Radical is a fascinating word.  At least for dictionary enthusiasts, who love to delve into root meanings and the etymology of words.  Yes, radical comes from a root meaning for—get this—the word root!  Excited yet?  From there, I really do not know how we arrive at Webster's third definition, the one that is the subject of today's article.  Besides describing a tuber, radical in a political context means:  3. a: marked by a considerable departure from the usual or traditional = EXTREME  b: tending or disposed to make extreme changes in existing views, habits, conditions, or institutions  c: of, relating to, or constituting a political group associated with views, practices, and policies of extreme change.  And a person having these views is appropriately known as a radical (noun).

If you think about it, a radical in today's political world is very unlike the root or core principles of the government he or she seeks to replace.  (Another of the interesting mysteries of the English language!)  Radical is a term that has become popular to describe and identify a person who seeks to destroy the government in power and to replace it with one he or she believes will be more fair, at least toward his favored people groups.  Maybe root out would be applicable after all.

The question is:  How shall we identify a radical?  They can be rather illusive as they hide revolutionary agendas behind appealing words and promises.   Perhaps you can think of two or three very influential political leaders in Washington D.C. who you may think are extremists of this type?  Or several dozen?  Once you know their roots and core beliefs, you can more easily keep track of who radicals are and what their agenda is to fundamentally change the United States of America.  Only when we understand radicalism can their schemes to take away our freedoms and drastically alter our Constitution be defeated.

The roots of radicalism were evident during the early part of the twentieth century through the rise in America of the secular progressive movement, the Communist movement, the CIO and certain other labor organizations, and most notably in the socialistic presidential takeover by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. 

However, what I would call the "modern radical movement"—the one that is leading many young revolutionaries of today, along with their aging hippie counterparts—is the one begun under Saul Alinsky, author of the political guidebook for radicals:  Rules for Revolutionaries.  Later he changed the title to Rules for Radicals. 

How to Identify a Radical
1) A radical is a revolutionary who wants to advance agendas to overturn whatever system of government is in place at whatever cost. Although Alinsky came to realize that the term "revolutionary" was a little too radical for Americans to swallow, and so he changed his book's name, still he emulated such Machiavellian revolutionists as Marx, Lenin, Stalin, and more recently, Fidel Castro.

2) Radicals may have no workable ideas to replace the traditional system of government, but that is unimportant to them.  They first seek to overthrow the system they believe to be unfair.  This gives them a sense of empowerment and the reward of bringing (they think) social justice.  That is their principle belief and goal:  destruction of the existing corrupt society.  They are happy to leave the society in shambles, just as long as their goal of revolution is achieved.  (Does any of this sound familiar today, with the passage of enormous spending bills that seems designed to destroy Americans?)

3) Alinsky-style radicals are Utopian in the sense that they have a passion to create an ethically fair and ideal world that has no war, racism, sexism, or disparity of wealth.  These are things most of us would also like to see disappear.  However, radicals do not embrace conventional values of right and wrong or traditional religion to guide them.  They will do whatever is necessary to fulfill their goals:  lie, cheat, manipulate, break law, make empty promises, twist arms, bully, burn, or destroy life. (Sound familiar?)

4) What distinguishes liberals from radicals is that radicals have no scruples, believing that any and every means is justifiable to force their ideas of fairness upon the world.  (That is how Speaker Pelosi could with a straight face assure Americans that they would all like the Health Care Bill, once it was passed and they could read it.)

5) They are committed, not to gradual relief of wrongs by legal process, but to rapid and radical change for change's sake, regardless of whose rights are trampled. (Notice how rapidly this administration wants to push seismic social changes upon an unwitting American people?)

6) The single principle of Alinski-style radicalism (like Stalin and Lenin practiced to an extreme degree) is to take power from the Have's and to give it to the Have-Nots.  Traditional western values, such as hard work, honesty, private enterprise, personal property, charity, faith, family values, and protection of life are eschewed as obstacles to the radical revolutionists' goals.  That is why they are called secular progressives.  Teddy Roosevelt, a Christian himself, probably had no idea that secular communists would take the name of his Progressive Party as their own identity in the 1930's and 40's. 

Knowing these facts about radicals and understanding that President Obama as a "community organizer" was both a student and disciple of Saul Alinsky, we can begin to understand the hidden meaning behind some of his comments. Hilary Clinton, too, has been fascinated by Alinsky and shows, some believe, a similar willingness to do whatever it takes to bring about radical changes to America. 

Quotes of Famous American Radicals:

Barack Obama:  "We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America." (Election eve, 2008)

Barack Obama:  "We are the ones we have been waiting for."

Saul Alinsky: "Communism itself is irrelevant.  The question is whether they are on our side." (Reveille for Radicals, by Saul Alinsky, 1969)

Hillary Clinton:  "Alinsky is regarded as the proponent of a dangerous socio/political philosophy.  As such, he is feared—just as Eugene Debs or Walt Whitman or Martin Luther King has been feared—because each embraced the most radical of political faiths: democracy."
[From her Wellesley College thesis, There Is Only the Fight:  An Analysis of the Alinsky Model, 1969]

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Next time, I will try to do something difficult—decode some of the radicals' favorite code words, such as what they mean by democracy and social justice—words that have special meanings in their private dictionaries and hidden agendas.