The objective was chaos and turmoil, or in their words, “A massive drive to recruit the poor onto the welfare rolls.” This would be followed by, “A federal program of income redistribution has become necessary to elevate the poor en masse from poverty.”

Cloward-Piven is a political strategy first described in 1966, by two Columbia University sociologists, Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven. This was published appropriately in the far-left The Nation , the oldest continuously published news magazine in the country. Cloward-Piven’s goal was the creation of, “A political crisis would result that could lead to legislation for a guaranteed annual income and thus an end to poverty.”

The strategy uses community organizers to mobilize welfare recipients. Then, “As the crisis develops, it will be important to use the mass media to inform the broader liberal community about the inefficiencies and injustices of welfare.” It’s more effective when a community organizer is the leader of the country for eight years assisted with a compliant and nonobjective national media. Or as Rahm Emanuel said, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”

Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward standing directly behind Bill Clinton at the 1993 signing ceremony for the Motor Voter Law (Wikipedia)

By crisis, Cloward and Piven mean, “A publicly visible disruption in some institutional sphere.” How do they create such a crisis? “Crisis can occur spontaneously (e.g., riots) or as the intended result of tactics of demonstration and protest which either generate institutional disruption or bring unrecognized disruption to public attention.”

In other words, community organize protests, riots, and generalized chaos. And overwhelm America’s welfare system to the point that the only way out is through the tunnel leading to a centralized social-welfare state, as is seen in many European and South American countries.

Since the article’s publication over 50 years ago, steady progress has been made in the direction Cloward and Piven advocate. From Medicare and Medicaid, to the Great Society. New government agencies and bureaucracies choking innovation and economic growth. Ill-conceived and endless wars, expansion of food stamps, Medicaid, and other social welfare programs, resulting in the majority of Americans receiving government benefits.

Each program brought on by some crisis. Seniors and the poor not getting their medical care. Kids hungry at school. The world’s poor arriving on our shores needing to be cared for.

Democrats have no ideas or policies appealing to the majority of Americans, so this is their hail mary pass, creating enough chaos to bring down the current system, so they can rebuild it in the image of Cuba or the Soviet Union.

Fortunately a funny thing happened on the way to the forum. But not so funny for the Cloward-Piven crowd when Donald Trump won the presidential election in 2016. Trump is the first federal elected official in recent time, with the exception of the occasional vocal Congressman or Senator, to throw a wrench into the plans of the big government, globalist elites.

In addition to expanding the welfare rolls internally, another way to overwhelm the system is to import more welfare recipients with the goal of overwhelming the system. This occurs via immigration, both legal and illegal.

Think of what the current migrant caravan means in terms of Cloward-Piven. Thousands of poor, unskilled migrants entering the US. They need health care, education, housing, food, clothing, and other basic needs which all cost money. Who pays for this? The migrants arrive with the clothes on their back, not with job offers from Fortune 500 companies and guaranteed self-sufficiency.

Trump has other plans. Common sense rather than chaos and doing what’s best for America and her citizens, rather than virtue signaling to the world.

Donald Trump recognized Cloward-Piven the day he announced his candidacy. After riding down the escalator at Trump Tower, he told America that if elected, he would build a wall on our southern border, and make Mexico pay for it. It’s his signature issue. At his rallies, one of the usual chants, aside from “lock her up” and “CNN sucks” is “build that wall”.

The average American who supports Trump doesn’t want unlimited immigration into America, bringing expense, disease, and crime into their neighborhoods. Gallup reports, “150 million adults worldwide would migrate to the US” if they could. That would be 50 percent increase in US population, most of whom would rely on some sort of government assistance.

Give the left their way and how many of those 150 million would they welcome into America? Even if a few million at a time, the chaos would rapidly build.

How many of these 150 million would be ill with polio, drug-resistant TB, hepatitis, scabies, and chicken-pox? As an example, chicken-pox broke out recently in a Denver immigrant detention center. The “system” must deal with the cost of this including quarantine and medical care.

Big media fans the flames, calling Trump and his supporters racists, xenophobes, and Nazis for wanting to stop wanton illegal immigration. They welcome the chaos as it supports their political agenda without affecting them personally. Elected officials too, on both sides of the aisle, are happy to welcome overwhelming chaos to our shores.

Democrat Representative Joe Kennedy III, invoking everyone from his great uncle, to Reagan and Jesus, writes in Time how America must welcome the migrant caravan. Just as long as they are in your backyard as they won’t be welcome anywhere the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport.

Ohio Republican Governor John Kasich, famous son of a mailman, told CNN we have a moral obligation to accept those invading our southern border because of the accident of our birth in the US. I’m sure the virtue signaling governor would welcome every illegal immigrant in Ohio. Or does his virtue stop at his state’s border?

Overwhelm the system via an unstainable growth in the welfare state. That’s the Cloward-Piven strategy; create such chaos that the only solution is socialism, creating power for the elite and misery for most Americans. But don’t worry about the Kasichs, Kennedys, Clintons, Obamas, Acostas or any of the other political-media elite who will be sure they and their families are prosperous, safe in their secure communities and schools, far from the hordes of third world immigrants.

The migrant caravan, aside from attempting to influence the midterm election, is typical Cloward-Piven strategy. Overwhelm the system including border security agencies and now likely the military. If this caravan gets refuge in the US, a dozen more caravans will pop up next week, and every week thereafter, an endless burden on the US, dispiriting Trump supporters, paving the way for increasing Democrat control of government.

Cropped from Fox Business Network via YouTube

This is one of many reasons why the midterm elections are so important. Aside from policy differences, it’s America’s last defense against overwhelming the socio-economic backbone of the country, paving the way for turning America into Europe, one illegal immigrant at a time.

Brian C Joondeph, MD, MPS, a Denver based physician and writer. Follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.