Last week, our congressman, Ben Cline, appeared on “Mornings with Maria” on Fox News. He was there to expose the terrifying menace of Democratic Socialism. Insisting Democrats are doing some, “scary stuff,” he called them, of course, “Communists.”
Never let it be said that Ben Cline is not out there fighting like mad for the things important to the Sixth District of Virginia.
But why trot out the old boogeyman, communism, now? Why, when America finds itself in a war of choice it can’t seem to get out of? Why, when the cost of living is so high, people can’t buy homes? Why, when we have the most corrupt presidential administration in history – one that enriches itself daily? Why has communism suddenly become such an important issue to our hardworking congressman?
Because Donald J. Trump says so.
Cline – like all the spineless submissives in the Republican majority – defends Trump’s lies.
The real question is why have Trump, Republicans and Fox News started pushing the idea that the Democratic Party is made up of communists?
It’s a distraction, for one thing. It’s an election year, and the Republican Party has no ideas to run on. They have failure on a grade scale and Americans increasingly moving away from them. Their one success, The One Big Beautiful Bill, has taken away health care and benefits from Americans to enrich billionaires and corporations. They can’t run on that, so they’re resorting to scare tactics.
Donald Trump, speaking at Mount Rushmore on July 3, said, “There is now a resurgence of the communist menace in our land, including from newcomers to our country who embrace ideas totally opposed to our way of life and our great success. You can be a communist, or you can be a patriot. You cannot be both.”
The Commies are coming! They are coming just like they were coming in the 1950s when disgraced U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy invented the Red Scare lie that communists had infiltrated our government to turn it into some kind of Soviet Duma. McCarthy ruined many lives before he and his untruths imploded.
Commies are coming just like they were coming in the build up to the Vietnam War. The reasoning then came out of The Domino Theory: if Vietnam fell completely to communism, all surrounding countries would follow. Leaders (Republican and Democrat) maintained that only sending American troops to Vietnam could stop a communist takeover. Americans believed this overly simplistic lie, and 58,000 Americans died in the resulting tragic war.
The Democratic Party is fighting for America to adopt what other modern prosperous nations have: comprehensive health care, a living wage, the right to unions, free education, social safety nets, and affordable housing. You know, the things that make countries livable.
Democratic Socialists – and most Americans – add economic equity (the rich paying their share of taxes) and workplace democracy to this list.
Republican leaders contend that those ideals are part of a vast communist conspiracy to take over. Scary stuff indeed.
American citizens have previously fallen for Red Scare lies, and Trump is hoping it’ll happen again. If people are scared, the Trump administration can crack down heavily on voting and elections. Fear ensures that we’ll go along with whatever leaders concoct.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, renowned expert on fascism, says of this, “Not subtle: the new party line is to associate communists with every crime, every offense. Create a sense of communist threat to justify a rightwing crackdown. Old playbook used with coups and fascist takeovers.”
We need to be on guard. Trump lies may be used to justify disruption to or cancellation of the Midterms. The false threat of global communism has gotten America into major crises before; it can happen again, and moral coward Ben Cline will cheer it on.
The Sixth District deserves better representation in Congress than this.
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