Spies Among Us: Communists in The United States

Source:Zocalo Public Square- Jewish Communists in America.

“Russian spies held a morbid fascination in the minds of Americans dating back to the Red Scare in 1919, following the Bolshevik Revolution and the creation of the Communist International, of which the Communist Party of the USA became a constituent member, subject to extra-territorial discipline imposed from Moscow.

Global domination was indeed Moscow’s declared aim. The issue, however, was whether this goal was at all practicable.

The Red Scare blended neatly with popular hostility to mass immigration in America, particularly against a surge of Jews fleeing the anti-Semitic heartlands of Eastern Europe. Responding to hostility, many Jews embraced the inclusive internationalist ideals of Communism rather than the outlandish idea of building a Jewish state in the deserts of British-controlled Arab Palestine. But they were a minority, drawn in by radical idealism and anti-fascism. And the American opposition to wider Jewish immigration from these areas was clearly colored by racism, especially the anti-Semitism of the time.”

From Zocalo Public Square

I hate communism about as much anyone who is not on the Far-Right and not part of some right-wing fascist ideology like nationalism or theocracy. But I love the First Amendment, freedom of speech, and freedom of assembly, more than I hate communism.

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan: America is great and big enough for all sorts of political philosophies and ideologies. From the great ideologies of liberalism and conservatism, that America has been built around, to the fringe and even dangerous ideologies if these people were to ever have real power in America like communism and nationalism.

What makes America great and exceptional, is our diversity and individualism. Not just our racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity, but our political diversity. That you can have Socialists like the Bernie Sanders of the world who believe the Federal Government should try to do practically everything for people and have all the tax revenue necessary to pay for all of that big centralized government, to Libertarians on the Right, who believe that government should do practically nothing for anybody. Other than law enforcement, national security and foreign affairs.

As Un-American as communism is with how collectivist, statist, anti-individualist a philosophy that it is, fascism is just as Un-American, when you have right-wing fascists and tribalist’s that we have not just in America, but in Congress in the 1940s and 1950s, saying that not only communism is bad for America, but people who have communist and other socialist leanings and beliefs, should be in jail and not be allowed to work simply because they have Far-Left beliefs, you’re being just as bad and more dangerous as the Communists. Because you’re saying free speech and assembly is dangerous in America, even though it guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. And that you should either believe and think like we do, or you should be put in jail or live in the underground of America.

But that is what we had in America in the 1940s and 1950s and had in Congress as well. First with the House Un-American Activities Committee investigation in the 1940s, which was as Un-American as the Communists that they were supposedly investigating. And then later the Senate Investigation Committee investigation led by Senator Joe McCarthy in 1953 and 54. Investigating supposed Communists in the U.S. Government.

Communists on the Far-Left and Christian-Theocrats and Nationalists on the Far-Right, only become a threat to America when they’re actually in power. And have no checks on their power and can get away with anything. But short of that they’re right to free speech and assembly, is just as strong as anyone else’s. As it should be in America and why we are so exceptional because we allow everyone to believe what they believe and even campaign for it. 

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