Old Ronald在1983年的一場演說與Old Donald在2026年的一場演說
david chou
Old Ronald在1983年的一場演說與Old Donald在2026年的一場演說(I)
1
(1-a) And finally, that shrewdest of all observers of American democracy, Alexis de Tocqueville, put it eloquently after he had gone on a search for the secret of America's greatness and genius -- and he said: "Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the greatness and the genius of America. . . . America is good. And if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.''
(1-b) I want you to know that this administration is motivated by a political philosophy that sees the greatness of America in you, her people, and in your families, churches, neighborhoods, communities -- the institutions that foster and nourish values like concern for others and respect for the rule of law under God.Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged. When our Founding Fathers passed the first amendment, they sought to protect churches from government interference. They never intended to construct a wall of hostility between government and the concept of religious belief itself. The evidence of this permeates our history and our government. The Declaration of Independence mentions the Supreme Being no less than four times. "In God We Trust'' is engraved on our coinage. The Supreme Court opens its proceedings with a religious invocation. And the Members of Congress open their sessions with a prayer. I just happen to believe the schoolchildren of the United States are entitled to the same privileges as Supreme Court Justices and Congressmen.There's a great spiritual awakening in America, a renewal of the traditional values that have been the bedrock of America's goodness and greatness. One recent survey by a Washington-based research council concluded that Americans were far more religious than the people of other nations; 95 percent of those surveyed expressed a belief in God and a huge majority believed the Ten Commandments had real meaning in their lives. And another study has found that an overwhelming majority of Americans disapprove of adultery, teenage sex, pornography, abortion, and hard drugs. And this same study showed a deep reverence for the importance of family ties and religious belief. I think the items that we've discussed here today must be a key part of the Nation's political agenda.
I repeat: America is in the midst of a spiritual awakening and a moral renewal.
(1-c) There is sin and evil in the world, and we're enjoined by Scripture and the Lord Jesus to oppose it with all our might. Our nation, too, has a legacy of evil with which it must deal. The glory of this land has been its capacity for transcending the moral evils of our past. For example, the long struggle of minority citizens for equal rights, once a source of disunity and civil war, is now a point of pride for all Americans. We must never go back. There is no room for racism, anti-Semitism, or other forms of ethnic and racial hatred in this country.I know that you've been horrified, as have I, by the resurgence of some hate groups preaching bigotry and prejudice. Use the mighty voice of your pulpits and the powerful standing of your churches to denounce and isolate these hate groups in our midst. The commandment given us is clear and simple: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.''But whatever sad episodes exist in our past, any objective observer must hold a positive view of American history, a history that has been the story of hopes fulfilled and dreams made into reality. Especially in this century, America has kept alight the torch of freedom, but not just for ourselves but for millions of others around the world.(1-d) And this brings me to my final point today. During my first press conference as President, in answer to a direct question, I pointed out that, as good Marxist-Leninists, the Soviet leaders have openly and publicly declared that the only morality they recognize is that which will further their cause, which is world revolution. I think I should point out I was only quoting Lenin, their guiding spirit, who said in 1920 that they repudiate all morality that proceeds from supernatural ideas -- that's their name for religion -- or ideas that are outside class conceptions. Morality is entirely subordinate to the interests of class war. And everything is moral that is necessary for the annihilation of the old, exploiting social order and for uniting the proletariat.At the same time, however, they must be made to understand we will never compromise our principles and standards. We will never give away our freedom. We will never abandon our belief in God. And we will never stop searching for a genuine peace. But we can assure none of these things America stands for through the so-called nuclear freeze solutions proposed by some.
The truth is that a freeze now would be a very dangerous fraud, for that is merely the illusion of peace. The reality is that we must find peace through strength.I would agree to a [nuclear] freeze if only we could freeze the Soviets' global desires.
