The Communist Party USA’s open endorsement of Saturday’s One Nation march on the Mall in Washington shows just how radicalized the mainstream of the American left has become, says noted author Paul Kengor. Organizers such as NAACP President Ben Jealous have labeled the march as the “antidote” to the tea party movement. The event also is a response to Glenn Beck’s Aug. 28 “Restoring Honor” rally.

“We aren’t the alternative to the tea party; we’re the antidote,” Jealous told The Washington Post Thursday.

The NAACP put the team responsible for its annual Image Awards show in charge of organizing the One Nation rally, the Post reports.

“The surprise here is that the communists have openly endorsed this,” Kengor tells Newsmax. “In the past, the communists carefully duped liberals and progressives by secretly enlisting them in rallies, marches, and protests.

The communists did this as they concealed the fact that they were communists.

“The fact that communists can now act so openly, locked arm in arm with fellow travelers in the ‘liberal/progressive’ left, shows just how far liberals and progressives have come. It’s a new day for the left, apparently,” says Kengor, who recently authored a book detailing the communist infiltration of the progressive left during the past 100 years.

“I guess the liberal/progressive left and communist left are closer than ever. There seems to be a surge in confidence and a lot of common ground.”

The organizers’ list of endorsing groups also includes the International Socialist Organization; the Democratic Socialists of America; and the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America, which President Barack Obama addressed in 1996 while campaigning for the Illinois state Senate.