Alternate Facts
I guess the caption on the photo of Trump shaking hands with Mayor Mamdani is an “alternate fact”. What today’s headline (or, at least Saturday’s headline) should say is, “PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES SHAKES HANDS WITH ‘GODLESS COMMUNIST’ IN THE OVAL OFFICE!!!”
In the Democratic Primaries in New York City, multiple Democratic Socialists defeated more “mainstream” Democrats. They had the support of Mayor Mamdani and are the same kind of Democratic Socialists as Congressman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and, most of all Senator Bernie Sanders.
Trump preached to the choir at the Faith and Freedom Annual Coalition Dinner Friday, held at the Hilton Ballroom in downtown Washington. We all know the scene. It’s the same place where a potential assassin broke through the outer security rings at the White House Press Corps dinner, causing evacuation and cutting Trump’s remarks. Bet the Secret Service was better prepared this time.
Faith and Freedom
But there was no stopping Trump at the Faith and Freedom Dinner. According to the President, the radical left; “…want to resume the transgender mutilation of children, they want to restart the war on Christians and churches, and as you saw with the communists elected in New York recently … they want to completely destroy the traditional American way of life”(Guardian).
As the old “Vegematic” commercial goes – “but there’s more”.
Trump said of the Democratic Party; “They’re not smart enough or tough enough to fight the plague that is happening right before your very eyes … They are becoming a Communist party – not social Democrats. They are core communists.” And Trump knows his Faith and Freedom audience. The Democratic Socialists aren’t just a threat to America, they are direct threat to – Christians!! “All communists are godless. They do not believe in God … These ruthless communists attack all religions, but in particular Christianity. They always do. They’re after Christianity more than any other religion” (Guardian).
Whew – and I thought the Democratic Socialists just wanted universal healthcare, paid for by taxing extreme wealth.
Maps in Red
When I was a kid, they had these huge roll-up maps in our social studies classes. There was a colorful one of the United States. (It was geographically inaccurate; Alaska looked about the size of Texas. It’s actually two and a half times the size. But, back then, Alaska had only been a state for a couple of years). And then there was the world map, with huge swaths of RED: the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, China, North Korea, Cuba, and Vietnam. RED Communism, spreading like blood from an evil wound coming right from Moscow to control the world.
That map made it easy to teach American kids “their job”. The United States had to contain Communism, stop the bleeding. And we had alliance systems surrounding the RED all over the world. The strategy was called “containment”, and was used to justify the Vietnam War. Better to fight (Godless) Communism in Vietnam, rather than the streets of Des Moines or Columbus. The fatal flaw was that Communism in the Soviet Union wasn’t the same as Communism in China or in Vietnam. They were still Russians, Chinese, and Vietnamese, with nationalists loyalties.
Socialists
Socialists aren’t Communists, and have never been Communists. And, Democratic Socialists aren’t even the committed socialists that many European countries have, or even part of the Socialist Party of the United States. But, just like that map with the blood smear in the middle, it’s easy to “paint” them all the same. (The US Socialist Party has a dismal record. I’m not usually a Wikipedia quoter, but look at their page on the Socialists. It shows their losing election record since 1976).
The people of Vermont re-elect Bernie Sanders like clockwork. Vermont isn’t even considered a “radical state”, like California or Massachusetts. In fact, the Governor of the state, elected statewide just like Sanders, is a Republican. So how can the folks in the Green Mountains elect a “Godless Communist”, keeping him in the Senate for nearing twenty years? Maybe that tells you everything you need to know about Democratic Socialists. They are Democrats, Americans, who want to see the “wealth gap” start to narrow just a bit.
Have or Not
And maybe the Democratic Socialists have a good point. Most Americans would say that living in our country is getting harder. Costs are going up, money is getting tighter, and adults can no longer assume that their children will have a better economic life than themselves. Yet, from a purely “capitalist” standpoint, America is exactly where Trump says it is, in a “Golden Age”. The stock market seems to have no connection to everyday Americans, and is setting records daily.
The United States is the home to 989 billionaires (Forbes), and the term “millionaire” is now required in many places for hope to buy a home or to have a retirement. The economic divisions of America have never been so apparent. The top one percent of Americans hold over thirty percent of American wealth. Our country has never been so divided between the “haves” and the “have nots” (Inequality.org).
I’m not a Democratic “Socialist”, but I get exactly where they are coming from. And I also get why they were successful in New York city elections. Some of the choices: a candidate committed to helping “the working person”, against an heir to the Levi-Strauss fortune (Dan Goldman) or the Kennedy family (Jack Schlossberg). All Democrats should take note.
There is a different division in the United States besides Democrats versus Republican. It’s the division over having wealth or not having wealth, worrying about the stock market, or hoping the paycheck covers the bills. And that’s a powerful motivation driving voters to the polls.
