The Issue Is Never the Issue: Protests in the US and Israel

Had enough of never-ending disruptive political protests? You are not alone. But besides being annoying, there is a subversive purpose to the disruption and disorder, and we would be wise to take notice.

A perceptive 1960s far-left (SDS) radical once observed about his protest movement, “The issue is never the issue; the issue is always the revolution.” The asserted issue is pretextual, but the pretext’s protest power is leveraged to serve a greater goal.

That Alinsky-esque guideline, however, needs one key refinement: It is true of left-wing protest only. When the right assembles, the issue protested usually is the issue.

That is a useful lens through which to examine mobocracy movements in the U.S., Israel, and much of the Western world. Mob disruption is a reliable component of leftist protest. It should not be mistaken for mere over-exuberance; it is the point of the protest. Its intent is to strategically destabilize.

Right-wing protests generally appeal for preservation or restoration of specific eroded rights. They thus are direct and straightforward, even quaintly so.

Consider a sample of right-wing (or at least non-leftist) protests. The Tea Party protests, for instance, emerged not to destroy any system, but to call on President Obama and Congress to adhere to America’s founding principles of limited government, fiscal responsibility, and constitutionalism. Israeli protests opposing disengagement from Gaza or ceding the Golan Heights were designed not to topple a government, but to stop recklessly risky policies. Canada’s 2022 Freedom Convoy involved cross-border truckers, who spent their workdays alone in the cabs of their trucks, protesting mandatory COVID vaccinations and other COVID mandates. They were, per their anthem, standing guard to keep Canada glorious and free from intrusive government overreach. No revolution, no mobs, no destruction — they likely left the streets cleaner than they found them.

“The Tea Party protests, for instance, emerged not to destroy any system, but to call on President Obama and Congress to adhere to America’s founding principles of limited government, fiscal responsibility, and constitutionalism.”

Fat lot of good it did.

From AOC and Bernie down to the street thugs, it's all about the money, the power and the control.

The motivation is Covetousness, one of the Seven Deadly Sins and the crux of the Tenth Commandment.

"You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s"

Right ! An accurate analysis.
Leftwing (or leftist organized and financed) mobocracy (or “spontaneous demonstrations” etc.)
are 98% about exploiting (Or manufacturing) “issues” to create disruption of civil society. In short, “come the Revolution” whereby the very same leftists can seize power over us.

As for Communism/Marxism or whatever it calls itself, I have always allowed that it was — in its day — as with ol’ Karl himself and even Lenin ... much better at identifying societal ills (such as, then, exploitive child labor and autocratic rule) ... much better at identying the ills than at prescribing any genuine cures. Indeed, the communist/leftist “cures” have generally been as bad or worse than the ills. (Well, yes, leftist movements did help end child labor and they did contribute to a few additional societal measures, too... but I’m speaking to the larger question of communism’s activities in present-day America (and several countries in Europe that should know better).

Just identifying or even calling attention to a societal issue, even when the issue actually exists and requires some sort of remedy.... just identifying an issue does NOT equate with having the best solution or response to it.

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