As the country focuses on the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination, there is another, perhaps even more macabre anniversary taking place. This week marks the 35th anniversary of the Jonestown massacre in Guyana, South America. Nearly one thousand followers of Jim Jones, a Marxist madman who masqueraded as a preacher, were coaxed into drinking the “kool-aid” that killed them on November 18, 1978.

Jones speaking at the Muslim Spiritual Jubilee in 1976.

Contrary to what leftists will admit, Jones was an avowed leftist himself, whose community organizing techniques ingratiated him with Democratic Politicians as well as with the Muslim communities. He exploited the black minorities and acquired great power after essentially mobilizing his flock to put Democrat George Moscone over the top in the 1975 San Francisco mayoral election against a successful conservative businessman named John Barbagelata.

See if these techniques sound familiar, via SF Weekly:

Until his dying day, March 19, 1994, former Supervisor John Barbagelata swore that Jim Jones and members of the People’s Temple stole the 1975 mayoral election from him by double- and triple-voting under dead people’s names, giving the coveted seat of chief executive to Moscone, who, along with Willie Brown and other members of the liberal elite, coddled Jones, assisted his rise to power, and failed to stop his descent into depravity and mass murder.

Barbagelata: Mayoral loss a flashpoint in American history?

Jones was subsequently rewarded by Moscone with a gig on the San Francisco Housing Authority. A short time later, the mayor enlisted the help of then Assemblyman Willie Brown (D) to help change the law to grant Moscone the power to name that board’s chairman; he did just that and Jones soon thereafter headed the Housing Authority.

Jones also engaged the Muslim communities in both San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Jeannie Mills, a woman who saw the light and fled the Peoples Temple, wrote a book entitled, Six Years with God. In it, she wrote:

Just a few doors down the street from the San Francisco temple the Black Muslims had their temple. Jim made strong overtures of friendship to this strong group, even sending large contingencies of our membership to attend their services, to which they responded by sending their members to our services. – Six Years with God, p. 108.

As Jones’s power grew, he engaged the Muslim community in Los Angeles. Writes Mills in a caption under the accompanying photo:

Jim Jones delivering the Keynote address to 20,000 people at the Muslims’ Spiritual Jubilee in Los Angeles in May 1976. This joint rally was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center. – Six Years with God, p. 195.

Incidentally, after fleeing Jones’s Temple, Mills – whose real name was Deanna Mertle – reached out to far left-wing activist Ralph Nader for help. Nader betrayed her and news of her plea made it back to Jones, whose goons terrified Mertle and her husband Elmer. The Mertles were murdered in 1980 and it is widely believed that Jones’ surviving members did it, which could potentially make Nader an accessory.

Democrat Jerry Brown, who was Governor of California from 1975 – 1983 (and has since been re-elected) befriended Jones, even visiting his Temple. The list of powerful Democratic politicians Jones allied with was extensive.

Speier: Why is this woman still a Democrat?

Consider the only U.S. Congressman to be killed in the line of duty. Rep. Leo Ryan (D-CA) flew to Jonestown shortly before the massacre on a fact finding mission. He never made it back. His party was attacked by Jones’s thugs as it was preparing to board the plane back to the U.S. A young staffer who accompanied Ryan on the trip was shot five times but survived. Her name was Jackie Speier, who is today, rather shockingly, a Democratic Congressman from California.

Unfortunately, the failure on the part of Speier to recognize that the ideology responsible for the terror she saw up close long ago infiltrated the party she represents today.