Commentary
The country’s largest Marxist organization, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), is running two comrades for the Louisville, Kentucky, City Council elections this coming Nov. 3.
These races should not be seen in isolation, but as part of a wider Marxist strategy to gain influence in the U.S. South.
The DSA and their allies in the pro-China communist group Liberation Road are targeting southern electoral races at every level. Their strategy is to gain power in local city councils across the South to consolidate local power and become competitive in statewide races. If the Marxists can turn only two or three southern states blue, the far-left and their Democratic allies will rule the United States in perpetuity.
DSA comrade
Ryan Fenwick, a Louisville attorney, is running as a Democrat against an incumbent in Council District 10. When Fenwick ran for the Louisville mayoralty in 2018, he was heavily defeated. With more name recognition and an energized team of Louisville DSA comrades behind him, he has a much better shot this time around.
Comrade
Robert Bell is running in the open 4th District race against several competitors. Bell, a teacher and “community organizer,” supports a “Green New Deal for Louisville, Public Ownership of Utilities, Expanded Free Public Transit, Housing as a Human Right, Improving Access to Medical Care, Reproductive Justice, Ending Food Insecurity, and Creating a Solidarity City,” according to a Progressive Candidates
Facebook post.
Louisville DSA has more than 100 comrades. If Fenwick or Bell, or both, win the May primary, the DSA will likely call in doorknockers from Lexington, Bowling Green, and southern Indiana to help out. If the races look winnable, the DSA has nearly
60,000 members nationwide to draw on for donations and phone-banking assistance.
Liberation Road also has a strong presence in the city. They also work closely with Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, a far-left “community organization” with several thousand members and branches across the state.
Kentuckians for the Commonwealth helped defeat Republican Gov. Matt Bevin last year, so winning a couple of Louisville City Council races is well within reach for the local Marxist forces. Louisville is already dominated by the Democratic Party. If the Marxists gain a stronghold on the city council, expect both city and statewide politics to continue veering left.
Liberation Road turned Virginia blue in 2018 through their mass voter registration organization New Virginia Majority. Kentuckians for the Commonwealth works with New Virginia Majority in the State Power Caucus, an alliance of more than 20 organizations with a goal of mobilizing a mind-numbing
40 million new voters against President Donald Trump in the November elections.
Liberation Road recently started a new organization,
Richmond for All, to influence politics in that city. In last year’s elections, the DSA elected one of their comrades,
Michael Payne, to the Charlottesville City Council.
In North Carolina, the DSA has run several council candidates in the last two election cycles. In Durham, the Liberation Road front group Durham for All
helped elect the majority of the city council and the mayor of Durham—the state’s largest city.
In Alabama, the DSA helped elect their endorsed candidate
Randall Woodfin to the Birmingham mayoralty in 2017.
Liberation Road (then known as Freedom Road Socialist Organization) elected Marxist radical
Chokwe Lumumba to the mayoralty of Jackson, Mississippi, in 2013, but he died unexpectedly only six months into his term. So Liberation Road came back in 2017 to elect his son
Chokwe Antar Lumumba to carry on his father’s work.
Lumumba, Jr. wants to make Jackson, Mississippi, into “the most radical city on the planet.”
In Georgia, the DSA elected their comrade
khalid kamau to the South Fulton City Council in 2017. The DSA also helped elect their friend “26-year-old rapper, Ph.D. student and openly queer black woman”
Mariah Parker, to the Athens county commission in 2018. Parker ran on a progressive platform that put “racial and economic justice center stage” and won by 13 votes, according to
In These Times.
Deeply Republican Tennessee is also being heavily targeted by the Marxists.
Liberation Road has organizations in Knoxville, Nashville, Memphis, and Chattanooga plus a training school, The Highlander Center, situated close to Knoxville. The DSA has chapters in all those towns plus Johnson City and Murfreesboro.
Working through their City Council Movement/Knoxville for All, the Knoxville Marxists elected DSA comrade
Seema Perez to the Knoxville City Council in 2017. They elected another DSA comrade,
Amelia Parker, in 2019, and only just missed out with Liberation Road member
David Hayes.
In Nashville, which already has a radical-heavy city council, Liberation Road’s
Nashville Justice League endorsed 15 Metro Council candidates, some of whom were successful.
DSA Nashville founding member
Sean Parker won the Metro Council seat for District 5.
In black majority Democratic-controlled Memphis, Liberation Road’s
Memphis for All and the local DSA have endorsed several city council, Shelby County Commission, and mayoral candidates in the last two election cycles. Most have failed, but the DSA and Memphis for All-endorsed
Michalyn Easter-Thomas did win Memphis City Council District 7 in 2019, and Lee Harris became Shelby County mayor in 2018.
DSA and Liberation Road are building a southern “counter state” to challenge the Republican dominance of the region. County by county, state by state, the Marxists are building their power in the South, while Republicans focus their attention on the Midwest. Several high “minority” population southern states are trending blue and could easily flip to the Democrats in the next two to three election cycles.
Liberation Road and DSA are working tirelessly to accelerate that process. The Republicans need to stop taking the South for granted before it’s too late. If the Republicans lose the South, the hard-left takes America.
Trevor Loudon is an author, filmmaker, and public speaker from New Zealand. For more than 30 years, he has researched radical left, Marxist, and terrorist movements and their covert influence on mainstream politics. He is best known for his book “Enemies Within: Communists, Socialists and Progressives in the U.S. Congress” and his similarly themed documentary film “Enemies Within.” His soon-to-be published book is “White House Reds: Communists, Socialists & Security Risks Running for U.S. President, 2020.”
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
