There is nothing ever anything new in politics, just a bad reboot of worse ideas by a small crowd of leftist voices

From 1963 to 1970, the New Left stirred unrest across America, pushing a socialist agenda that threatened the nation’s stability and values.

Driven by students, radicals, and attention-seeking celebrities, it attacked the Vietnam War, traditional institutions, and free enterprise, claiming to fight for justice.

In Arkansas and Oklahoma, small groups echoed these ideas, but their efforts, like the broader movement, were divisive and ultimately harmful.

Today’s left-wing movements carry similar flaws, promoting collectivism over individual liberty and weakening the country’s foundation.

Tom Hayden

The New Left emerged in 1963, rejecting the disciplined Old Left and America’s capitalist success. Inspired by Marxist ideas and the 1962 Port Huron Statement from Tom Hayden’s Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), it pushed for wealth redistribution, worker cooperatives, and grassroots control.

Its leaders saw the Vietnam War as capitalist oppression and tied racial issues to economic grievances, ignoring the strength of individual opportunity in America’s free market. Their embrace of counterculture--communes, protest music, and draft card burning-mocked the values of hard work and patriotism that built the nation.

Celebrities like Jane Fonda and Harry Belafonte lent their fame, amplifying a message that often glorified rebellion over responsibility.

The University of Arkansas’s SDS chapter, active by 1965, studied Marxist texts and protested the war, accusing local businesses of exploitation. Their small rallies, rarely exceeding 60 people, disrupted campus unity and vilified the state’s economic drivers.

In Oklahoma, University of Oklahoma activists, sometimes as few as 15, pushed socialist policies after the 1968 sanitation strike, aligning with figures like Clara Luper to challenge the status quo.

These groups sowed discord in tight-knit communities, undermining the cooperation needed for progress.

The New Left’s radical rhetoric rightly alarmed the FBI, which intensified its COINTELPRO program by 1967 to monitor potential threats to national security. Agents infiltrated SDS groups in Arkansas and Oklahoma, uncovering plans that bordered on sedition.

Celebrities fueled the chaos: Fonda’s anti-war stunts, like her 1972 Hanoi visit, emboldened America’s enemies, while Belafonte’s funding of radical groups strained civil discourse

Muhammad Ali’s draft refusal in 1967, tied to Black Power rhetoric, disrespected the sacrifices of soldiers (NPR). Draft card burning, a felony by 1965, symbolized their rejection of civic duty, though most celebrities avoided it due to legal consequences.

The New Left peaked in 1968, exploiting tragedies like the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy to fuel riots and division. In Arkansas and Oklahoma, activists joined national protests, but their push for socialism fractured communities.

By 1970, internal splits--reform versus radicalism--and FBI interventions dismantled SDS. The Kent State shootings, while tragic, exposed the dangers of unchecked protests.

The movement’s collapse showed that its collectivist ideals couldn’t withstand America’s preference for individual liberty and order.

Today’s left, from Black Lives Matter to the Democratic Socialists of America, echoes the New Left’s errors. They criticize capitalism, the engine of American prosperity, and push divisive policies like wealth redistribution. BLM’s community programs and DSA’s Medicare for All revive the New Left’s collectivism, ignoring the inefficiencies of government overreach.

Modern surveillance, like FBI monitoring of BLM, reflects ongoing concerns about radicalism Celebrities like Colin Kaepernick, with his anthem protests, mirror Fonda’s grandstanding, prioritizing fame over unity.

Despite the yelling of a small group of individuals in the face of common sense, public skepticism of socialism remains, with many warning it erodes personal responsibility.

The New Left’s push for socialism left a legacy of division, not progress. Its attacks on capitalism and patriotism weakened America’s resolve during a critical era. In Arkansas and Oklahoma, it stirred unnecessary conflict in stable communities.

Today’s left repeats these mistakes, favoring collectivism over the individual freedom that strengthens the nation. The New Left’s failure over five decades ago proves that America thrives on hard work, unity, and respect for law, not radical upheaval.