A number of years ago, I heard a young father, a very prominent young man in the entertainment world, addressing a tremendous gathering in California. It was during the time of the cold war, and communism and our own way of life were very much on people's minds. And he was speaking to that subject. And suddenly, though, I heard him saying, "I love my little girls more than anything -- -- '' And I said to myself, "Oh, no, don't. You can't -- don't say that.'' But I had underestimated him. He went on: "I would rather see my little girls die now, still believing in God, than have them grow up under communism and one day die no longer believing in God.''Yes, let us pray for the salvation of all of those who live in that totalitarian darkness -- pray they will discover the joy of knowing God. But until they do, let us be aware that while they preach the supremacy of the state, declare its omnipotence over individual man, and predict its eventual domination of all peoples on the Earth, they are the focus of evil in the modern world.
So, I urge you to speak out against those who would place the United States in a position of military and moral inferiority. You know, I've always believed that old Screwtape reserved his best efforts for those of you in the church. So, in your discussions of the nuclear freeze proposals, I urge you to beware the temptation of pride -- the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil.
While America's military strength is important, let me add here that I've always maintained that the struggle now going on for the world will never be decided by bombs or rockets, by armies or military might. The real crisis we face today is a spiritual one; at root, it is a test of moral will and faith.
The Western World can answer this challenge, he wrote, "but only provided that its faith in God and the freedom He enjoins is as great as communism's faith in Man.''
I believe we shall rise to the challenge. I believe that communism is another sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages even now are being written. I believe this because the source of our strength in the quest for human freedom is not material, but spiritual. And because it knows no limitation, it must terrify and ultimately triumph over those who would enslave their [the Soviets' or the Commies'] fellow man.
I think the items that we've discussed here today must be a key part of the Nation's political agenda.
(1-d) And this brings me to my final point today. During my first press conference as President, in answer to a direct question, I pointed out that, as good Marxist-Leninists, the Soviet leaders have openly and publicly declared that the only morality they recognize is that which will further their cause, which is world revolution. I think I should point out I was only quoting Lenin, their guiding spirit, who said in 1920 that they repudiate all morality that proceeds from supernatural ideas -- that's their name for religion -- or ideas that are outside class conceptions. Morality is entirely subordinate to the interests of class war. And everything is moral that is necessary for the annihilation of the old, exploiting social order and for uniting the proletariat.At the same time, however, they must be made to understand we will never compromise our principles and standards. We will never give away our freedom. We will never abandon our belief in God. And we will never stop searching for a genuine peace. But we can assure none of these things America stands for through the so-called nuclear freeze solutions proposed by some.
The truth is that a freeze now would be a very dangerous fraud, for that is merely the illusion of peace. The reality is that we must find peace through strength.I would agree to a [nuclear] freeze if only we could freeze the Soviets' global desires.
A number of years ago, I heard a young father, a very prominent young man in the entertainment world, addressing a tremendous gathering in California. It was during the time of the cold war, and communism and our own way of life were very much on people's minds. And he was speaking to that subject. And suddenly, though, I heard him saying, "I love my little girls more than anything -- -- '' And I said to myself, "Oh, no, don't. You can't -- don't say that.'' But I had underestimated him. He went on: "I would rather see my little girls die now, still believing in God, than have them grow up under communism and one day die no longer believing in God.''Yes, let us pray for the salvation of all of those who live in that totalitarian darkness -- pray they will discover the joy of knowing God. But until they do, let us be aware that while they preach the supremacy of the state, declare its omnipotence over individual man, and predict its eventual domination of all peoples on the Earth, they are the focus of evil in the modern world.
So, I urge you to speak out against those who would place the United States in a position of military and moral inferiority. You know, I've always believed that old Screwtape reserved his best efforts for those of you in the church. So, in your discussions of the nuclear freeze proposals, I urge you to beware the temptation of pride -- the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil.
While America's military strength is important, let me add here that I've always maintained that the struggle now going on for the world will never be decided by bombs or rockets, by armies or military might. The real crisis we face today is a spiritual one; at root, it is a test of moral will and faith.
The Western World can answer this challenge, he wrote, "but only provided that its faith in God and the freedom He enjoins is as great as communism's faith in Man.''
I believe we shall rise to the challenge. I believe that communism is another sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages even now are being written. I believe this because the source of our strength in the quest for human freedom is not material, but spiritual. And because it knows no limitation, it must terrify and ultimately triumph over those who would enslave their [the Soviets' or the Commies'] fellow man.
