It’s time we had a little discussion about communism. Because way too many of you have no idea what it is.
I know this to be true from your social media comments and rhetoric. Just the other day, a candidate running for governor of our state made reference to “radical communist jihadists”—a combination that is all but ideologically impossible.
Words have meanings. And “communism” doesn’t mean a person with whom you disagree on some political issues.
That hasn’t stopped many people on the right—or your favorite Republican politicians, who also seem to have no idea what it is—from screaming about communism and accusing people of using it and/or loving it.
Communism, in simple terms, is the belief in a classless, stateless society in which all possessions are owned equally. There is no private land or businesses, and the collective community controls all means of production and land.
Now, have you heard anyone—even the most “radical” Democrats—talk of such ideas? Anyone even come close to proposing a classless, stateless society? Anyone recommending that there be no more private businesses?
Of course not.
But I’m not telling anyone anything that they don’t already know—even the people screaming “communist” the loudest. They’re aware that they don’t really know what the word means. They’re like toddlers screaming a cuss word for the first time. They don’t understand what they’re saying, but they know saying it is going to get a reaction and get them the attention they so desperately seek.
And “communist jihadist”? That’s just not a thing. For many reasons. Not least of which is the fact that communism is quite famously based in atheism, and a jihadist is quite famously very, very religious.
Look, I get what these people are trying to do. They’ve conjured up a boogeyman from under the bed in a sad attempt to undermine the very popular ideas that have grabbed the attention of a lot of voters across the country. Ideas that run counter to the Republican ideals of giving rich people all the breaks and hoping some of it eventually, maybe, sometimes trickles down to the workers.
Ideas like a city-run grocery store that pushes prices down and allows working people to eat three full meals a day instead of skipping meals to save money, as nearly 1 in 3 Alabamians are doing right now, according to a recent survey.
Ideas like raising the minimum wage, providing tax credits for quality child care, cutting taxes for workers, lowering the cost of housing and providing affordable, quality health care to all people.
It’s so weird to me that so many people who vote for Republican candidates and who also punch a clock or live paycheck to paycheck have such huge problems with these “communist” initiatives but barely uttered a peep when monopoly-level grocery stores jacked up prices under the guise of inflation and started raking in record profits. They turn a blind eye to Trump and Republicans cutting the child tax credit. They never raise a fuss about the cuts to Medicaid and food stamps that paid for the tax breaks that allowed billionaires to write off their private jets.
If Joe Biden or Barack Obama had given working people a temporary tax cut that went away after eight years but dumped a huge, permanent tax cut on billionaire Democratic donors, y’all would lose your minds. But that’s exactly what Trump did. And nary a peep.
The problem, however, is that a whole bunch of people who don’t count themselves in the MAGA cult have started to take notice—that the promises have fallen well short, that the rich are getting richer and the poor quite a bit poorer, and that financial life is pretty terrible for the average American worker. That’s why the president’s polling numbers are in the toilet and Republicans are looking at an absolute bloodbath in the midterms, even with all the shameful gerrymandering.
Now, they could change policy positions and start focusing on initiatives that help poor and working-class folks. They could implement funding for a meaningful child care program. They could roll back the health care cuts that are going to devastate Americans in the coming years. They could search out solutions for affordable housing. They could raise the minimum wage to a figure that at least gets the lowest-paid workers out of abject poverty.
Or … they could just call anyone who proposes such solutions a communist.
Let’s see how that works out for them.
