The Other Red Scare

​I read a news item yesterday about how, during the House floor debate on whether to vote Mark Meadows in contempt, Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Qville) called Democrats “communists.”  There was a video embedded, though I didn’t watch it because my level of interest of seeing her rant was non-existent.  But I did like that Jamie Raskin had a solid response when it was his time to speak, dripping with grace in his deeply polite reference to her --

“We are not a banana republic because we hold everybody to equality under the law,” Rep. Raskin said, “and we are not ‘communists’ as the gentlelady from Georgia suggested.  That’s just the friends of the former president who you lionize, like the dictator of North Korea who he loves and Vladimir Putin, who said that the greatest tragedy of the 20th century was the collapse of the Soviet Union. So those are your friends – don’t put them on our side.”

What I would have most-liked though, albeit more from reporters whenever they interview the gentlelady, is for her to be asked to define what her understanding of a “communist” is.  I’m truly not certain she could do it. 

But then, I’m not sure many Republicans in Congress who call Democrats “communists” or “socialists” could do it either.  Nor could most Republicans across the country who cry it out, as well.  And who have been doing so for the past 70 years.

The thing is, Republicans have been calling Democrats “communists” and “socialists” since the days of McCarthyism in the 1950s and talked about how liberals supposedly want to make America into a socialist country.  And since that time, Democrats have sat in the White House, controlled the Senate and controlled the House of Representatives – in fact, there have been times when Democrats have held all three at the same time.  And yet, after 70 years of being called “commies” and “socialists” and charged with wanting to make the United States “socialist” – it still hasn’t yet happened.  It’s still what Democrats “want” to do.  After 70 years.  Despite all the control Democrats have had during that time, Democrats still haven’t managed to make America “socialist.”  You have to think that if Democrats haven’t done it in 70 years, especially during the years they held the White House, Senate and House at the same time, then they really don’t want it to happen. 

"Better dead than Red" became a Republican credo when the Party first began trying to scare the country about liberals and created the very literal Blacklist in the 1950s - made notorious with an actual booklet filled with names that was called Red Channels.  That today the GOP is known as the Red party is an irony that should be lost on no one...

For the record, communism has only existed for 98 years.  In Russia, revolutionary rebels managed to overthrow the monarchy and turn the country socialist in a little over five years.  Democrats, even when being in control through much of the time, haven’t been able to accomplish it in 70 years.

Which makes me think that all these Republicans who have been calling Democrats “communists” and “socialists” over much of the past century don’t actually have a clue what they’re talking about. Especially since it’s Democrats and liberals who have been fighting Republican fascism in order to keep the United States a democracy.

By the way, socialism is a political philosophy where the government or society as a whole controls the production and distribution of industry and capital.

It is not providing healthcare and old age assistance and food stamps to those in need.  That’s government helping the public like, well, y'know, government is supposed to do.  “Social programs” are not socialism or communism.  Yes, yes, I know Republicans get in a dither because the phrase contains the word "social," just like socialism does.  But that's like saying "butterflies" can be spread on toast because they contain "butter." 

For the record:  the definition of "social" is -- "Relating to human society and its members."  A concept that Republicans, who seem to live by the credo of "I got mine, you're on your own", have long seemed to have a problem with.

So, I’d like someone to ask Margorie Taylor Greene – or any Republican calling Democrats “communists” – what they think “communism” is.  After 70 years, you’d think that they might have figured it out.

Meanwhile, call today’s Republican Party “fascist” – which is it, by every book definition - and the weeping and cries of horror will pierce the air like a stuck pig.  And I can actually explain why it’s actually fascist, as I did in great detail here.

But…Democrats as commies?  Please, after 70 years, just ask anyone who says that to define the term and what they actually mean.  Please.

And no, government helping those in need is not the correct answer.