"We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America," declared Barack Obama during a campaign stop on Oct. 30, 2008, five days before the election that would make him the most powerful man in the world.

The concept of "fundamental transformation" has been discussed vigorously since then, especially in light of the many sweeping changes Obama brought to the country over his eight years in office.

Historian Charles Sasser sees Obama's "fundamental transformation" in the context of an older and more sinister plan articulated by a pair of Marxist activists nearly 50 years ago.

"What we're seeing now is this fundamental transformation, and it goes all the way back to [Herbert] Marcuse," Sasser said during a recent appearance on the "Prophecy Hour" radio program. "In the 1960s when he [Marcuse] was talking about the 'long march through the institutions,' this is what Obama was talking about – the fundamental transformation of America."

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The "long march through the institutions" was coined by student activist Rudi Dutschke in the late 1960s to describe his strategy for bringing about the conditions for a Marxist revolution in the United States.

The plan was for Marxists to infiltrate all of America's major institutions – politics, the news media, the education system, the churches, the entertainment industry – and slowly subvert those institutions from within, thereby subverting America.

Marcuse, a prominent Marxist intellectual associated with the Frankfurt School, agreed with Dutschke's strategy and brought it to wider attention in his 1972 book "Counterrevolution and Revolt."

Sasser, author of the brand new book "Crushing the Collective: The Last Chance to Keep America Free and Self-Governing," pointed out Hillary Clinton has expressed shades of this idea as well. During a 2015 speech, the soon-to-be Democratic presidential nominee declared, "Deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed."

The imposition of political correctness is an integral part of this long march through the institutions, according to Sasser. Viewed from this perspective, the march is making excellent progress in certain areas.

"Let's look at our education," Sasser said. "We've got safe spaces; we've got all these people who refuse to listen to anyone who has an opinion different from their own. They will riot, break windows, everything else to keep people from free speech."

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The Marxists are also slowly but surely undermining Christianity, according to Sasser.

"In 2012, when Obama was nominated for a second term, the Democratic National Committee took God out of their platform, and when someone proposed that they put God back in the platform, the entire stadium [at the Democratic National Convention] booed the idea of putting God in the platform," he recalled.

"Now, look a few months later: There was a prayer at an abortion rally, and they prayed to God for God to help on abortions."

The radical leftists are subverting the political arena as well. In "Crushing the Collective" Sasser reveals a long list of organizations through which "socialist and authoritarian radicals" are working to undermine America.

This includes Socialist International, whose leadership includes or has included Democratic Party figures such as Howard Dean, Madeleine Albright and Tom Daschle.

It includes the Congressional Progressive Caucus, founded by admitted socialist Bernie Sanders. The CPC included 83 Democratic House members in 2010.

Sasser also singles out the Institute for Policy Studies, an old and influential far-left think tank whose membership has included many current and former congressmen, including Leon Panetta, Obama's defense secretary and CIA director.

"Socialist International, the Progressive Party – look at the Progressive Party a little closer," Sasser urged the "Prophecy Hour" audience. "Progressive Democrats of America, the Congressional Progressive Caucus – look at how many of those people in there are socialists and Marxists. Nobody wants to do that because it's politically incorrect to say anything about it."

So, what can Americans do to beat back the long Marxist march? Sasser is not optimistic; he does not believe conservatives can ever take back the cultural institutions now that those institutions have succumbed to the left.

Nor does he believe a single American president can stop the long march. Not even Ronald Reagan could stop it.

"Reagan was successful in what he did, but then as soon as he was gone, the march through the institutions continued, and I think we're going to see the same thing now," Sasser commented.

He noted the radical left is stronger than ever, and they seem to sense that.

"Obama said, 'Now is our time.'" Sasser said. "Yes, now is their time. They think that they have the upper hand, that they can make America socialist, and I think they're going to do that because we don't fight back. We're afraid to say anything because of political correctness."

Sasser, who has spent much of his life studying history, knows societies that fall as far into the clutches of collectivism as the U.S. has do not bounce back well. They may survive, but in a diminished form. Italy is still around, for example, but it is nothing like the Roman Empire. Iran is a regional power, but it is not as prestigious as the great Persian empires of the past.

"I want to believe that Trump may be another Reagan, that we may have a chance," he said. "But then I look at the institutions. Like Newt Gingrich said, once they own the cultural institutions, they're impossible to regain, and if they own all of the institutions, including many of our churches right now, if they do that we can't retake them if we can't crush this idea of the collective."

Get Charles Sasser's "Crushing the Collective: The Last Chance to Keep America Free and Self-Governing" today at the WND Superstore!