Red Meat

Trump’s new boogeyman, same as the old boogeyman

Trump and the GOP, facing potential massive losses in the upcoming midterm elections, have dusted off the ol’ playbook and pulled out a tried-and-true tactic: paint their opponents as Communists. There’s nothing new about a Red Scare. It’s worked since 1917, post WWI, with the Palmer Raids and up through the Cold War in the 1940’s and ‘50s with Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s investigations and the House Un-American Activities Committee blacklisting suspected Commies in government and Hollywood. And Trump makes no effort to hide his strategy. “I think we’re hitting a nerve,” Trump recently said. “It’s a different kind of race. All we have to do is define our opponent as being a communist or a socialist or somebody who is going to destroy our country.” And with their embrace of far-left, anti-semitic Democratic Socialists in recent elections, Democrats are handing him the club with which to bludgeon them with. GOP House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson, speaking a press conference at the Republican National Committee, said just a few days ago, “We’re fighting right now in Congress over whether we’re going to maintain our status as a constitutional republic or we’re going to trade that in, dismantle the foundations and go down this dark road of death to communism.” Never mind the fact that a Democratic Socialist is not a Communist and the Communist “threat” is entirely made up. Facts have never mattered with this bunch. And the ultimate irony, of course, is that if Trump was actually concerned about Communism, he’s rejected every opportunity to substantively help Ukraine fend off quasi-Communist Russia and he’s embraced the most evil Communist alive today, Vladimir Putin.

The sketch: