[Hat tip: commenter “AesopFan”.]
“When we get ready to take the United States, we will not take it under the label of Communism; we will not take it under the label of Socialism. These labels are unpleasant to the American people, and have been smeared too much. We will take the United States under the labels we have made very lovable; we will take it under liberalism, under progressivism, under democracy. But, take it we will.”—Alexander Trachtenberg, member of the CPUSA’s Central Control Committee, at the Communist Parties National Convention, Madison Square Garden, 1944
When something is undertaken in stealth by dedicated and determined believers in the cause (and/or by cynical and amoral power-mad unbelievers), it is difficult for the majority of people to detect and therefore hard to combat. In the case of communism/socialism, you also have a doctrine that is pernicious in its effects but naturally appeals to idealistic and gullible people – until they finally experience it, and then it’s generally too late.
Relabeling something may sound trivial and merely rhetorical, but it is not – as Orwell well knew. (And yes, Orwell remained a socialist. I wrote about that here.)
I wrote at length about socialism/Communism’s enduring appeal in this post:
…[T]his persistence of the idea of socialism/Communism despite evidence of its awfulness when put into practice in the real world should not be at all surprising. And I don’t think we’ll ever find the proper stake to drive into its still-beating heart, because the nature of this beast is that it represents an idea with strong appeal to a vast number of human beings. No amount of empirical or historical evidence can permanently teach enough people otherwise.
The rhetoric of Socialism/Communism has intrinsic appeal to certain groups of people and some members of each group are always likely to fall under its spell: the guilt-ridden wealthy and/or their even-more-guilt-ridden spawn, the poor who feel they’ve been screwed by society, the politically and economically naive intelligentsia who feel they know better than others, the religious and/or idealistic who want everyone to be loving and good and selfless, and those who just like the idea of power and control over others and plan to be the ones in charge.
Combine all that natural appeal with the undeniable propagandist skill of the left—including their willingness to lie in the most brazen manner — and you have an even greater effect. And then combine all of that with ignorance of history and economics, our culture’s reluctance to teach the young our good points and its eagerness to harp on our bad ones, and the fact that people only tend to really learn something through bitter and personal experience.
The wonder is that more people don’t believe that socialism/Commmunism is the answer to the world’s prayers, not that so many succumb to it in the first place. Never imagine that the fight, especially in the intellectual and educational and propaganda spheres, can be over. It would be too bad if each generation had to learn the lesson through personal suffering rather than in the realm of ideas.
During the Biden administration, the American people have been getting a small yet up-close-and-personal taste of it. Polls have reflected that and approval of Biden et al has dropped precipitously.
Fortunately for the US, the voting bill numbered HR1, which would have changed the voting laws of every state – whether the state wants it or not, and that includes all red states – in a way that would destroy many of the safeguards against voting fraud that still remain in some states, and would have enabled the ability of the Democrats to be elected no matter what the people actually think or want, failed to pass the Senate. That bill only failed by a hair, though, and that hair is named Manchin/Sinema and their opposition to ending the filibuster (although I’m not sure how they would have voted on the bill itself and they might have voted against it, too, but it never even came to that).
However, the House had already voted for the bill along strict party lines, and therefore every single Democrat member of the House who holds him or herself out to be a moderate is obviously lying. That fact should be used by all Republicans who run against them, especially in swing districts. I hope it will be used in that way, but I’m not sure enough people have long enough memories to recall what the issues were, nor am I sure that most people knew what the bill was about and what the Democrats were trying to do in the first place.
That’s one of the problems, isn’t it? The public has to be very alert in order to understand just what is happening with each bill and what is likely to occur as a result of its passage, because the left tries to obscure those things. A failure as with HR1 is considered by the left to be only temporary, and therefore it pushes on and on with its plans.
But perhaps they’ve pushed too far, too fast, this time. Perhaps they’ve woken up the average American in a way that will backfire on them. But understand that such a victory for those who are against the left is never permanent, and constant vigilance is necessary.
