Jonathan P. Baird

When the Soviet Union and the Eastern European bloc countries collapsed between 1989 and 1991, most people believed it was near the end time for the communist regimes. Then there was still China and Cuba but China was moving in a capitalist direction (whatever it called itself) and Cuba was struggling to survive. I think it is fair to say the remaining remnants of communism were on the ropes.

After 9/11, for America, the threat of Al Qaeda and the Taliban replaced any communist threat. Over the last 20 years or so, a Middle East focus continued. We had the Iraq War and now the Iran War.

Cuba is a pale shadow of its former self during the Fidel Castro years with the country virtually on life support. Power outages are a regular fact of life there.

So what are we to make of Doanld Trump’s invoking the dangers of communism like it is the 1950’s? There is no regime out there remotely like the Soviets in the 1950’s but he has been calling everyone who disagrees with him a communist. For Trump that is like every Democrat. It doesn’t matter if you are Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders.

I think the name-calling is Trump’s way of changing the conversation away from his failure to address affordability and the economy. He ran on that. He said he was the only one who could fix the economy because he was supposedly such a great businessman.

As he has made clear, fixing the economy is not his priority. His mission is self-looting, not doing anything for working class Americans. The communism talk is a cover for him stealing the American people blind.

Probably his advisors told him that attacking communists plays well with his MAGA base. Clearly he believes this is a strong line of attack that has worked in the past. He added that the communists want to get rid of religion. The name-calling distracts from his refusal to release the Epsten files. Trump has been desperate to avoid any reckoning with that.

The use of the term “communist” reminds me of his attacks on Antifa. He is creating a boogeyman that doesn’t exist. Of course there are millions of people who participated in the No Kings demonstrations who identify as anti-fascists but no one I know is in any Antifa.

Fascism thrives on conspiracy theories and the communists, like Antifa, serve Trump’s purpose of distraction. There is nothing rational about what Trump is doing in creating an essentially mythological enemy.

I do think the communism accusation is related to the ascendance of democratic socialism in the Democratic Party as reflected in the victories of Zohran Mamdani and other progressive Democratic candidates. Trump is red-baiting Democrats who have an economic populist message because he finds that political tendency threatening.

For anyone who wants to have a serious conversation about democratic socialism, it is worth pointing out Trump’s guilt by association tactic. The differences between communism and democratic socialism are vast.

Democratic socialists oppose economic inequality but they believe in democracy, free elections and the rule of law. Communist societies have a history of degenerating into one-party dictatorships where a new party elite rules over the masses. Trump has his own agenda increasing confusion about such distinctions. He lies to smear democratic socialists.

It is hard not to think he is promoting a new McCarthyism where everyone on the left gets slandered. It has been almost 80 years since McCarthyism and there is value in recalling what happened then.

A demagogic senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, used unsubstantiated allegations to accuse citizens of being communists. He had no evidence but he savaged innocent people who leaned left and ruined the lives of thousands. He falsely claimed to hold a specific list of communists who worked in the State Department. He subjected witnesses to bullying interrogations before his Senate Committee. He replaced any presumption of innocence with a presumption of guilt that had to be disproven.

McCarthy aggressively pursued others in the federal government, Hollywood and academia. Getting called before his committee became a career-ending experience. Hundreds of school teachers and college professors were subjected to blacklisting and firing for allegedly being subversive. McCarthy chilled the entire academic world. People became afraid to voice any type of dissenting opinion for fear of adverse consequences.

Donald Trump’s mentor, Roy Cohn, was McCarthy’s chief counsel and a prime architect of that guilt by association witch-hunt. I expect Trump learned red-baiting from his mentor. He uses fear and lies to scare people away from popular democratic socialist ideas like Medicare for all and taxing the billionaire class.

Robert Reich says Trump is using the communist ploy because he has run out of cards to play. Trump’s schtick is tired after ten years on replay. Reich accurately writes:

“He can’t talk about the economy because prices continue to rise faster than wages, which means most Americans are getting poorer. He can’t talk about foreign policy because his war in Iran has become a debacle, his tariffs an utter failure and he obviously hasn’t settled the war in Ukraine on “day one”. He can’t talk about immigration because his raids and mass deportations have become so unpopular.”

Considering how vicious and damaging the original MaCarthyism was, there must be no repetition. Calling people communist is low but such lies are par for the Trump course. This time it is not going to work.