Explain what contributed to the demise of left-wing terrorism in the United States

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Several factors contributed to the demise of left-wing terrorism in the United States.
One major problem was that intellectual elites controlled the movement (Serafino, 2002). During the time of student activism, leftist elites developed followings and sympathy across a broad spectrum of collegiate and highly educated people. Kevin J. Riley and Bruce Hoffman (1995) note that this gave the left a broad constituency. Nevertheless, the movement lost its base when student activism began to disappear from American academic life. As the mood of the country shifted toward more conservative patterns of behavior, left-wing terrorists enjoyed little sympathetic ideological support. Riley and Hoffman surveyed several U.S. law enforcement agencies in the mid-1990s to determine their concern with DT: They found that police departments were worried about terrorism, but left-wing groups were not at the top of their agenda. Only 25 percent of the urban agencies surveyed reported any left-wing activity? rather, they reported much more activity from other types of groups. Riley and Hoffman say that the left-wing groups engaged in symbolic violence. Some identified with Marxist-Leninist ideology, while others worked against specific political issues, such as U.S. military involvement in Central and South America. The collapse of the Soviet Union did not bolster the popularity of left-wing causes. In 1995, police perceived right-wing and Puerto Rican groups to be the greatest threats. The greatest concentration of left-wing groups was on the West Coast, but they posed a comparatively minor threat.