At the same time, however, they must be made to understand we will never compromise our principles and standards. We will never give away our freedom. We will never abandon our belief in God. And we will never stop searching for a genuine peace. But we can assure none of these things America stands for through the so-called nuclear freeze solutions proposed by some.
Yes, let us pray for the salvation of all of those who live in that totalitarian darkness -- pray they will discover the joy of knowing God. But until they do, let us be aware that while they preach the supremacy of the state, declare its omnipotence over individual man, and predict its eventual domination of all peoples on the Earth, they are the focus of evil in the modern world.
So, I urge you to speak out against those who would place the United States in a position of military and moral inferiority. You know, I've always believed that old Screwtape reserved his best efforts for those of you in the church. So, in your discussions of the nuclear freeze proposals, I urge you to beware the temptation of pride -- the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil.
While America's military strength is important, let me add here that I've always maintained that the struggle now going on for the world will never be decided by bombs or rockets, by armies or military might. The real crisis we face today is a spiritual one; at root, it is a test of moral will and faith.
The Western World can answer this challenge, he wrote, "but only provided that its faith in God and the freedom He enjoins is as great as communism's faith in Man.''
[to be continued]
===================
Appendix
Remarks at the Annual Convention of the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando, FL
March 8, 1983
david chou
Old Ronald在1983年的一場演說與Old Donald在2026年的一場演說(II)
1
America Is Back — and So Is Religion
And just over one week from now, we will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, marking two and a half centuries of glorious American freedom. And thanks to the extraordinary work and incredible devotion of patriots like those people in this very, very crowded ballroom, today I can proudly report that on the edge of our 250th year, America is back. It’s back. It’s back. I believe better than ever before.
And I’m especially pleased to say that, likewise, religion is back in our country, bigger and stronger than it has been in many, many years. Been reading all of those reports. Religion is really going up. If that were stock, we’d be very, very rich, all of us. It’s been great to watch. And as I’ve said before, to be a great nation, you have to have religion and you have to have God in your nation. If you don’t have that, it just doesn’t seem to work out, does it? And we have it. We have religion and we have God now.
Remember when I first started in 2016? They wanted to take the Christmas out of Christmas. Remember that? We ended that little drive, but we ended a lot of other drives too.
Faith Forged American Greatness
From the very beginning of our country, American greatness has been forged by people of faith, and the very first settlers who set foot upon this new world at Jamestown got off their ship, raised up a cross, and bowed down to the Lord in prayer. It was faith that strengthened the Minutemen who stood up at Lexington Green and Concord Bridge in Philadelphia 250 years ago. Next week — our founders invoked the Creator four times in the Declaration of Independence — four times. I wasn’t mentioned once. I’m very upset. Not once.
Faith pushed the pioneers to journey west. Faith led Americans to abolish slavery. And faith built this country into the most exceptional nation in the history of the world. It was going very badly a couple of years ago. Very badly. But it’s back really strong. But we have to be very careful because bad things are happening. Can I watch what’s happening? And we’re going to be discussing that in just a minute.
Americans have always deeply believed in the promise of Christ’s words in the Gospel of Matthew, “With God, all things are possible.” With God, all things are possible, right?
All things. That’s why, as we prepared to enter the 250th year last month, tens of thousands of patriots came together on our National Mall, and we officially rededicated America as one nation under God. And we’re not changing. We’re not changing. And we always have been, and we always will be. We’re not going to let them take it away.
A Nation Founded on Faith — Defending Religious Liberty
But as we celebrate this anniversary, we must also remember that our country could have been marking this occasion under very different circumstances. The last administration carried out a reign of persecution and repression against Christians and people of faith like America has never seen before. It was terrible.
They turned a nation founded on freedom for believers into a place where Catholics were targeted by the FBI, where pro-life grandmothers were put in jail for praying, and where members of our military were thrown out of the armed forces for their religious beliefs. The radicals responsible for these offenses would have loved nothing more than to mark America’s 250th anniversary by driving God from our public square once and for all. They wanted to do that.
