People have always warned us against communism, and the
media attacked them for it. Those attacks aren’t aging well.
-By Chad O. Jackson
In 2012, 4 years into Barack Obama’s presidency, then congressman Lt. Col. Allen B. West came under fire by the press for claiming that members of the congressional progressive caucus were communists. In a frenzy of outrage, news pundits called West “Stupid”, and his words “asinine”. Few people are insightful enough to really understand the chicanery which was masterfully performed by the press on this matter. It isn’t so much a question as to whether the chicanery was sheer malice or bold ignorance, the result was all the same; to frame West as a ‘conspiracy theorist’ and ‘fringe politician’ who even mainstream republicans ought to distance themselves from for the sake of ‘civility and decorum’.
Whether the press knew it at the time or not, rather than intelligently articulating to the American people the difference between where the DNC was heading and what communism envisioned, their handling of Allen West’s comments was totally in-keeping with communist strategy and cultural Marxist smear propaganda, all aimed at dissuading the public from seriously weighing and considering the validity of West’s claims. His claims were indeed valid. There is not a political ideology known to man more so than communism, whose students have been more deceptive in expanding around the world by way of infiltration and subversion. Thomas Jefferson was clear and concise with his political ideology which shaped traditional republicanism in America; students and purveyors of his philosophy are not secretive about the Jeffersonian influence on their politics, and do not feel that their partiality is something that should be advocated for in a coded way, rather overtly. The same can be argued for those who follow the theories and traditions of James Madison, Milton Friedman, Joseph de Maistre etc. For communists however, although their leader’s disdain for Christianity and the free market economy was blatantly clear, Karl Marx (unlike the other thinkers here mentioned) notably encouraged deception, infiltration and subversion in the quest to expand his ideology around the world. Said he in the latter pages of the Communist Manifesto after listing a number of countries where communists have infiltrated existing parties and political factions, “The Communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of things. In all these movements they bring to the front, as the leading question in each, the property question, no matter what its degree of development at the time… they labor everywhere for the union and agreement of the democratic parties of all countries.” Students of Marx are legion. Of them, the most noteworthy are Antonio Gramsci, John Dewey, Leon Trotsky, Herbert Marcuse, Saul Alinsky and Howard Zinn, just to name a small few; all men who intensely thought on, wrote about, and executed practical ways to actualize Marxism by way of ‘democracy’; namely, understanding that in a western country where the will of the people dictates the trajectory of the nation, he who shapes public opinion defines the “will of the people”.
In early 20th century America, the progressive movement was in vogue, especially among young, affluent heirs of powerful Democrat elitists. These youngsters who read Marx in their colleges and universities sympathized with the Bolsheviks in the Russian Revolution of 1917 and were themselves moved by communist rhetoric. Marxian thought is what drove them to found such organizations as the NAACP, Planned Parenthood, the IWW, the AFL and many others. The progressive era was picking up steam among ordinary people on account of its seemingly amiable and sympathetic sentiments for their struggles; and the young, eugenics-minded, affluent, and well-connected Democrats were all too willing to exploit that. Thus, in-keeping with the communist manifesto along with direct instructions from Vladimir Lenin, the progressive wing of the Democratic Party in America became the focus of Marxist infiltration, as well as other state and local so-called worker/farmer parties that were under the umbrella of the Democratic party. In his 1924 letter to then Attorney General Herman L. Ekern, Senator Robert LaFollette warned of Communist infiltration into a Minnesota convention, saying “they are seeking to use the Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota and other Progressive organizations as a means of advancing their own ends.” It’s worth noting that LaFollette himself was a staunch socialist; he either naively failed to see communism as the unavoidable byproduct of socialism or was himself partaking in the well-known Marxist subversive tactic of delivering a blistering public attack of communism as a divertive measure in the midst of a ‘red scare’, only to work as an underhanded ally for the communist cause from a position of influence or power. Many who have practiced this technique claimed that they were “anti-communist”, but in reality, when it came to the rhetoric they espoused and the policies they supported, there was no distinguishable difference between them and flag waving communists.
During a press conference in 2012, Col. Allen West was challenged by the media on his claim that a number of Democrat lawmakers were communists. Rather than backstepping his claims, West spoke plainly, “I don’t regret it whatsoever”, said West matter of factly. “If you take the time to study the political spectrum of ideologies, you’ll understand that American communists were naming themselves as ‘progressives’... what I hope that people would do in the media, is maybe you should do a little research and start looking at what political ideologies are and what they stand for. There’s a very thin line between communism, progressivism, Marxism, socialism, or statism; it’s about nationalizing production. It’s about expanding the welfare state. It’s about this idea of ‘social and economic justice’. And it's also about this idea of a secular state.” What West did with his answer is masterful. He de-blurred the otherwise intentionally abstract and confused nature of all the leftist “isims”, and effortlessly showed how they ultimately want the same thing. His answer also exposes something deeper - when leftists call conservatives “fascists”, they are merely projecting their own tendency to shield their true ideology under a less scary name onto conservatives. Genuine conservatives truly have nothing to do with fascism. Hitler, whom leftists denounce as the “father of fascism”, fancied himself a ‘National Socialist’. The official name for the NAZI party was Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, which translates to National Socialist German Workers' Party. Socialism is in no way a tenet of conservatism, but of leftism. Yet, when a Democrat Politician or the ladies on ‘The View’ call their political adversaries “fascists”, not only does the mainstream media ignore it, but they also agree with it! If they are allowed to recklessly and falsely associate radical political ideologies to conservatism with no facts to support their claims, then by that same reasoning, conservatives should unapologetically follow the lead of Allen West in tying radical leftism to communism since they have the facts to support it.
When it comes to the political landscape, America is essentially a “two party system”. Although the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) has existed since 1919, the Socialist Party of the United States of America (SPUSA) since 1973 and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) since 1980, these parties, fully aware of their inability to win national support as fringe groups, serve merely as a perceived ‘harsher option’ to make the DNC appear more moderate and acceptable. Others of them, as part of their efforts to have a winning chance as viable candidates, have won elections as card-carrying Democrats. They play from all angles. It’s worth noting that these parties have all endorsed the Democrat candidate for president in every election since their respective existences where a nominee from their own faction wasn’t running. It’s not really a question of whether Allen West or anyone else can prove that THIS Democrat or THAT Democrat is a communist; he has already articulated, and the last 10 years have shown us, that there really isn't much of a distinguishable difference between what communism envisions, and what the modern Democrat party is pursuing in the way of public policy.