The same ideological forces attacking children are setting their sights on the elderly.
“You and I are like bookends. You radicalize the youth, I radicalize the old.”
Most political activists try to hide the game. Jane Fonda said it out loud.
During a virtual town hall event moderated by Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Fonda explained to a youth activist how their movement divides the work: Young activists radicalize young people, while veteran activists focus on misinforming and radicalizing older generations.
I was introduced to this relic from the COVID era by Natalya Murakhver, who heads up the nonprofit Restore Childhood.
Our conversation turned to the meteoric rise of socialist rhetoric and ideals in American culture — to the point where it’s being taught in schools as something to strive for.
The left’s strategy is hiding in plain sight, and we are watching this “bookend tactic” go to work on the most impressionable populations.
Leftist leaders like Weingarten want us to think it’s just about the children, but it’s not. This is about our grandparents, too.
While unions like the National Education Association (NEA) are using lessons inspired by infamous Marxist Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States, to reach kids as young as kindergarteners, government unions are also reaching older age groups to imprint on them the perceived needs of the working class and the importance of social justice activism — including why implementing communist systems and other socialist ideas are the only ways to save America.
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The NEA has a branch specifically for retirees called NEA-Retired. In the May 2026 edition of its member magazine, the publishers included comments such as,
“In light of the current political crisis facing our members, our schools, and our very democracy, the 2026 NEA Representative Assembly, in July, will build on the momentum of No Kings and May Day.”
“This moment requires all of us working in solidarity. We must organize for power.”
“Take an action every day, because we will not allow the Trump administration to privatize our schools, restrict our voting rights, erode civil rights, attack our unions, or silence our voices. ... We can’t just be outraged by what’s happening; we have to use that anger to courageously stand in this season of suffering.”
And if that anti-Trump message wasn’t clear enough, the magazine also included a photo of President Becky Pringle enjoying the “pleasure and honor” of meeting New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani ¾ a proud socialist.
In a similar way, the AFT has a program built around mobilizing retirees and helping them “discover techniques to help them build their retiree power.”
Topics from a past conference included workshops on strategic planning, data gathering, and effective messaging.
An AFT post on the 2023 event reported that Weingarten addressed her members by saying, “What does any good army do, alongside fighting for what it believes in? It trains, and it recruits.”
Now, much of this messaging relies on the pro-union, pro-collective idea that retirees — even after they are done working — still owe a duty to their union, and that’s that.
While some of that might seem innocuous, these efforts are seeds that will allow even more radical ideas to be planted down the line.
“I think I saw that Zoom call like probably a year or two ago, and I’m like, ‘How are they going to radicalize the old?’ ” Murakhver recalled. “Because the old are the ones who know the history. They weren’t subjected to this whole media blackout and the solution of consensus.”
Turns out, the answer lies in betraying the faith the elderly have in historically trusted institutions, such as government labor unions.
Leaders like Becky Pringle can start with a light touch of anti-establishment rhetoric about protecting education, and then a few years later can bluntly call for fighting the Trump administration.
The picture of her praising Mamdani on BlueSky is the next warning sign. In a few years, we shouldn’t be surprised to see the NEA glorify socialism by name.
In fact, the Democratic Socialists of America posted an article back in 2021 titled, “How DSA Can Activate an Under-tapped Resource: Retirees,” offering detailed instructions on how to activate retirees and make sure that their demographic is “treasured and valued as comrades in our long fight for socialism.”
These leaders have been playing the long game.
The tragic part about all this is that the people being targeted by the left are not, by any means, stupid or naive. They’re simply being misinformed and misled by organizations with extremely malicious intent.
There is none more skilled at spreading deliberate misinformation and shaping political narratives than the teachers’ unions.
When most people think of socialism, they imagine attacks on Amazon, Steve Jobs, or any other wealthy, self-made CEO.
But today, the target isn’t Wall Street. It’s your grandparents.
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