I don’t know how anybody could vote for these people. They were so bad. They were so evil. And yet, in many ways, incompetent, certainly incompetent on policy, open borders, transgender for everybody, men and women’s sports, just grossly incompetent ideologies, and so many more.
But they did not get that chance because they lost an election in a landslide, and we won an election in a landslide. And while I am in the White House, I will defend Christians and all Americans of faith 100 percent. You have it 100 percent, and you’ve seen it already.
The Presidential Commission on Religious Liberty
So, upon taking office, I created the first-ever Presidential Commission on Religious Liberty, led by Texas Lieutenant Governor — a great guy. I don’t know if he’s here. I know he’s coming over to my office in a little while — I think called the Oval Office — beautiful office — Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, and my friend, Dr. Ben Carson.
I don’t know, there’s so many people, and there’s some — I don’t know if they’re here. They may be here. But they’re two great people. And later today, at the White House, they will present me with their official report and recommendations to ensure that America continues to uphold the first right in our Constitution, and that’s religious liberty. We have to uphold religious liberty. That’s the most important thing.
Actions Taken to Protect People of Faith
On day one of my administration, I ended the weaponization of law enforcement against religious believers. You know that. I pardoned the Christians Joe Biden threw in jail for saying prayers. He threw them in jail. And he didn’t know what the hell he was doing. The guy’s grossly incompetent. But he was surrounded by very smart — in some cases, brilliant — lunatics.
I got rid of the sinister Johnson Amendment so that pastors can speak the truth from their pulpit. We created the very, very popular White House Faith Office — first time that’s ever happened. And I set up an official Department of Justice Task Force to eradicate anti-Christian bias — anti-Christian bias. Who would think? At a high level, too, although it’s fading — going to fade fast.
That task force just produced a new documentary revealing the abuses of religious freedom that they uncovered. It’s called By Dawn’s Early Light. And it’s out right now. And it’s really supposed to be — I have not seen it. I cannot tell a lie. I have not seen it. But I’ve heard about it, and I hear it’s great. And I will see it, I hope, soon.
I also signed a historic executive order to combat the scourge of anti-Semitism in our country. And we reinstated the warriors who were thrown out of our military by the Biden vaccine mandates and restored them to their former ranks. And we let them back with full pay. Is that good? We want to cut costs, but we figured we have to do — we have to take care of them.
And we’re protecting our churches and synagogues by prosecuting mobs of radical-left lunatics and agitators who try to harass and intimidate people in their places of worship. Not so long ago. And to help parents send their children to schools that share their values, I signed the largest expansion of school choice in the history of our country, including in Texas.
Protecting Prayer, Parental Rights, and Election Integrity
Protecting Children and Religious Liberty
And we will also enshrine a permanent law that says very easily and succinctly, no men in women’s sports and no transgender surgery for our children. Never forget, if the radical left ever gets the chance, they will bring all of this insanity right back at levels that you’ve never seen before. You will never have seen anything like it, if they ever get their chance. And they’re trying like hell.
I call them the Democrats. I exchanged an E for a U — the Dumb-agrets. And that’s counter — it’s trending number one, the word Democrats. I just can’t believe I didn’t think of it nine years ago. I should have thought — the Democrats, they are horrible. They want to resume the transgender mutilation of our children. They want to restart the war on Christians and churches. And as you saw with the communists elected in New York City recently — they’re communists, they’re not Social Democrats — they want to completely destroy the traditional American way of life.
The Easy but Destructive Sell of Communism
Communism is very easy to sell. It destroys everything, but it’s very easy. I’ll be honest, I think I’d be the greatest communist in history. I’d give free rent. Ladies and gentlemen, from now on, you don’t have to pay any rent. From now on, anybody wants a house, don’t worry about it. Just pick the house you want. Everybody gets free food. Everything is free from this point forward. Everyone is going to vote for me.
