The Communist Menace

Trump:

“Our warriors did not fight communism on battlefields across the world, only to have that menace rear its ugly head right back here in America. It’s like a cancer, you got to cut it out.”

Communism is like a cancer. It always leads to tyranny.

Fortunately, not a single elected officeholder in America (out of roughly 500,000) is a communist.

Nor a single serious candidate for office, for that matter.

The fear that team-Trump hopes to stoke to draw attention from the horrible mess he’s made (see below: reckless and feckless) is ridiculous.

Not one in half a million? Is that really a menace?

I’ll get to Democratic socialists in a second but wait a minute.

What about our warriors who battled FASCISM on battlefields across the world, only to have THAT menace rear its ugly head right back here in America?

Isn’t that like a cancer, too? Don’t you have to cut it out, too?

And here’s the difference: Where no Democratic candidate or officeholder is a communist (though some do openly aspire to see America be more like Canada and Europe) the leader of the Republican Party is himself a budding fascist, in the style of Mussolini.

Here are some of the characteristics of fascism:

Strongman leadership style (loyalty over merit; personal whim over institutional competence)
Authoritarian rhetoric (attacks on courts, press, and elections)
Populist nationalism (Make America Great Again)
Self-glorification (“I alone can fix it,” portraits of the leader’s face on government buildings, on the proposed $250 bill, on passports; renaming the Kennedy Center . . .)
Demonization of out-groups (immigrants, Democrats, trans Americans)
Racism (firing black generals, branding black leaders “low IQ,” welcoming white Afrikaners)
Dehumanization (“scum,” “vermin”)
Co-optation of the business elite (in the front row of his inauguration)
A brown-shirt type police force (masked and unidentified)
Thugs loyal to the leader (celebrated as patriots, pardoned when convicted)
Constant disinformation (Orwell on steroids)

I doubt you can find a Democratic officeholder who for years kept a book of Karl Marx by his bedside . . . but Trump for years kept a book of Hitler’s speeches by his.

Where the co-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America — a woman with no power that no one had ever heard of until last month — goes on TV saying we should abolish the Senate . . . perhaps because Wyoming’s 600,000 fine citizens have as much power as California’s 40 million . . . Trump has all but entirely co-opted the Senate. Or just ignored it, as in the case of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

So yes:

The platform of the Democratic Socialists of America has crazy stuff in it. But it is not stuff that “mainstream” Democratic Socialists — like Bernie and AOC and Zohran — advocate.

Abolish the police and prisons? And borders? And the Senate? And private property? I mean — come on.

If the DSA co-chair runs for president, as she has every right to, I’d be amazed if she won the endorsement of a single Democrat.

So, if you know anyone who is genuinely scared by the Red Menace — and not just pretending to be, like Trump — share this info with them so they can relax and enjoy the rest of the summer.

And if you know anyone who’s terrified we will become a country with free public education or free roads or free public parks — or higher income tax rates — as they have in Canada and Europe and Australia and just about everywhere else . . . or that we’ll have universal health care (with access to private care and luxury hospital suites for those who can afford it) . . . suggest that they vacation to Madrid or Milan or Munich or Montreal or Melbourne and see whether those are really the hell holes Trump would have you think. ‘

And remind them that we already have a lot of these socialist things. Do they really want to abolish Medicare (the creation of which Ronald Reagan so vigorously opposed)? Do they really want to cut off food assistance to children, the disabled, veterans and the elderly who need it? I don’t think they do.

RECKLESS AND FECKLESS

How could we have let this happen??? Our country was so recently “the envy of the world.” The good guy that, despite all her flaws and missteps, was seen to stand for freedom, compassion, leadership. Truth, justice, and the American way, so to speak.

Fighting corruption, not governed by it.

Before Trump, inflation had fallen to 2.7% and was headed down, as were interest rates. Job growth was strong. Today, we have stagflation: rising prices and stagnant job growth.

Before Trump, the Strait of Hormuz was open and we had unlimited 24/7 inspection of its nuclear facilities, with 98% of their enriched uranium removed.

What’s more, our awesome military invincibility was taken as a given.

Today, the Strait is closed, and the world sees us as both reckless and feckless. Iran has us over a barrel. Millions of barrels, actually.

I ask again: how could we have let this happen?

He promised to end the Ukraine War on Day one, to bring prices down on Day One. He alone could fix it. He hired “all the best people.” (Mostly from FOX News.) All twenty-odd women who had accused him of wrongdoing were lying. Not since Lincoln has a president ever been so badly treated! Everything is rigged against him! He is such a victim! The more than $2 billion by which he’s enriched his family in a year and a half in no way violates the emoluments clause of the Constitution. The economy is hot! Everybdy knows it! Things are great! He’s the most handsome, healthy, honest, successful president in history — and if you don’t agree, just look at all the monuments he’s erecting to himself. He won the FIFA Peace Prize, for crying out loud! And how about the gladiators he had fighting on the White House lawn? And the way he’s bulldozed the East Wing and refurbished the reflecting pool?

Mount Rushmore, here he comes. If only he can protect us from the radical lunatic communist scum who don’t approve of the job he’s doing. Which is 66% of the country.

Join Indivisible!

Support the opposition!