Takedown: From Communists to Progressives, How the Left Has Sabotaged Family and Marriage

We are witnessing a watershed moment in American cultural history: the sabotaging of family and marriage. Extreme-left radicals have made their arguments and tried different tactics, from the early nineteenth century to the sexual revolution of the 1960s, but at long last they have the vehicle to make it happen: gay marriage. Now, as the legal definition of marriage rapidly changes, the floodgates are open, and the fundamental transformation of the American family will take on new speed and new dimensions. Efforts to redefine the family structure have been long at work, and there have been some influential forces on the far left and communist left that cannot and should not be ignored in that process.

In Takedown Paul Kengor exposes these origins, starting with Karl Marx, and traces them through the sordid history of people like Margaret Sanger, Wilhelm Reich, Herbert Marcuse, and assorted '60s radicals. What were once fringe concepts have become accepted by mainstream thought and are today welcomed by many legislators and judges. Kengor notes how in the not-so-distant past, today's leftists who are attacking traditional marriage would have loudly raised their voices but not caused any real damage. They would have been dismissed with no serious concern as left-wing cranks, crackpot German and Austrian atheistic philosophers and campus agitators. But now, with formal legalization of same-sex marriage afoot, they are getting what they’ve wanted for generations: the literal redefinition of the family.

Takedown exposes how gay marriage is serving as a Trojan horse for the far left to secure the final takedown of marriage that it has long wanted, and countless everyday Americans are oblivious to the deeper forces at work. Takedown takes no prisoners and bluntly shows the reader that even Karl Marx and his more anti-marriage comrade Engels would be dumbfounded at the mere thought that modern Americans would gladly join them in their rejection of God's design for natural marriage and the family.

Paul Kengor is a bestselling author whose works include “11 Principles of a Reagan Conservative,” “The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism” and “The Communist: Frank Marshall Davis: the Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mentor.” His articles regularly appear in publications ranging from USA Today to The New York Times, plus numerous academic journals. A frequent commentator on television and radio, Kengor earned his bachelor’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh and his master’s from American University.