comedians can answer that question. Is there a question? Most big universities are overrated and a ripoff nowadays. Let’s face reality – like our broken dysfunctional healthcare system, education is a monopoly. The left as you pointed out built a nest long ago in LIBERAL ARTS Academia. So what! Things are so jacked up nowadays that maybe Discordianism will make a come back. We have become left brain obsessed and no stopping this shift as it is built on the smart phone / social media revolution soon to become the robotics / virtual world platform. Then rest assured the right brain goes down for the count. Narcissus is staring at a black screen, and who is that – but a fool commenting herein that can be called a racist for writing the truth. God is dead – thus spract Zarathustra… No, God is alive and the crisis is not left or right, IT IS SPIRITUAL. Peace out – the fool has elevated no one herein.
The author is to be applauded for the crystalline clarity with which he describes the U.S. drift toward cultural leftism and Marxism. U.S. leftists and Marxists wield ill-intent to eliminate self-determination and self-sufficiency through cultural division and hatred. As Mr. Garrison points out, this lurching trend has gone more-or-less unchecked for several decades and can be a near-unstoppable force without strong resistance from those who believe in the values of freedom and rugged individualism upon which America was founded. In fact, the article’s concluding paragraph neatly spells out HOW to combat the Marxist tidal wave: by insisting on free speech, merit-based judgment, equal treatment under the law, and personal responsibility.
Mr. Garrison has crafted a powerful and precise treatise.