It is not difficult, these days, to see the neo-communist flipside of “Democratic Socialists”—once they find power.
Indeed, the more the ossified Democratic Party claims that its growing cadre of socialist renegades are not really socialists, the more they act like—and even appear comfortable being called—communists.
With every new policy they propose, the socialists have been dropping the pretense that they are not Marxists.
How about declaring capitalism a failure?
All the socialists now do that—and even Democratic California governor Gavin Newsom has also started agreeing that “capitalism as we know it doesn’t work either.” Oddly, Newsom himself, a multimillionaire and a beneficiary of arch-capitalist Gordon Getty’s largesse, seems to have done quite well under capitalism.
Confiscating private property?
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani claims he will do just that if New York’s landlords, in his opinion, are poor custodians of their own property.
Dismantling the U.S. Constitution?
Almost all Democrats have long called for destroying the 238-year-old Electoral College. And now the socialists openly brag that, when they take over the Democratic Party and then the nation, they will, as good Bolsheviks, go much further: destroying the Senate, destroying the Pentagon, destroying prisons, destroying the police, and destroying our borders.
And they want to take over utilities, break up or absorb corporate agriculture, and own major industries. Apparently, socialists believe that with a snap of their fingers they can destroy key elements of the U.S. constitutional order. Would these “socialists” even resent their agenda being called “communist”?
They also seem to have taken their cue for such radical change from “mainstream” Democrats—for example, Kamala Harris. Now in her third vain bid for the presidency, she has adopted the doctrine of “if you can’t beat them, join them.” So Harris now promises that if she is elected, she will pack the court, admit two new blue states (to snag four liberal senators), end the filibuster, and junk the Electoral College. How she plans to amend the Constitution to that effect she never tells us.
Like all good Marxists, these “ends-justify-the-means” leftists show an utter lack of principle: if two new red states wished to join the U.S., they would lecture us on the sanctity of a 50-state union. If they were a permanent Senate minority, they would, as in the past, honor the filibuster. If they had lost the popular vote in two recent elections but won the Electoral College, they would praise the wisdom of the Founders. If they had their Earl Warren-era majority again, they would laud the continuity of the 157-year-old nine-justice Supreme Court.
How about making “enemies of the people” lists and forcing sales of private property?
Mamdani just sent out a public list of nearly one million New York homeowners. He sent official warnings to 17,000 of these property owners that, if within four weeks they cannot prove that they have lived full-time in their own properties, the city will levy a huge surtax on them to drive home the point that no one should own an additional high-value home. Are show trials next for those who decline to reply?
In other words, Mamdani has flipped the American tradition of “innocent until proven guilty.” Instead, almost 20,000 New Yorkers are now automatically presumed guilty of being house-hoarding, capitalist leeches who owe the exploited classes tens of thousands of dollars a year in reparations, unless they—the newly presumed guilty—can prove themselves innocent.
Welcome to Mamdani’s revolutionary court.
Mamdani’s new surtax could add from $40,000 to $350,000 a year to tens of thousands of homeowners’ taxes—in addition to already-existing steep property taxes that often range from $5,000 to $150,000.
Most owners will do the math and see that the new aggregate tax payouts in just a few years could be more than the value of the home itself.
Why is Mamdani doing this?
The socialist mayor’s aim here seems twofold:
First, he wants to flush out and dox anyone owning two homes as a purported enemy of the people.
And so, Mamdani created a list of his targets, including their addresses, and published it. To the extent that many properties really were second homes, Mamdani has now made sure that all New Yorkers, including envious rubberneckers, would-be squatters, and hardened criminals, know exactly where they might target a sometimes-vacant home.
Second, he wants to force a massive fire sale of second homes that would crash home values in general and so redistribute now “affordable” houses to those whom Mamdani considers, as victims of capitalism, to be more deserving of these properties.
Recently, on cable news, the national co-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America, Megan Romer, was asked a series of questions about her group’s published agenda. Far from denying its communist radicalism, she gleefully confirmed it all—from destroying the border to ending prisons, the military, and the police.
But it is in Spain, and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s corrupt and unpopular regime, where we see what one-eyed-jack socialists can do when they are finally in power, especially when they are hated and on their way out.