The problem is, after two or three years, the country is a disaster area. The country fails. They always do. It always does. So easy to sell. That first year, boy, you’re the most popular. It’s happening right now in New York and California. But you’ll start living in squalor. You’ll live in squalor. There will be no food. There will be no housing. There will be no military. There will be no law and order. There will be no nothing. You’ll be a third-world inhabitant in every way, and everyone will suffer or die. You’ll suffer or die. That’s what happens. For thousands of years, it’s been happening, by different names. Thousands of years.
I would be — I’m telling you, I’d be the greatest communist in history. It would be so easy. You wouldn’t have to work. You could stay home. The problem is, a couple of years go by, the whole place collapses. Always does. Always has.
The Democrat Party’s Dangerous Lurch to the Left
But I’m sorry to say, assassinations of those who oppose them is a very important element of their ideology. Assassinations are a big deal for them. They’re animals. They’re animals. In many cases, they’re not smart, but in some cases, they are. It’s easy for them to get followers because they make promises that they know they can’t keep.
And the Democrats aren’t fighting back. That’s why they’re dumb. They’re not fighting back. They’re afraid. I watch Schumer. He’s afraid to fight. I watch guys that are pretty normal. And guys that we oppose, they’re afraid to fight. The Democrats have taken a tremendous turn left. And many of these people — I looked at some of the people that got elected the other night in New York. These are — these are, in many ways, stupid people. In some ways, and intellectually, probably pretty smart. But they’re people that want to destroy our country. They hate our country. They hate our people. They hate the Democrat Party.
The Democrat Party’s Dangerous Drift Toward Communism
The Democrat Party is in big trouble because this isn’t stopping with New York. This is going all — too easy to get elected. Giving everything away. Too easy to get elected. Very dangerous. But you’ll soon have nothing left. That’s the problem.
In many ways, they’re allowing them to just go their own way, do your own. We don’t want to take a chance on saying anything bad because we’re afraid we’re going to lose our jobs if we do. They’re afraid they’re going to lose their election if they even think about saying anything bad about this new breed of sick people. They’re not smart enough or tough enough to fight the plague that’s happening. It’s happening right before your very eyes.
If they fought them the way they fight Republicans or the way they fight me, they’d be victorious. They didn’t beat us, but they’d be victorious against the communists. But they don’t have the courage to do so, so they’re turning communists themselves, becoming a communist party. These are not social Democrats. These are hardcore, godless communists. They’re godless communists. All communists are godless. They don’t believe in God.
The Greatest Threat to America in 250 Years
This is the most serious threat to our country since its existence, in my opinion, 250 years ago. This is a major threat to our country. It isn’t something that’s easily solved, but with a little love and help, some hard work. Because it’s ironic, we’re celebrating a very important birthday, our most important birthday so far, 250 years. And instead of speaking about Christ, and instead of speaking about freedom and victories of all different kinds, we’re speaking about yet another threat to the foundations of America.
These ruthless communists will attack all religions, but in particular, Christianity. They always do. They’re after Christianity more than any other religion. It seems to be more and more throughout the world, maybe because we’re doing so well. I don’t know. Maybe if we weren’t doing well. But you see the numbers, how they’re growing, how the churches are filling up. It’s a beautiful thing to see. I mean, look, it happens to be during my presidency, so I don’t mind taking credit for it. I’m very proud. But a lot of great things are happening.
Protecting Christians Around the World
All communist countries attack religions violently. It’s part of their deal. As you know, we recently struck Nigeria and largely ended the slaughter of great Christian populations. They have a great Christian population. They were being butchered. Butchered. Thousands and thousands of people were being killed. Children, women, old people just being slaughtered, hatched to death. They know that if they go further, the attack will be far greater and that they don’t want to really get involved anymore so much. You know, we hit them very hard. We knocked out their leader. We knocked out their second leader and their third leader.
Sounds a little bit like Iran, actually. That’s all about a different cause that we have to do because we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. Can’t let it happen.
So, I’m saving Christians throughout the world, even though we are not in those various countries where you read about this. But they’d like to make our country just like those countries. That’s where they started. They started right where we are right now. But I’m saving them by hitting these terrorists very violently and very hard. We’re hitting them very hard by the greatest weapons on Earth, taking them out. We know where they are. We hunt them down or we take them out. Think of it, they go into a village and they just kill everybody. It’s like crazy.
