"Communist?" "Marxist?" "Fascist?" The GOP Dictionary Debacle:
Plus, the Weekend Wrap Up (August Edition)
Feel free to check the entire blog archives from “Political Pulse” & “Salzillo Report” on the 2024 primary cycle, rural outreach, redistricting litigation, base dynamics, campaign organization, the current media landscape, the issues at stake, Project 2025, Build Back Better, the progressive movement, the true story about former 2024 VP contender Gina Raimondo, and much more.
Since words like “Communism” and “Marxism” have been going around a lot in 2024, I thought it was high time to provide dictionary definitions for both of these terms. Just so the voters know what is real vs. imaginary.
Socialism [via Merrill Webster Dictionary]: “…a system of society or group living in which there is no private property”
OR
“a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state.”
compare CAPITALISM, COMMUNISM
Marxism: “the political, economic, and social principles and policies advocated by [Karl] Marx
especially: a theory and practice of socialism (see SOCIALISM sense 3) including the labor theory of value [or, the theory that an item’s value should depend on the amount of work put into it, vs. supply-and-demand], dialectical materialism [a philosophy that relates ideas primarily to the facts of life that “produce” them], the class struggle [class warfare], and dictatorship of the proletariat [or, dictatorship by ‘the workers of the world’] until the establishment of a classless society.”
“1 a: a system in which goods are owned in common and are available to all as needed
b: a theory advocating elimination of private property
2: or Communism
a: a doctrine based on revolutionary Marxian socialism and Marxism-Leninism that was the official ideology of the Soviet Union
b: a totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production
c: a final stage of society in Marxist theory in which the state has withered away and economic goods are distributed equitably
d: communist systems collectively
And, you know what, let’s throw the definition of “Fascism” out there too.
“1 [often capitalized] : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition
2: a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control
What do we really know about these terms?
First, the Communist Party USA (I didn’t even know it still existed) has disavowed the Democratic Party as “accommodationist” and oriented way too much towards faith in our capitalist system. Those are their words, not mine.
Not one member of Congress (either in 2012, or today) calls themselves a Marxist or a Communist. The two terms have been completely irrelevant for decades on the presidential level and in all down ballot races. That is not by accident either. The Trump attempts to paint Democrats and the left as “Communists” & “Marxists” just has no basis in reality.
I mean, they even call Joe Manchin a “Washington liberal.” You believe that?
As for “Fascists,” the picture is a little more complicated. In 2020, the expert analysis was that Trump could not be considered a “Fascist” at that time—even though he displayed clear xenophobic and even authoritarian tendencies. In 2024, though, Trump and Trump sycophants like J.D. Vance have increasingly embraced fascist rhetoric—some of which has been discussed at greater length in previous blog posts.
Yet to my friends on the left, don’t go into overkill. There are much better and more specific ways to describe Trump without constantly using the “Fascist” label.
That said, it is hard not to have concern over the Trump-Vance plan for the country. Here is what we do know: we know that there is a Project 2024 developing in the swing states. Its mission? To tilt the presidential election to Trump, regardless of whether or not he gets the most votes to win the Electoral College. This effort is taking place with the help of GOP county and state election officials who still deny the results of the 2020 election. Georgia is Project 2024’s Ground Zero.
I will keep a close eye on that. But for now, that’s the end of our journey into the dictionary. In other news,…
For all the Simone Biles fans out there, childless cat lady-loather JD Vance is officially out of the running. Here is a clip from a past Fox News interview on the Tokyo Olympics where Vance explains why he is not impressed by the all-time Olympic gymnast.
Also, shout-out to the one and only RFK Jr,. Thanks to him, we have now cracked the case on the 10-year long mystery of how a dead bear cub and an abandoned bicycle ended up in Central Park. Let me warn you: the admission is not comforting.
Finally, the Squad suffered another primary loss with Missouri Congresswoman Cori Bush’s defeat in the St. Louis area. Of course, whatever you think of these candidates, we need to worry about dark money entities like Fairshake and “Protect Progress” that are on overdrive not just to win elections, but to buy them with as much money as possible.
At the same time, I have to admit that the Bush campaign was not a flawless one, to say the least. The optics of the incumbent receiving legal scrutiny over private security in an area roiled by police brutality is not an easy issue to address. The insane level of overcautiousness about calling Hamas a terrorist group did not help matters either—especially in an environment already stacked against the incumbent. Though I have to be honest, it was a much closer race than I had expected considering the headwinds at play.
Big Money should not get too excited about beating two incumbents who put themselves in so much needless trouble (particularly sad given the good work done by Reps. Cori Bush & Jamaal Bowman on COVID-19 eviction relief and school meals). The voters are beginning to demand a progressive populist agenda, and the road is getting much harder for Big Money from here on out.