For real die-hard idealogues, it is always The Idea that matters. It may be a religion, or political or tribal system, but whatever form it takes The Idea is The End, and The End justifies The Means.

Oho, beat me to it. I would note that Comrade Stalin made his bones with Lenin by his ‘exes’, expropriations, generally bank robberies – which fits neatly with the Strategypage heading of this thread. Thus Lenin could afford his ‘professional revolutionaries’, paid community organizers funded by said robberies and some other funding sources – such as marrying his ‘radical chic’ followers to wealthy heiress, whose fortunes helped destroy their own families.

Hard to avoid thinking that the Walter Annenberg fortune was similarly used by Bill Ayers/Barak Obama, not as Annenberg intended (to improve education), but rather to fund – enormously – their own favored ‘community organizers’ and organizations, at the expense of the slighted Chicago schools. Thus a rung on Barak’s ‘means of ascent’ ladder.