There is an old saying that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. While that may be true in some situations, it’s not true in all situations. The fight against Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is a perfect example of why we shouldn’t be so quick to embrace everyone fighting against CCSS as an ally.

For instance, The Badass Teachers Association (BAT) is the curious name of a group that may seem like our allies because they are fighting against CCSS, but allies are not always what they seem to be. On their website (http://www.badassteacher.org/) they state:

This association is for every teacher who refuses to be blamed for the failure of our society to erase poverty and inequality, and refuses to accept assessments, tests and evaluations imposed by those who have contempt for real teaching and learning…

Make no mistake about it, the BAT may be fighting in this battle but their primary aim is to protect their own jobs and reduce accountability as expressed in their Stop-the-Test-and-Keep-the-Core philosophy. Worse, their underlying focus may be more sinister.

Why the Commie symbol?

The first red flag you may encounter when visiting their site is their symbol, which is distinctively Communist and set against a red background. The next disturbing bit of information jumps out if you visit their “About Us” tab (http://www.badassteacher.org/?page_id=14) and click on the second video.

At the end of the video they claim they are “Legion.” For those who are not familiar with the Bible passage where Jesus casts out demons, those demons identify themselves as “Legion.” If these were the only two disconcerting red flags, they could be dismissed only as alarming coincidences. However, there is more. Before going further, it is necessary to state that not all members of the BAT are as vile as some. There are most likely a large number that have not done the research I have done and aren’t aware of the background of their co-founder and other progressives that they have joined forces with.

Know him by the company he kept

A worm in the apple. From OpenClipart.

The co-founder of BAT is Mark Naison. Naison is no stranger to political activism. His roots go back to the Weather Underground Organization (WUO) and associates like Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorn. They are anarchists, opportunists, communists, and murders who managed to groom a young Barack Obama for the White House. While Naison tried to distance himself from the WUO early on out of fear of possible imprisonment, it should be noted that he attended the WUO reunion in 1988. Like many of his counterparts (including Bill Ayers), Naison is a college professor. He is currently teaching at the well-respected Fordham University in New York and is Chair of African and African-American Studies. While his supporting the CCSS-loving Bill de Blassio may seem duplicitous, his background, support of unions, and detest of charter schools tells us that this is a man that may not be what we would like him to be. What is even more disturbing is that TEA Parties right here in New Jersey and the Metro area have invited this man to speak at their meetings – with great accolades of his effectiveness as a speaker. Perhaps someone should remind them that the road to hell is paved with good speakers, ie. Hitler, Mussolini, and of course Barack Obama.

The red flags don’t end with Naison or BAT. There are concerning “coincidences” between Occupy Wall Street (OWS) and the WUO that should not be overlooked – especially since they seem to have made their way into the White House. In order to establish these “coincidences”, I will discuss the long-forgotten objectives of the WUO.

The goal of the WUO was to create a revolutionary party to overthrow the “imperial” and capitalistic US government and to create a classless world – translation: Communism. Part of their strategy was to co-opt the anti-Viet Nam war and civil rights movement back in the 1960s. They managed to align themselves with the Black Liberation Movement and labeling those in opposition “racists”, a philosophy that BO’s mentor Jeremiah Wright also embraced. Their underlying plan was to overthrow capitalism by transmitting radical ideas to the working class by involving masses of people. They may have appeared to be anarchists but in actuality, they were/are anti-capitalist – like the 99% of Occupy Wall Street.

John Jacobs, a War Council member of the WUO, stated: “We’re against everything that’s good and decent in honky America…” To a very large degree their goals have been manifested in the Occupy Wall Street movement, and the White House, as well as and labeling their opposition (the TEA party) as racists. The WUO’s view of imperialism was based on Lenin’s “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism” published in 1916, and set forth in their founding document “You Don’t Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows.” It echoes Lenin’s philosophy that wealth belongs to the oppressed people (the 99%) who are the creators of the wealth of the empire. The WUO goes further by vilifying “white privilege” and creating identity politics. It used the unrest in poor black neighborhoods by infiltrating and injecting them with a victim mentality and vilifying others that they labeled racists.

Infiltrating the TEA Party?

What is curious is that this anti-capitalist anti-white movement has begun to infiltrate the TEA Party, whom they have effectively labeled as racists. And the naïve TEA Party has accepted them because they oppose CCSS. However, there is a distinct difference between the TEA Party, the WUO, and Occupy Wall Street. The TEA Party values capitalism and our Constitution, while the WUO and Occupy Wall Street espouse the antithesis of these values and believes in Communism with Lenin being their hero. Their stealth in renaming themselves “progressives” has allowed them to infiltrate our institutions of higher learning, and in New York they are attempting to replace all public education hierarchies with like-minded cronies, all the while recruiting teachers as change agents to advance their Commie philosophies. But they are not stopping by infiltrating the field of education; they are making strides in infiltrating the TEA Party, the one entity nationwide that has been fighting to restore constitutional principles, including capitalism.

Make no mistake about it – a Commie is a Commie, is a Commie regardless of any gifts they may appear to be bearing, including opposition to CCSS, which right now happens to suit their means. They are not a friend of capitalism and they are not a supporter of our Constitutional Republic. Should they be successful in co-opting the TEA Party by merging it with Occupy Wall Street, they will be one step closer to achieving their goals and we will be one step closer to forever losing the America we love. What is worse, the TEA Party may unwittingly be aiding this wolf in sheep’s clothing by giving them platforms and allowing their intellect to be admired by TEA Party members. As I’ve said, a Commie is a Commie, is a Commie, and a Trojan horse is still a Trojan horse, even if the Commie and the horse oppose CCSS.

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