Sánchez has given amnesty to 600,000 illegal aliens. One result was that 60,000 Muslim men from North Africa in a single day recently swarmed Spain’s colonial outpost on the Moroccan coast at Ceuta, demanding amnesties and free subsidized passes into European Spain—while looting and vandalizing businesses and attacking Spaniards.
So why do European socialists and American leftists, once elected, destroy borders, create conditions of mass chaos, and welcome in millions of illegal aliens—poor, often angry, and unassimilated—from the Third World?
Aside from their belief that the capitalists and their bourgeois hirelings deserve chaos, violence, and upheaval, they hate the fact that capitalism is too class-fluid to furnish a permanent exploited proletarian underclass.
And so they import a huge victim class, and virtue signal their purported moral superiority. Then they spend lavish social largesse upon the influx, and, in quid pro quo fashion, thus bind their imported underclass with their welfare-state assurances.
Mail-in and early ballots, no-ID voting, same-day registration, ballot harvesting and curing, and no final verdicts on Election Day were all leftist projects, all designed to enroll as many illegal voters as possible.
The Left has also learned from experience that the time between immigrant parents fleeing third-world hellholes to find safety, freedom, and prosperity in the U.S. and their children hating the very generous host that welcomed them—and demanding that America be radically transformed to resemble the catastrophe from which they or their parents fled—is often only about 20 years.
So if one enjoys watching the careers of Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, AOC, or Zohran Mamdani, then one should certainly vote socialist to ensure that they are the new model for American elected officials.
It is the paradox of our age that anyone can flee Somalia, the West Bank, Puerto Rico, or Uganda and then win the global lottery by being accepted into America’s constitutional society and free-market economy—only to do their best to repay the generosity of their host by turning their new country into something unrecognizable to the prior 10 generations of Americans.
But then again, America might become quite similar to the mess they abandoned.
So far, the model holds true: socialist candidates (as opposed to registered socialist activists) hide their communist-adjacent agendas during elections. But once in office and drunk with power, they find socialism too wishy-washy and go full communist. So they destroy borders, institutions, names, dates, statues, norms, customs, and traditions to replicate the illiberalism and concomitant failures of a new Haiti, a West Bank, or a Morocco in the West.
In sum, to make a new socialist America, you must first destroy everything that made Americans and all that they hold dear.
Discussion (17)
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Communism a slur? It used to be, in terms of slander, that one couldn't impute a criminal offense; attribute a social or contagious disease; injure someone in their profession; impute unchastity to a woman; or call someone a communist. The left has flipped all of the above, and each is now considered a virtue or confers victim status. In short, the left can no longer be shamed, either in truth or slander. "Communist," is a badge of honor.
And once they destroy the country, the will rebuild it as a totalitarian state and many of those immigrants will be shipped off to “re-education camps”. Those who quietly go along will be no more than slaves to a system where everyone will be “equal” - equally poor and miserable - while the ruling class will be rich - as long as they tow the line. If not they will end up “disappeared”.
Greg Brewer here....I have to say, with complete honesty, that I am really, really glad that my birth year was 1957. I lived through the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and into the first decade of the 21st Century. As is said, "The best of times" in America and American life. As such, with the above said (feel free to disagree with me if you so desire) I am very happy to be entering my 'Twilight Years'. IMO this nation is increasingly turning into a 'dumpster fire' in so many, many, many ways. Hopefully, I shall not be around too much longer to see the 'dumpster fire' flames grow larger.
It takes exactly this kind of VDH dissection off the rotting corpse of the communist left to make sure the slur label sticks as a symbol of evil. But the ignorant youth of secondary and college “educated “ 2026 are duped by the simplicity of the communist rhetoric. This is another leg to this stool, of which VDH has written… the anti American education served up up our youth for generations now. Thank you for the clarity you always bring.
If your intent is to reach real people, people who NEED guidance and and handholding before they start voting, then consider speaking language they can freakin UNDERSTAND! Take a hundred peeps off the street and ask them what communism is... what a republic is.... what a demagogue is... Or, would you rather just mastu**** that cognocenti who already are aware?
This comment relates to a recent podcast. My millennial daughter was quick to discount Victor’s wisdom on the basis of one apparent mistake. Compared to the many nations with constitutions that restrict religion and ethnicity, VDH said Israel is not an ethno state. She pointed to the Basic Law of 2018 which clearly establishes Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People. There is also a right of return which favours Jews. So even if 20% of the population is Arabic and many are Christian it is an ethno state and to say otherwise will make people like my daughter disregard everything else you say.
