[The following is not an argument against your comment — just thoughts on the article and Kessler as a “wannabee”].
The article presents the earlier Kessler as a leftist hanger-on shopping for an opportunity to impose himself as supreme leader on a group, any group, he could radicalize and engage in extreme conduct. Exact political principles were secondary to scratching his itch for extremist action. The wannabee aspect is Kessler wanting the lead role in drama of his own creation. This is what comes of the “make a difference” mantra he absorbed from Charlottesville left-liberal ethos.
This narrative might be a bit too convenient (for burying talk about the guy being an agent provocateur), but it does fit a lot of the evidence, including Kessler’s recent conversion to “white identity” issues. Failing to strike it big with a leftist following, he didn’t change his personality and desires, he just changed his principles, to align with the resentful nuts of the “other left”. The name “Unite the Right” reflects his aspirations to head a cause. The Charlottesville event provided the opportunity for conflict he had been trying to orchestrate for years. Once he had it, he had no idea what to do with it.
Someone like this makes an easy pawn, or unwitting stooge, for an experienced political operator like MacAuliffe. What a loser.