Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN) at 3:48 p.m. on January 3rd, 2018 tweeted “At @MoonPalaceBooks and I just found the book that strike [sic] fear in the heart of @realDonaldTrump (right).” Rep. Ellison is also the Deputy-Chairman of the Democratic National Committee and was the second member of Congress to endorse Senator Bernie Sanders to be the Democratic Party nominee for president. Ellison is also co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. The book Rep. Ellison is holding is “ANTIFA: The Anti-Fascist Handbook” written by Mark Bray.

Soon after Ellison tweeted his purchase of the ANTIFA book Bray tweeted:

@keithellison if you support anti-fascist and anti-Trump resistance could you please tweet in support of the #J20 defendants who face decades in prison for attending a protest?

The Washington Post’s Carlos Lozada wrote the below review of the ANTIFA handbook:

“Insurgent activist movements need spokesmen, intellectuals and apologists, and for the moment Mark Bray is filling in as all three… The book’s most enlightening contribution is on the history of anti-fascist efforts over the past century, but its most relevant for today is its justification for stifling speech and clobbering white supremacists.” [Emphasis added]

QUESTION: Why would the Co-Chairman of the DNC purchase let alone endorse a book that calls for “stifling speech and clobbering white supremacists?”

UNDERSTANDING KEITH ELLISON

To understand one must look at Rep. Ellison’s background and the current policies of the Democratic Party.

According to Discover the Networks:

Born in August 1963, Keith Maurice Ellison was raised as a Roman Catholic in Detroit, Michigan. At age 19, while attending Wayne State University, he converted to Islam because he perceived it to be a faith that “might inform social change [and] justice in society.” After graduating with a BA in economics in 1987, Ellison enrolled at the University of Minnesota Law School.

As a third-year law student in 1989-90, Ellison penned four columns for the Minnesota Daily under the name “Keith E. Hakim”:

(a) In a November 27, 1989 piece titled “Minister [Louis] Farrakhan Never Claimed to Be a ‘Malcolm X’,” Ellison laid out his views about racism:

“Racism means conspiracy to subjugate and actual subjugation. That means planned social, economic, military, religious and political subjugation of whites. It cannot be intelligently argued that the Nation of Islam is doing this. In fact, blacks have no history of harming or subjecting whites as a class. On the other hand, whites have it written into their very Constitution that blacks shall be considered three-fifths of a person for purposes of taxation and representation of their white owners. Their Constitution also makes provisions for the return of runaway slaves. Their [U.S.] constitution is the bedrock of American law; it’s the best evidence of a white racist conspiracy to subjugate other peoples.”

[ … ]

In September 2017, Ellison spoke at a panel discussion about immigration reform and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), an executive action by which former president Barack Obama had permitted most DREAM Act-eligible individuals to gain temporary legal status, work permits, access to certain publicly funded social services, and protection from deportation. “[A]s many as three million DACA recipients live with someone who is a citizen of the United States,” said Ellison. “Add that to the people who work with a DACA recipient. Add that to people who are the parents of a DACA recipient. Add that to people who are parents of American citizens. You are literally talking about over 100 million Americans who are in some way — way more than 100 million, maybe well over that — who are deeply connected to people who have immigrated to the United States, some with official papers, some with not.” Reasoning, from that premise, that Americans have a moral obligation to provide “sanctuary” for illegal aliens, Ellison then likened modern-day illegals aliens living in the United States to Jews who lived in Nazi Germany during the 1930s and ’40s: “If you ask yourself, ‘What I would I do if I was a gentile in 1941 if my Jewish neighbors were under attack by the Nazis, would I give them sanctuary?’ You might be about to find what you’d do. Will you pass that moral test, or will you fail it?” [Emphasis added]

Ellison, since his conversion to Islam, association with the Democratic Party and as Deputy-Chair of the DNC, has focused himself on racism, social justice and most recently immigration.

IMMIGRATION, HATRED AND BIGOTRY

The Democratic Party platform on Immigration Reform:

Photo from Democrats.org Immigration Reform.

Democrats are fighting for every immigrant who feels threatened by Donald Trump’s election. We will not stand by and watch families be torn apart — Democrats in Congress and in states and cities across the country are already standing up to Trump’s hatred and bigotry to defend their immigrant neighbors. 

Thanks to President Obama, hundreds of thousands of DREAMers have been able to receive a temporary status that allows them to study, work, pay taxes, and contribute to the communities they grew up in. His administration has made a tremendous difference by prioritizing immigration enforcement so that it is focused on those with criminal records and doesn’t arbitrarily separate families, and Democrats are fighting to protect that progress.

Democrats will continue to work toward comprehensive immigration reform that fixes our nation’s broken immigration system, improves border security, prioritizes enforcement so we are targeting criminals – not families, keeps families together, and strengthens our economy.

Democrats know the importance of our country’s history as a nation of immigrants. We honor our fundamental values by treating all people who come to the United States with dignity and respect, and we always seek to embrace — not to to attack — immigrants. [Emphasis added]

SOCIAL JUSTICE, RACISM AND FASCISM

The DHS-FBI Intelligence Assessment: Baseline Comparison of US and Foreign Anarchist Extremist Movements notes:

(U) Key Judgments

(U//FOUO) Our examination of anarchist extremist violence in the United States and in Greece, Italy, and Mexico revealed several prominent features that may inform strategies to counter domestic terrorism:

» (U//FOUO) DHS and FBI assess the primary factor explaining the difference in targets between foreign and US anarchist extremists is foreign anarchist extremists’ focus on specific economic and governance issues relative to their geographic area, while US anarchist extremists tend to focus on symbols of capitalism. We assess the likely primary factor explaining foreign anarchist extremists’ greater willingness to use more violent tactics than their US counterparts is that these foreign anarchist extremist movements are often more organized—allowing for more complex attacks—and have a well-established tradition of lethal violence not currently seen in the United States.

[ … ]

(U) Social Justice

(U//FOUO) Social justice issues––specifically opposition to gentrification and opposition to perceived racism and fascism––were the second most common driver of violence for US anarchist extremists, as they accounted for 26 percent (7 of 27) of attacks. Social justice issues accounted for 12 percent of violent foreign anarchist extremist attacks, although these incidents occurred only in Greece and were all against perceived fascism. Although social justice issues can motivate anarchist extremists to violence, they are often a driver for violence if a social justice issue occurs within a location that also has an anarchist extremist presence.

(U//FOUO) Social justice issues often result in legal protest activities, and historically, in both the United States and abroad, anarchist extremists have been known to co-opt legal protests as a cover to commit violence against their targets. However, a review of data in this study indicated in the seven social-justice motivated violent incidents committed by US anarchist extremists, only one of those incidents exploited otherwise legal protest activity. The reasons for this finding are currently a reporting gap. [Emphasis added]

CONNECTING THE DOTS

Democrats are “fighting” for “every immigrant “who feels threatened by Donald Trump’s election” and Trump’s “hatred and bigotry.” Keith Ellison likens modern-day illegal aliens to “Jews who lived in Nazi Germany.” Ellison is in perfect tune with the Democratic platform on immigration, which both see as a “social justice” issue.

This aligns with the DHS-FBI report finding that “social justice issues” are the second most common driver of violence for U.S. anarchists (such as ANTIFA). Attacking capitalism is the #1 focus of groups such as Occupy Wall Street, ANTIFA, Organizing for Action and the Democratic Party.

As the Co-Chair of the DNC Keith Ellison’s endorsement of the ANTIFA book is entirely predictable. While others are shocked, we are not.

RELATED ARTICLE: Antifa book endorsed by Keith Ellison promotes VIOLENCE against political opponents