Like this writer, you have likely heard that socialism isn’t as horrible as communism. It is communism, so the planted attitude holds, that is much more to be feared. But I have come to realize that encroaching socialism in any of its forms can be a greater threat, because it is not as easy to recognize as overt communism. Not only that, I believe that socialism is the ultimate goal of real communists. In our country as in others, socialists aim to make people slaves to government. Here they labor to destroy the American dream. And an increasing number of Americans have bought into the socialist promise that government will benevolently take care of everybody.
A quick but far from comprehensive explanation of the difference between socialism and communism is easy to grasp: A communist is a socialist in a hurry. A communist seizes control and maintains his rule with a KGB or NKVD because resistance has to be overcome. The more patient socialist works to get people to vote themselves into losing their freedom. He then faces little resistance as he tears down the existing government and moral base because the people have actually chosen their fate. In time, of course, many of socialism’s victims awaken to the consequences of what they have voted for. Ultimately, the socialist rulers form their own version of the KGB to defeat an awakened public with communist-style brutality. Communism faces immediate resistance; socialism does not and proceeds to destroy all vestiges of the past with little or no opposition.
Communists and socialists each claim Karl Marx’s 1848 Communist Manifesto as their own. It would be helpful if more Americans would read what this small book contains. Marx’s co-author and financier, Frederich Engels, wanted to label the document “The Socialist Manifesto.” But he decided against that for several reasons, one of which was his dislike of some of socialism’s existing leaders. And most Americans fail to realize that the communists who seized control of Russia and much of eastern and central Europe called the USSR the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Socialism has always meant total government control.
Throughout many years, communists have attempted to soften their blood-drenched rule over nation after nation by referring to themselves as socialists. That, of course, is not only a monstrous lie but a revealing admission that they want to be known as something less evil than Red Terror. Few who become enslaved by the promises of socialism understand that it destroys freedom, leads to consolidated power in the hands of arch criminals, and fails to achieve its promises of a better life for those it has deceived. The deceived masses who paved the way for socialism soon find out how much they were misled.
Consider what has recently been the fate of Venezuela. Less than two decades ago, this oil-rich nation was the most prosperous of all of the countries in Latin America. Its people enjoyed freedom and a bustling economy that was envied by neighbors. But while the people weren’t aware of what was occurring, socialists took over and quickly undid what Venezuela had become. From a bastion of freedom and plenty, the nation became another basket case, quickly approaching what the Castro brothers did to Cuba.
What about the United States? How to target America was spelled out in 1932 with the publication of Toward Soviet America by top American communist William Z. Foster. His 343-page book discussed how America’s school students would soon be taught “internationalism and the general ethics of the new Socialist society.” (Emphasis added.) The book predicted that “the schools, colleges and universities will be grouped under a new National Department of Education…. The studies will be revolutionized, being cleansed of religious, patriotic and other features of the bourgeois ideology.” The Department of Education was launched during the Carter administration. And what Foster called for regarding religion and patriotism has occurred just as he forecast. For decades Americans haven’t been taught what made American such a marvel of productivity. Instead, they have been encouraged to undermine the pillars of our nation’s success.
Need some more evidence about what communists seek while referring to themselves and their program as socialism? During the civil rights movement in America begun in the 1920s, hard-core communist leaders sought to destroy the America system by constantly referring to the plight of black Americans as a rationale for moving the country in the socialist direction while voicing support for civil rights. In 1935, communist theoreticians James Allen and James Ford penned The Negroes in a Soviet America, a 47-page booklet appealing to black Americans to join their movement and convert America into what has happened in Cuba, Venezuela and so many other countries.
The final sentence in the Ford/Allen booklet distributed to America’s Blacks stated: “Join the Communist Party, help create the powerful great vanguard which is leading the masses towards Socialism.” (Emphasis added.) These communist leaders wanted black Americans to join their movement to create socialism, not communism. Their effort initially failed, but like many like-minded Marxists, they continued to lure Americans, not just blacks, into believing a pack of lies that are needed to have the USA commit suicide.
Sad to say, our United States of America is well along down the path leading to adoption of all the programs sought by socialists. If not stopped, they will do to our country what has been done to so many others. Here, however, the socialists operate under a different name. They refer to themselves as “progressives.” And they are gaining in numbers and influence with the help of lying politicians and a mass media very willing to distribute an array of falsehoods.
We now see that several generations brought up during the American system’s heydays know little or even nothing about the wondrous system created by U.S. founders. Few benficiaries of the American republic know what Americanism truly is. They have never learned the elementary fact that America became great, not because of what government did, but because of what government was prevented from doing by the U.S. Constitution. In their haste to bring about change, they have stood by and watched as a determined few socialists created an educational system producing virtual robots whose brains are stuffed with dangerous falsehoods that would delight Marx and Engels.
In 2018, four proud female “progressives,” collectively known as “the Squad” and each regarding Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders as their leader, were elected to the U.S. Congress. There isn’t a shred of true Americanism in any of them, just as there never has been any in Sanders, a longtime admirer of the Soviet Union’s enforced socialism. Can the Squad muster enough congressional support to completely subvert the wonder of America built in freedom by hard-working people who profited from freedom, low taxation, and minimum government interference? Not likely. But the four Squad members — Representatives, Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Rashida Talib (Mich.), and Ilhan Omar (Minn.) — are looking foward to having their numbers increase in the next election.
Already in 2020, more “progressives” have won primaries and are expected to win in the November elections. New York has already seen two of these socialists (Jamaal Bowman and Mondarie Jones) win the primary in districts where Democrats win in November. Likewise, progressive candidate Marie Newman of Illinois and Cori Bush of Missouri are expected to be elected to Congress after voters go to the polls this year. New York voters will likely elect additional progressives. All progressives elected to Congress will (like their congressional colleagues) swear an oath to abide by the U.S. Constitution as they take office in January 2021. Yet they will break that oath by voting for socialist programs not authorized by the Constitution, and wielding the clout expanded numbers give them, they will obviously lead other members of Congress to adopt such a label and theaten even greater danger to our nation’s heretofore taken-for-granted freedoms.
What is happening to America has already happened in other countries. But it can be stopped here if there are enough Americans who have any appreciation of the government and ethical systems that have made our nation America great. They must take some time and spend some effort to bring to fellow citizens an awareness of what is surely occurring. Time is running out, however, and reversing the course being followed will not be easy. It’s obiously a time for real Americans to assert themselves, become activists for freedom, and work to diminish — even cancel — the growing grip on our nation possessed by progressives, socialists, and crypto communists.
John F. McManus is president emeritus of The John Birch Society.
