Unholy Alliance: Marxism And Radical Islam
Editors’ Note: The Podcast presented is that of our own Professor Marv Treiger, who is both a founder and contributor to The Prickly Pear. Below is a short autobiographical sketch that presents his colorful and unusual transition from strident communist to MAGA Conservative.
Marv Treiger, PhD, Retired Psychotherapist, Buddhist Teacher
I became Youth Chairman of the Communist Party of Southern California from 1963-1967. I then moved Leftward to Maoism and later to Trotskyism, where I was on the Political Bureau and Co-editor of the weekly “Workers Vanguard” newspaper. At some point, I saw all this as a dead end and set the movement aside. My Marxist worldview, however, though weakened, persisted in me as it commonly does with Leftists, active or inactive, in the revolving doors of formal revolutionism. Over time, many things, especially my Buddhist practice, eroded the foundations of my lingering Leftism.
They cracked utterly in 2001 in an unusual way. I spent seven months that year in a meditation retreat and the last three months in a solitary retreat in a mountain cabin. On 9/12, the day after 9/11, I received a note from my wife telling me of the horror and terrible loss of life of that tragedy.
My heart was open, and my mind was very clear. Within a short time, I saw that the future would be shaped by an alliance of Jihadist Islam with the Radical Left. The reason was simple. They had a common enemy. That enemy was America.
A profound recognition of my true but only latent love for America filled my whole body. I knew that I would have to retool myself after leaving retreat to aid in the fightback against that alliance.
I spent the next seven years studying American history. Thinkers like Thomas Sowell, Whittaker Chambers, Russell Kirk, Victor Davis Hanson, the Founding Fathers, and those associated with the philosophical school of Leo Strauss influenced me.
I only became politically active when Barack Obama was nominated for President. Quickly, I knew what we were in for if he were to be elected. I have been active ever since. Those adventures are stories in themselves, including three months in Ohio volunteering for the Josh Mandel Senate campaign, where I acted as a surrogate in 2016. We lost, and Romney lost. In 2016, I went door-to-door in the ghettos of Henderson, NV, for Trump. We won that one but not in Nevada. I am currently working on my memoirs as time permits.
The Interview with Jimmy begins with actions I participated in to reveal Obama early in his campaign and alludes to his regional plan to align with the Mullahs of Iran after his initial efforts to rely upon the Muslim Brotherhood failed after the Arab Spring in Egypt. The isolation and defeat of Israel was always central to these strategies.
Finally, I go into the current anti-semitism, especially on the elite campuses, and how affirmative action, DEI, and Israel’s demonstrated power contributed to woke ideology, seeing Jews as hyper-white and thus the worst expressions of white supremacy.
I hope you enjoy this brief interview.