Teddy Roosevelt was a long time ago. He had been a relatively popular president (the media loved him for providing headlines, not unlike Obama). The problem was, when he left office, he was still young enough, and restless enough, to want to look forward to decades of inactivity and obscurity. Not unlike our previous president.
Like Obama, he couldn't resist commenting on current events. Like Obama, he viewed his successor in terms of that person's willingness to act as he would have. Which, Taft did not.
So, Teddy used his prodigious energy to start a new party - more Progressive, more radical.
And, doing so, torpedoed the Republican Party's success in elections.
Obama is working behind the scenes. His aims are more radical, and his allies are more willing to break heads and destroy both the economy and the governing system.
Obama's troops, the semi-organized mobs that have been accosting and, sometimes, assaulting, their political/social opponents since before the election, are spoiling for a fight. Individually, their screaming confrontations seemingly have little effect. But, the effect on the recipient of that abuse isn't the point.
Obama is sharpening his weapons. He is providing them with a sense of solidarity, which they can use to both recruit, and to give them a reason to continue hanging around, waiting for that moment when they break out into a true riot.
Think about it. If you 'employ' thugs, the worst thing you can do is to let them just sit around, unoccupied. You have to get them on their feet, moving around, too busy to plot against you and your cause. Hence, the 'meaningless' confrontations. They get them out of the office, learning what works, and what gets them arrested, and allows them to return, flushed with the excitement of their victory.
It's the same with all soldiers, sailors, and marines. A LOT of their daily work is frankly not necessary. It's designed to occupy their bodies with work that will tire them out, and keep them from roaming the streets, looking for trouble.
It's also designed to focus their resentment and irritation, not at each other, but at the brass. It has the effect of building solidarity among the unit - 'us against those pukes in charge'.
So, don't discount the importance of these actions. They have a purpose, and interruption of that purpose will go a long way towards de-fusing the 'resistance' efforts.
The revolution is a long-range activity. The sans-culottes were not a group that spontaneously rose up one day, and said, "Let's kill us a king." The cells were directed by career revolutionaries, built up into cells/units, led by trained provocateurs, and assisted by people who had participated in mass actions before.
There's a very old book that described this process, very well - The Ugly American. The movie was crap - it completely mis-stated the point of the book, that the process was planned, organized, and not related to any action on the part of the government, or of the Americans. The description of the process of leading average people to participate in protests that initially were peaceful, but became increasingly more violent as the invisible training continued, is still one of the best available. Trump's State Department and DHS should break out a book study group, to train younger employees on the tactics that have been used, and will likely continue to be used throughout his administration.
Other, more modern tactics that have been co-opted by the Left include:
- Occasionally, Twitter is used to get 'spontaneous' mobs in place. More often, it is used to suck followers into an outrage mode, which, by using Hashtags (#) to keep them on topic, is a terrific tool to focus their energy and bitching. The use of fake accounts encourages the idea that 'everyone is on my side'.
- Facebook has less impact than when it was mostly young people using it. The tremendous uptick in mature adults using the platform has diminished its use by younger people. Still, the way Facebook uses ad placement to direct discussion/opinion is heavyhanded.
- "In a piece at The New York Post, Jaron Lanier, a scientist and tech pioneer, said social media has addictive qualities that are harmful and can influence moods and most people should lay off it." Lanier is generally allied with the Left, yet sees the damage that use of Twitter can cause.
- Swarming - here is a link to some useful actions you can take if you, or someone near you, become a target.
- Instagram and Snapchat - the kids love these. They require only the ability to use video tools to create a shareable photo/graphic. Leftists slipping in misleading photos are one of the major ways it is used by the Left.
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