Messiah College invited socialist radical Frances Fox Piven to speak on "The Corporate War on the American People." Based on her past written articles and books, Piven and her husband Richard Cloward have become controversial figures in American politics. The infamous Cloward-Piven Strategy calls for the poor to rise up and overload the government rolls in order to collapse the free market system. The poor would force the government to establish a welfare state. Why would you be for overthrowing the most productive and successful economic system in world history?
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However, the statement that most people took offense to was when Piven stated that the Tea Party is anxious because, "they don't like that a black president was elected. . . they don't understand."
However, she later dodged a question about the Tea Party's high support of Herman Cain, a fellow African-American. That was not the only question she dodged that night. She also tried to scurry around defining the difference of her idea of "radical" democracy and socialism. When asked the question about her previous support of violent protests in her articles, she simply stated that she did not believe riots were violent, despite previous articles where she said that she does support violence. She further stated that she believes breaking a window, destruction of property, "is not the worst crime."
However, she should know that destruction of property is a crime none the less. Piven came tonight and while she intended to do good, quickly isolated the audience, and lost credibility. She made offensive inferences, and drew public anger.