They Want to End Religion
They will close your churches in this country. They go communist, and they’re trying to. They will kill your people. And that’s what they’re about. They want to end religion. They have to end religion because their ideology doesn’t work if you have strong religion. People like you that are so incredible and love our country so much and love God. This is the greatest threat to our country since its founding, in my opinion, 250 years ago. What’s happening right now? It’s the greatest threat.
Rent Control and the Attack on Property Rights
People don’t look at that. Well, oh, three people were elected. No, no. Many more than three people. And the other people are being swayed because they don’t have the sense to see what’s happening. They don’t have the sense. Their followers are not leaders, even though they’re politicians, in some cases successful ones.
For the first time in history, the powerful Rent Stabilization Board is an example that sets rents in New York City. It just happened today. They’ve done it for years and years, and they’ve been very far left. They’re run by Democrats, and they give landlords a hard time for years and years. It’s called rent control. They give landlords a hard time, but they always give some increases so they can survive.
But they just came out, first time ever, with a ruling, zero rent increases for landlords. Zero for the next two years, despite the fact that energy, supplies, real estate taxes, and just about everything else has gone up. They’re supposed to allow you to have that. Zero. They’re giving them nothing. They’re basically confiscating their property.
And the one representative for the landlords who’s on the board — I think they have eight or nine people on the board, and you had one who was representing one out of, like, eight. But at least you had somebody. But that person walked off in disgust, walked off, and got booed.
Mayor Mamdani, who came to the White House and seems like a nice guy, but he said he was going to do this in his campaign. Nobody thought he was serious. He said he was going to make sure that people don’t have a rent increase, even though energy went up.
Energy Prices and the Decline of Cities
It’s going to come down. It’s coming down fast right now. I hope you’re watching what’s happening. We had a low number just now. It’s $69 a barrel. That was — some people said it was going to be $350 by now. Sixty-nine, and it’s going to be $300, $350. Never hit those numbers at all, even in the height of it all.
But what the mayor doesn’t say is that these buildings will soon turn into ghettos and slums, and that everybody will continue leaving New York. And as this spreads throughout the country, very much like an uncontrollable form of cancer, the country itself will be taken down. It will be third world — strictly third world. And it’s happened many times before to very big and very powerful countries. But it’s not going to happen to the United States of America. No way.
====================
Transcript: Trump Remarks at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s 2026 Policy Conference
by Pangambam S
June 26, 2026 10:53 pm
[The following is the full transcript of President Donald Trump’s speech at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s 2026 Policy Conference in Washington DC, June 26, 2026.]
[Editor’s Note: President Donald Trump addressed the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s 2026 Policy Conference, marking his 10th appearance at the “Road to Majority” event. Introduced as the 45th and 47th President of the United States, he highlighted his administration’s accomplishments in securing the border, strengthening religious freedom, and fostering economic growth. He also emphasized the importance of faith in American history and warned against the threats he believes are posed by the political left as the nation approaches its 250th anniversary.]
President Trump Addresses the Faith & Freedom Coalition
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Carmen Lin
Hi David:
Carmen Lin
david chou
Old Ronald在1983年的一場演說與Old Donald在2026年的一場演說(III)
Desperate Trumpists Try to Stir Up a Panic Over ‘Communists’
But while the new Red Scare is a fakeout, parts of the left do pose a problem for Democrats.
Jul 08, 2026
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/desperate-trumpists-try-to-stir-up-panic-over-communists
THIRTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER THE COLLAPSE of the Soviet Union, Donald Trump says communism is on the march again. Addressing a conservative Christian conference on June 26, he accused the Democrats of “becoming a Communist party,” adding that “communism is very easy to sell—it destroys everything, but it is very easy.” Three days later, speaking in the Oval Office, he referred to communism as the “biggest threat to our nation there is—maybe since our founding.” He even brought it up in his Fourth of July speech: “All these talks from the Communists, they haven’t got a chance. Not even a chance. We don’t want Communists in our country. Never worked. And it never will work.”