There is no definitive ‘bogeyman’ behind the idea of communism today. In McCarthy’s time, perhaps the issue wasn’t so much the actual ideology, but rather the specter of the USSR as the issue. The US has continued to view that bogeyman up through the ‘Russia Russia Russia’ issue just within the past few years. The idea of China, Cuba, etc., does not hold that same impetus or fear as the USSR once did. We are now dealing with an ideology, rather than a physical enemy/country.
Glad to see and hear your battle with cancer is going well Victor. You and your loved ones are in my daily prayers. What you layout in this article sends chills up my 72 yr. old, arthritic spine to say the least! Now that I am in what I call the 'replacement parts' (new knee, hip and eyes!) phase of my life, I can only pray for my kids/grandkids at this point. I've said it before in my responses to you; The principles of right v wrong, good v evil are fleeting in our country and the world in general. I have tried to grasp the minds of these left-wing, pseudo-intellectual hypocritical lemmings to no end. As the son of two fathers who fought in WWII for the traditions and freedoms that have made our great nation what it is, I'm just plain baffled at all of it. The only item I can wrap my hands around is that the hatred for Trump is so deep and supported by the MSM and many others has resulted in the indoctrination of those in society who lack the perspicuity to realize these other forms of government just do not work out in the long run. God help us all!!
It is time for all of us to reread "It Can't Happen Here," by Sinclair Lewis.
VDH, I don't think there is a solution. It has taken decades to arrive at this point; over that time, our country has declined. I predict it will take decades to recover, if it does. There will never be another president like Trump. I don't care what you say about him; his policies put America first.
"not cutting it" Oh I thought this was going to be about Francesca Hong, never mind.
Once the “grievance” class has been established and policy prescriptions denying agency are in place the communal paradise will be mere moments away for ever.🤔
What do Americans have as a counter argument to the allure of socialism, with its guaranteed outcomes and promises of free this and free that? Because he has had a do nothing Senate and a corrupt federal judiciary most of the MAGA agenda has stalled. So, instead of focusing primarily on the economy, which is why he was reelected, Trump has directed his attention and energy to foreign policy where he has had some success. Unfortunately, the only Kryptonite that thoroughly refutes socialism is free market capitalism. At a Bronx rally during the 2024 presidential campaign Trump drew in large crowds of mostly Democratic voters. The theme music as hit the stage was Sam & Dave's soul classic Hold On, I'm Coming. Clearly the message he was sending was I'll makes things they way they were prior to COVID. Just reelect me. And Trump has all but failed in that task. The Republicans are going to get trounced in November and our republic will be under the worst domestic threat it has ever seen.
Liberals, aka communists, have successfully, and perhaps permanently, damaged this country during the last 30 years and especially during the prior administration by allowing unfettered illegal immigration to the tune of approximately 20 million people to enter the country (equates to the combined population of around 34 states). This and the rise of communism and leftist fascism/anarchy are creating a true divide which could very well result in civil war. The American dream is becoming increasingly unattainable for our youth, not because of hard work and diligence, but because of leftist/communist positions and policies that breed class/race warfare, as well as the contempt and hatred of our constitution, freedom, free market capitalism, and meritocracy. It's no wonder that so many of our youth believe the siren song of socialism and increasingly buy into the legitimacy of communist ideals when they have been indoctrinated to believe America is inherently evil and unfair. Sadly, they do not embrace nor understand the adage that "You can vote your way into socialism/communism, but you can't vote your way out"...
What about the border walls to keep in everyone wanting to escape the communist paradise? I've heard those were necessary in the past.
A large swath of young people believe capitalism has failed them and socialism is the way. The 17-24 bracket really seems to support the idea of Democratic-socialists and think it has nothing to do with actual communism.
I hope that VDH will accomplish the very important task of defining "socialism" and "communism". Very few Americans, even media types and left-wing politicians, show any understanding of the crucial differences between the two. There are different types of socialism. For instance, the Scandinavian version has morphed over time with more and more room for the free market. Communism is more predictable and easy to define. The DSA has recently put out a position statement that is very close to Communism. They need to be confronted and criticized by educated individuals.