Jerry Carrier is the author of The Making of the Slave Class and Tapestry: The History and Consequences of America’s Culture. He is a nationally-recognized educator in class, poverty, politics, affordable housing and economic development. He has taught and developed curriculum for universities, state and local governments, schools, and non profits. He has also guest lectured at ten colleges and universities.

Mr. Carrier was an adjunct faculty member at the National Graduate School for Community Economic Development at Southern New Hampshire University, and was faculty for the White Earth Tribal College and for the National Neighborworks Training Institutes. He worked for over thirty years in community economic development and public administration as an executive director of several nonprofits, a community action agency, a housing authority, and in local and tribal governments as an economic development director and planner. He has also been a city manager of six cities. Carrier has served on the Boards of Director of five nonprofits and a school.

Mr. Carrier’s columns on class, economics, poverty, and politics have been published in over a dozen newspapers and he has been a contributing writer to many nonprofit and government texts on these subjects. He has served various roles in many political campaigns and has held positions in the Democratic Party at the local, state and federal level. He and his wife live in Lakeville, Minnesota.

The US government has eliminated and assassinated the left, and with no counterbalance the country veers further and further to the right. In this book Jerry Carrier seeks to define "Left" as it applies in the United States. He traces some of the...

The US government has eliminated and assassinated the left, and with no counterbalance the country veers further and further to the right. In this book Jerry Carrier seeks to define "Left" as it applies in the United States. He traces some of the original influences and provides a succinct history of the American left, including the McCarthy witch hunts and the xenophobia of the China Lobby. That history includes illegal CIA and FBI operations to stop the left, civil rights, anti-war, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay and women's movements. It includes the US intelligence service's long ties to the Mafia and the Unione Corse, the French Mafia, and their illegal drug activities. It includes the assassinations of JFK, RFK and MLK. It includes the treasonous acts of Nixon and Kissinger to win in 1968, by Reagan and Bush in 1980, and the buying of elections by the Koch Brothers. From Rousseau to Obama, this book gives the rise and fall of the American left. Victims includes Mother Jones, Eugene Debs, Big Bill Haywood, Gus Hall, and Angela Davis. It includes the assassinations of foreign leaders like Patrice Lumumba and even UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold and attempts on Sukarno and Castro as well as dozens of US inspired coups.

The term "the left" was first used as a political designation during the French Revolution when the Jacobins sat on the left in the National Assembly and the Girondins on the right. The left is best defined as movements, organizations, and individuals, who promote: the equality of all humans, a fair and equitable division of wealth and power, support for the poor and disadvantaged, and a commitment to action to advance these causes. America is a country with politics to the right of the center; just how far right is subject to debate. There really is no longer an American left, as it has been systematically destroyed. Most believe liberals to be the American left, but liberals are much more centrist than leftist and they are certainly no counterweight to the powerful American right. In the late 1940s and during the 1950s, many liberals like Hubert Humphrey, Bob La Follette Jr. and Adlai Stevenson eagerly participated with the right in the destruction of the left. It was Humphrey who wanted to put all socialists in prison camps and authored legislation to do so in the McCarran Act. During the 1960s there was a very brief resurgence of the left, but it died a painful death and the liberals who took their place were capitalists and political centrists, and they were unmoved by the plight of the left. The liberals were also still very dedicated to the existing establishment which was firmly entrenched to the capitalist free market right. Today the right hurls insults at liberal and moderate politicians calling them "socialists" or "communists," although the people shouting these insults along with most other Americans have little idea what those things really are or what they actually mean, nor are they aware that they were long ago completely destroyed in the name of national security in the mid twentieth century. America has determinedly destroyed the left over the last hundred and fifty years. It was done legislatively, often illegally and even violently. Leftist leaders were jailed for their thoughts, assassinated or were driven out of the political process. The constitution and the law were ignored or suspended to allow this to occur on many occasions. This is not some conspiracy theory; America s history is indisputable on this subject, but few Americans know or appreciate this history or its consequences. There were many false claims that the left were destroyed because of false claims of left-wing violence or "imminent threats" to the government. In reality there were very few threats to the government or acts of violence. In fact many on the left were anti-war, isolationists, peace activists, and many were followers of Thoreau and Gandhi and they believed in passive non-violent resistance. And the few incidents of violence attributed to the left like the 1886 Haymarket strike or even the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago were later shown to be rightwing police riots. The campaign to destroy the left was about political and religious purity and rightwing bias. There was never any real chance of a leftist coup to overthrow the government in right of center America. In the US we should be much more afraid of her fascist tendencies than any left-wing takeover. The deliberate destruction of the left was never about real threats. It is an on-going myth that we have to trade liberty and suspend the constitutional rights of the left and others for security reasons. It is as Benjamin Franklin said, "Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one." America has much less tolerance in its politics and religion than even in its very limited racial, ethnic, or class tolerance. And while many of the actions taken by the government and others against the left were illegal and even unconstitutional, history is always written by the victors and this past is mostly unknown, forgotten, or unrecognized by the American people who naively believe they live in a free country where people are allowed to believe and to do what they freely choose. And because there is no longer an American left, the US keeps sliding ever further to the right. There is no counterbalance. There is no other side. There is no real debate. And with no debate the ultra conservative right, capitalism and the rich and powerful are unchallenged, unchanging, and intolerable to ideas, thoughts, and actions outside their very narrow self-serving interests. The great American experiment is no longer real, but is rather a stagnant pool of putrefying myths, which is why American society and the welfare of the common people are in decay. Author s Note Some readers may find my chronicling of America s past sins somehow unpatriotic. They may feel that I dislike my country. But I write these things because it is my country and my ship for which I seek to steer a better course. I may be perceived as radical by some but I will give you these words from H.L. Mencken: "The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is na ve and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair."

Introduction Author's Note Chapter 1. Defining the American Left Chapter 2. The Birth of Equality Chapter 3. From Mercantilism to Capitalism Chapter 4. Communism Chapter 5. Religion Chapter 6. Class C

Introduction Author's Note Chapter 1. Defining the American Left Chapter 2. The Birth of Equality Chapter 3. From Mercantilism to Capitalism Chapter 4. Communism Chapter 5. Religion Chapter 6. Class Chapter 7. The Beginnings of the American Left Chapter 8: The Hard Right Turn Chapter 9. The Cold War and the 1950s Chapter 10. The 1960s, Assassinating the New Left Chapter 11. The 1970s, Nixon, Ford and Carter Chapter 12. Reagan and Bush, and the Rightwing Dominated 1980s Chapter 13. The 1990s, More Bush and Clinton Chapter 14. Son of Bush Chapter 15. Barack Obama Chapter 16. The Hard Right, Oil Money and the Tea Party Chapter 17. Big Brother Final Conclusions Bibliography