Trump isn’t alone in claiming to see red. Vice President JD Vance has sounded the alarm on Fox News, which is having a field day with “the new wave of communists rising in Democratic Party.” And House Speaker Mike Johnson has warned about the supposed “Marxists and communists” openly running for Congress all over the United States.
But is there really a red wave on Team Blue—or are Republicans engaging in “zombie McCarthyism,” in historian Jeff Bloodworth’s pithy phrase, trying to resurrect communism so their fractious followers can unite against a common foe for the midterms? So far, more the latter than the former. The alleged Communist takeover in the Democratic party amounts to a handful of primary wins by democratic socialists in congressional races (mostly in strong progressive districts) and socialist candidates making headway in a couple of big mayoral races. These candidates, moreover, are not all cut from the same cloth. Some are genuine radicals, like Darializa Avila Chevalier, a congressional candidate from New York City who only a few years ago praised communism and advocated police abolition. But another up-and-coming socialist is Los Angeles councilwoman and mayoral challenger Nithya Raman, a proponent of economic growth who wants to cut red tape for developers to encourage housing construction and has reversed her earlier “defund the police” stance. While Raman is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, the group has refused to endorse her.
Of course, the right’s hand-wringing about far-left insurgents among Democrats is grotesquely hypocritical given the far-right extremism currently normalized in the GOP. In his recent lengthy interview with the Ezra Klein in the New York Times, Republican activist Chris Rufo claimed with a straight face that the “institutional right” has done a far better job than the left of “gatekeeping” the “bad psychological and political tendencies” in its ranks. Oh yeah? The Department of Homeland Security is pretty institutional, and its official account on X has shared fantasies about a paradisiacal America “after 100 million deportations.” Meanwhile, the openly racist, genuinely un-American mantra “when you import the Third World, you become the Third World” is being recited not only by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller but by President Trump himself.
Moreover, the attacks on alleged “Communists” often target bogeymen. Witness the freakout over New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Fourth of July speech—according to much of the right, a hate-America rant that the mayor delivered with a “scowl” while “surrounded by hijabs.”1 Yeesh, get a grip. Were there things to criticize about the speech? Sure: It arguably leaned far too much into class warfare with its simplistic dichotomy of the “bad” America of corporate landlords and insurance companies versus the “good” America of struggling workers. But anti-American? Hardly: Mamdani had enthusiastic words for the opportunities America had afforded immigrants even in times when discrimination was rampant—and for the American Founding itself. If you think there’s something subversive in Mamdani’s statement that America is always striving to better itself and to fully realize “the values first enshrined in the Declaration of Independence,” then your definition of anti-Americanism probably includes most Americans: In a recent YouGov/CBS News poll of American adults, only 30 percent of respondents said that America had achieved “a great deal” of “the ideals it was founded on.”
AND YET DISMISSING CONCERNS about the rise of the far left, or sweeping those concerns under the rug for the sake of a “big tent” opposed to Donald Trump, is ultimately shortsighted. Jonathan Chait argues that militants in the DSA—which he believes has departed substantially from the liberal legacy of its founder Michael Harrington—see the Democratic party primarily as a vehicle to exploit to advance their own ideology. They also have little compunction about ferociously attacking mainstream Democrats while expecting big-tent mainstream deference toward progressives. Are they reliable allies? Chait puts it starkly:
The Democratic Party is waging an existential struggle to save democracy, the rule of law, and liberal norms. The DSA’s vanguard does not merely believe that its defense has faltered. It holds those values themselves in contempt as resistance-wine-mom frivolity.
Some of the DSA-affiliated candidates would expand the government’s powers at the very moment when an authoritarian president and his team of zealots and sycophants are already doing their best to pull off a massive power grab. Claire Valdez, one of the socialist House candidates in New York City, has declared that “we need to, like, nationalize the airline industry”—this, at a time when the Trump administration has floated the idea of blocking international flights to cities and states with sanctuary policies for illegal immigrants. (As Cato Institute immigration studies director David Bier pointed out in a tweet: “If we nationalize industries, it means putting Donald Trump in charge of those industries. All the flights would be used for deportation, and they wouldn’t fly to Democrats’ states.”)
