Last week, former Vice President Kamala Harris turned heads on her book tour by declaring Trump to be a “communist dictator.” People on the right were outraged. People on the far left were also outraged because they have warmed up to communism and found it insulting. (Let’s face it, liberals there are communist-lite people in our ranks). But taking a step back and looking at the actions of the Trump administration over his second term, can we really say she is wrong?
It has been the liberal playbook to yell fascism at everything and anything that is affiliated with President Trump. But let’s be honest, Trump has done quite a few things economically, militarily and civilly that seem to come out of the playbook of the Chinese Communist Party.
From the government buying into companies like Intel, demanding that private companies fire C-suiters that are not loyal to him, using the FCC to bully ABC and others who get on Trump’s bad side, and holding military parades that look like they belong in Beijing rather than Washington.
Let’s face it. This is no longer the party of Reagan. And that is what the Democrats need to seize on. Instead of this push to label everyone a fascist, they need to drive a wedge between Republicans who have embraced Trump wholeheartedly and those who are cringing at his economic plans.
The Wall Street Journal dubbed Trump’s actions as “state capitalism.” The comparison isn’t to Hitler and Germany, Viktor Orban and Hungary, Vladimir Putin and Russia, but to China and how it runs its capitalistic economy under a communist flag. Trump has effectively taken the “free” out of free markets and it seems like every CEO in the country is going along with it out of fear of retribution. That doesn’t sound very American or capitalistic to me.
Now, this is the part where the “but (insert name of liberal)” crew jumps in and says that the Democrats had tried to do that before and failed. I will nod politely and ask if you thought that was wrong. So why are we suddenly OK with Trump and his administration trying to run the American economy like the communists?
For Democrats, this is a great time to finally shake the Marxist tag that has been applied since Marx was born. Every time Democrats have tried to push for things like not being robbed blind by insurance companies, having clean water to drink, investing in education, reducing gun violence, and other noble ideas they have been assailed with the smear that they are turning America into a communist country.
I am not saying that there aren’t far-left folks in the Democratic Party. You just have to look at the New York City mayor’s race to confirm that. But the communist slur has also been applied to moderates in swing states.
The Democrats now have a chance to play identity politics in a way that finally benefits them. They can easily, and I mean very easily, undermine Trump and cause a nice schism in the Republican Party by likening Trump to Xi and his administration to the Chinese Communist Party.
Trump’s poll numbers are in the toilet, but he still has success with convincing Americans that the alternative is a Soviet-style country run by Sen Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). That’s why his go-to insult has always been some variation of communism.
It has worked wonders, scaring people to ultimately vote against their interests: farmers who are now going broke and immigrants who fled communism now seeing their families sent back to communist countries. This is the time for Democrats to step up and remind everyone that they have never acted in such a way and maybe Trump has more in common with Mao, Fidel, Lenin and Che than anyone else in America.
Of course, the Democrats need to understand that there are a lot of left-wing people that have warmed up to socialism or worse and might feel that likening Trump to Xi might not work. My advice is those alleged Democrats who have warmed up to far-left ideologies are going to vote for Jill Stein anyway in 2028, so you can stop caring about appeasing or not offending them.
The gift that Trump has given the Democrats is that finally you can accuse him of doing that which he accused others of. Liken Immigration and Customs Enforcement detentions to Uyghur detention camps. Equate the military parades to the North Korean spectacle parades. Link using federal troops in American cities to the Tiananmen Square crackdown. Connect Trump’s interference with the Fed to China’s currency manipulation. Compare Trump firing people for delivering bad economic news to Beijing hiding its economic numbers from the world.
Trump wants to be on Mount Rushmore? Put out pics of him on the Communist Mount Rushmore with Lenin, Mao, Kim Jong Un and Pol Pot. Trump wants to put Turning Point chapters in schools? Remind Americans of Little Red Books and Cultural Revolutions.
The Democrats have been spectacularly bad at trying to divide the Republicans to get an advantage in national elections. They finally have a chance. You can try to nitpick me or Kamala Harris on what exactly is fascism or communism. You can worry about offending Jill Stein voters. You can worry about semantics, definitions and feelings. Or you can win elections. All you have to do is proclaim that Republican Red is now the same shade as Chinese Communist Party Red.
Jos Joseph is a published writer and is a graduate of the Harvard Extension School and Ohio State University. He is a Marine veteran who served in Iraq. He currently lives in Anaheim, Calif.
