Politics is Downstream from Culture

Sponsored by: Patriot Home Funding

The year was 1926, and Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci, who was a founding member of the Italian Communist Party, was arrested, tried, and imprisoned by Benito Mussolini's government. His crime? Criticism of Mussolini and fascism.

Gramsci was such a threat to Mussolini that during his sham trial, the prosecutor reportedly said to the court, "We must stop his brain from working for 20 years."

Gramsci died in 1937, but in the 10 years he was imprisoned his brain never stopped. During that time, he wrote the "Prison Notebooks," which were over 3000 pages of history, analysis, and political theory. In the "Prison Notebooks," Gramsci asked a question that is still being asked today- Why did the communist revolution succeed in Russia but fail everywhere else?

Gramsci postulated that in the west, the nucleus of political power is not in the state, governments, police, or armies. It is in the culture. He named his theory "cultural hegemony."

Gramsci contended that to seize and retain power; the battle is not won by coup, revolution, or by overthrowing the government. The battle is won in the minds, the schools, universities, media, theater, publishing, and the courts. Gramsci framed it as a "war of position," a slow but thorough conquest of the institutions. 40 years later, the German philosopher Rudi Dutschke called it "the long march through the institutions." 40 years after Dutschke Andrew Breibart portrayed it another way, "Politics is downstream from culture."

And since Gramsci identified culture hegemony, the long march through our institutions has been happening pretty much unabated. In the west in general and the US in particular, the left controls entertainment, music, academia, the media, journalism, and the courts. The population itself is center-right and we elect republicans' election after election, but somehow our institutions aren't a reflection of the population.

So how does that happen? We discussed Bertrand Russell's theory of a scientific and political dictatorship based on control of knowledge and opinion in this space last week and therein lies the answer. Because all the "smart people" are on the left.

The left has seized control of the flow of information, of opinion, of what is cool. The left had also seized control of the bureaucracies, and with it the purse strings of government. The left had gained control of who got the grants, who got the interview, who got booked, who got the good reviews and praise, who got the good jobs. All of that led to control of the culture, and a serious problem for our country and the western world.

The cultural hegemony had spread not just throughout the US, but to Latin America, South America, and also Europe. Country after country, despite being Christian and mostly conservative, voted for radical leftists and socialism. Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and I could go on. Economies collapsed, criminal cartels thrived, demographic replacement was in process, DEI, ESG, climate-based governance, and a steady march to a one world government was underway.

All of this was being financed by an ecosystem of NGO's that the average American didn't know existed but whose tax dollars funded. USAID, which is NOT foreign aid per se, USAID actually stands for United States Agency for International Development, was funding the cultural hegemony all over the world in stark contrast to American values. It was a largely unaccountable, un-American financial leviathan that funded political networks worldwide, but especially democrat political operations here stateside- 10's of billions of dollars. It had been virtually untouchable since 1961 and grew like a cancer until President Trump's re-election.

President Trump opened up USAID's books, cut the left-wing subversive programs, and folded the agency into the State Department. That's not all. President Trump has investigated ActBlue, the democrat small dollar donor ecosphere, with five current or former ActBlue executives, including CEO Regina Wallace-Jones pleading the fifth amendment 146 times in a congressional hearing in June.

You've already seen the results in South America- Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras, Chile, Argentina, and now Brazil have now flipped to the right. In Europe, Germany's AFD party is rising, Austria's Freedom Party is rising, Marine Le Pen is the favorite in the coming French election in April, Hungary's government remains conservative, and Meloni's Brothers of Italy party remains strong.

Now let's look at the US. Since Trump sicced DOGE on USAID and the ActBlue investigation started, the DNC carries more debt at $17.9 million than it has in cash at $16 million. The RNC has about $130 million cash on hand and no debt in comparison. GOP candidates have outraised democrats by a factor of about 2 to 1 this election cycle. Republican PACs and Super-PACS hold about $657 million in cash compared to the democrats $334 million. Yet, if you believe the media and polls, a democrat wave is inevitable and the country has rejected Trump and MAGA.

I've called Trump the "transformational president" in this space because of his foreign policy but this, taking on the cultural hegemony, is probably even more important. By cutting a large swath of the taxpayer funding of the cultural hegemony, Trump has slowed the long march through the institutions. Equally important is the light Trump has shined on the institutions that have been taken over by the left, in particular the media and academia.

Reversing the long march through the institutions won't be quick or easy, due mainly to the fact that it has become ingrained through the decades, but thanks to Trump, we now have struck at the heart of it and people are now aware of the institutional rot the left has hatched in our institutions.

So what can we the people do to help Trump out? The first thing is to turn off network and cable TV news, to shun the large news outlets like the New York Times and Washington Post. They are purveyors of propaganda. Choose your news sources wisely and weigh them against your values.

The second is to take ownership over your children's spiritual and academic development. Turning your children over to the government to be educated by the likes of Randi Weingarten is the biggest mistake you can make. Investing in traditional Christian faith-based education is the second-best investment you can make in your children. The best investment is your time and involvement, passing your values to your children.

The third is to get involved in local politics, especially the judges, sheriffs, and school board elections. These are the people who steer the local culture on a day-to-day basis, nearest to your family.

The final, and most important one, is to get out and vote. Republicans who don't vote or vote for obscure candidates that have no chance of winning elect democrats. All voters are values voters, so are non-voters. You either believe in your values enough to get out and vote them, or you don't and your values will be assigned to you by a cultural and political elite, which is the hegemony Gramsci warned us about. Those are the anti-American values- or lack thereof- that the democrat party and left supports.

And remember, if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.