My name is Daniel. I was an English teacher in Seoul, South Korea, and am now a writer who has

published three books including South Korea: Our Story by Daniel Nardini.

                    As I have mentioned before, I am a member of the Libertarian Party. People have

asked me what is the Libertarian Party? In a nutshell, the Libertarian Party is in favor of capitalism,

free enterprise, the rights of the individual, less government and favor private property, and above all for

maximum freedom and capitalist democracy. Founded in 1971, the Libertarian Party is in fact the

third largest party in membership only after the Democratic and Republican parties. One of the most

important aspects of the Libertarian Party is that anyone who joins it must sign a pledge card that that

person will not practice, advocate or condone violence. This brings me to people I used to know in the

Socialist Workers Party USA, and the Communist Party USA. Like so many people I met in college,

there were people from these two leftist parties around. I got to know some of them, and especially

the older members who had been around at the time since the 1930's and the 1950's. Having seen

some of their rallies, their demonstrations and their meetings, I was struck by their discipline, their

peaceful tactics, and most important of all their efforts to prevent violence from happening either

by their membership or from the "other side" (whatever other side that was) against them. The older

members of these parties tried to also convince young people at the time to vote in local and state

elections, peacefully hand out their party newspapers and pamphlets, and invite local people to

book fairs, public movie showings, and of course party forums. They say they were opposed to

capitalism, but seemed to want to bring about "socialism" peacefully. This was a generation ago.

All of those party members are dead now, and those they taught have taken their positions. But

the older members of today and the new generation they are training could not be more different. 

Many new generation communists, anarchists, and even some social democrats and members of

the Democratic Party have turned to violence. As part of the umbrella group Antifa (anti-fascist),

they have become involved in attacking people, smashing businesses, using weapons and bombs,

and making it very clear that they will not tolerate any speech they do not agree with. Their tactics

and brutality have not only turned many Americans off but if anything is creating sympathy for

the neo-nazis and Ku Klux Klan. Those who join the Antifa movement do not seem to believe in

using legal methods, and certainly not peaceful ones. They communicate with each other by social

media, and they do not believe in using the vote or what they call any "capitalist tool" to get their

message across. And sadly Antifa is growing. What scares me is how many people in not just

the United States but in so many other parts of the world are beginning to want to join in on this

violent and terroristic armageddon.