It’s almost funny that Donald Trump and his Project 2025ers want to rev up another Red Scare, given that their party has grown increasingly scary and has made the color red its own.
These regressives are dusting off the old tactic of branding democratic socialists — or anyone resisting their christofascist agenda — as communists trying to take over our country as they themselves try to impose their own sort of totalitarianism.
A Red Scare happened here after the Russian revolution and World War I. In the early ‘50s, GOP Sen. Joseph McCarthy reignited another one that fizzled after the public learned he was lying through his teeth. (Roy Cohn, McCarthy’s chief counsel, later became Trump’s mentor.)
It’s important to note that, as Reuters puts it, democratic socialists advocate pursuing progressive policies through elections, while communism seeks to abolish private ownership of property and create a classless society (albeit whose leaders generally enjoy wealth and privileges their subjects don’t).
Facing damning headlines and sinking approval ratings, Trump has been blathering about communism for weeks, and bootlickers like Sen. Ted Cruz and House Speaker Mike Johnson have picked up his talking “points.”
Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of the book “Strongmen,“ summed up their game plan in a Substack article: “Conjure a Communist threat inside America, associating with it the entire Democratic Party, to prepare people to accept whatever authoritarian crackdown the administration and the Republican Party may be planning to stop free and fair elections from handing them a defeat.”
At Mount Rushmore on the eve of our country’s 250th birthday, Trump pretty much stated his regime’s motives as he hyped his voter suppression bill during an anti-communist tirade: “We can only lose the midterms if we allow ourselves to lose the midterms, if we are foolish, stupid and unwise. But if we terminate the filibuster, as we should do, and immediately vote for the Save America [for His Regime] Act, then we will not lose an election for 100 years.”
At 80, he may not be expecting to stick around that long. But three weeks later, after mocking and insulting reporters at the White House Correspondents Dinner, he put on a “Trump 2028” cap and repeated his running “joke” about seeking what he called a fourth term.
We all know he only had one term before this one, but he just can’t stop telling his Big Lie. Or maybe he doesn’t even know he’s lying anymore.
Pointing one finger with three pointing back at him
Speaking of delusions, Trump seems incapable of grasping how closely his regime resembles the bogeymen he rants about.
“Communism is the exact opposite of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” he proclaimed at Mount Rushmore. “It is death, tyranny and the pursuit of evil.”
Yes, communist dictatorships have operated that way, but so have the fascist ones. History shows that brutality and oppression are natural byproducts of authoritarianism, regardless of whether they start out on the right or the left.
And the regime we’re under now has made no secret of where it stands.
The masked marauders of its Department of Homeland “Security” have brutalized and killed immigrants, whether documented or not, as well as U.S. citizens who stood up for their civil rights.
DHS wanted to convert warehouses into immigrant concentration camps that, based on its existing facilities, would have been little better than torture chambers or work camps.
War Secretary Pete Hegseth craves lethality as much as he does testosterone and can’t hide his glee at carrying out his boss’ orders for unprovoked attacks on everything from fishing boats to sovereign countries.
Federal agencies have 86ed numerous protections and safety measures for Americans while making health insurance unaffordable for many of us.
Like any aspiring autocrat, Trump has used federal agencies to threaten and persecute dissenters, including law firms, broadcasters, universities and even former officials of his own administration.
He has treated GOP members of Congress and the Supreme Court as lackeys and rubber stamps, roles too many have embraced too often.
Besides unprecedented pressure and demands on Congress to pass the “Save America” Act, he ordered red states to do special gerrymanders and is trying to federalize elections to suppress the Democratic vote.
Trump, who keeps trampling on constitutional rights and teasing the idea of an unconstitutional third term, nonetheless claims that it’s those imaginary communist revolutionaries who are against the Constitution.
But if there is any reason for a Red Scare, you can see it on the cap that says “Trump 2028.”
Trump’s not good at much, but as Ben-Ghiat noted, he’s an effective huckster who’s built a team with similar skills.“Watch how their language and slogans align and how Communist threats to elections become the drum they beat as we head into the midterms,” she advised. “Understanding how propaganda works helps us to see through it and to help others to do the same.”
Canary note: Opinions expressed in any Op-Ed column appearing on this site are the views of the writer and are not necessarily the opinions of Coal Region Canary.
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