The leftists are also likely to be unreliable on some issues that must be key to any meaningful anti-Trump coalition—such as blocking a U.S. withdrawal from NATO, a move that the DSA supports. DSA also opposes military aid to Ukraine; while its statement in February 2022 condemned the Russian invasion, it also channeled the pro-Kremlin line blaming NATO’s “imperialist expansionism.” While most of the left-wing candidates in the current races have not commented on the subject, Chevalier echoed this view when, the day after the invasion, she replied to a post on X questioning our involvement in the conflict with an alarming post of her own: “Cause the Cold War ended and we’ve been bullying Russia ever since. Also war is lucrative for these sociopaths.” When questioned about it recently, she responded only that she wasn’t sure about the “context” of her four-year-old post.
Are stances like these tantamount to communism? Certainly not always. But Chait makes a strong case that the DSA in its current form has been transformed by an influx of Communist activists. (A 2024 post on the site of the Red Star Caucus, one of the Communist caucuses within the DSA, gloats that while the organization used to be anti-Communist and social democratic, “in 2016, a massive wave of new members completely overran its existing membership, and DSA was unable to draw them into its existing ideology.”) Last year, the DSA even repealed a bylaw that had banned people belonging to actual Marxist-Leninist organizations from membership in the DSA. And it’s worth noting that Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, one of the major influencers fueling the left-wing surge, is a vocal admirer of mass-murdering Communist revolutionaries like Vladimir Lenin and Mao Zedong and has lamented the Soviet Union’s defeat in the Cold War.
There’s also the DSA-affiliated Democrats’ baggage of social-issues radicalism, such as support for defunding or even abolishing the police. In her posts in 2020, Chevalier insisted that policing had to be not only reformed but abolished, “full stop”—“No more police at all ever.” Today she at least concedes that the goal is not to “get rid of police overnight” but to create social programs that she apparently believes will eliminate crime.2
CAN CANDIDATES WITH a record of holding such left-wing views do well outside Democratic primaries in deep blue territory? We’ll see. An interesting case study is in Michigan, where physician Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive, has been leading moderate Haley Stevens in the Democratic primary for the state’s open Senate seat. The polls may shift now that the third major candidate in the race has dropped out. El-Sayed is currently facing an embarrassing flap over newly surfaced 2020 interviews refuting his claims that he has “never, ever” supported the Defund the Police movement.
Also of concern: Some DSA-affiliated candidates have made statements that go beyond harsh criticism of Israel and veer into the realm of antisemitism. In a recent video castigating those supposedly trying to “rig our democracy” to nominate an establishment candidate, El-Sayed singled out Jewish adversaries: AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying group, and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer. In Colorado, attorney Melat Kiros, who recently defeated veteran congresswoman Diana DeGette in a primary, has refused to characterize as antisemitic a 2025 firebombing attack on a pro-Israel demonstration in Boulder, in which one person was killed and nearly a dozen injured.
All this is bad news, for several reasons. It makes American politics more toxic overall (especially considering that there’s a much larger crop of far-left, DSA-affiliated candidates running in state and local races). It also alienates mainstream voters and thus plays into the hands of the MAGA Republicans. It’s up to the Democrats, at this point, to repair the guardrails against extremism that Trump and his right-wing radicals broke down.
Writing in Compact, Geoff Shullenberger recently compared the rise of anti-establishment left-wing candidates in the Democratic party to the earlier surge of right-wing populism in the GOP—which ultimately led to the Trump presidency and then to its ghastly second iteration. Shullenberger thinks we are witnessing “the Trumpification of the Democrats”—which, he predicts, will take about ten years to come to full fruition. He thinks that’s a good thing, if only as a sign that “democracy lives.” Yet in reality, the far left, like the MAGA right, represents an activist base that can hijack the political process because it’s passionately committed to an ideology in a way moderates cannot match.
At least for now, the two certainly shouldn’t be equated. Far-left Democrats are still very far from dominating their party let alone taking over the country, and moderate candidates—such as Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York, Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, and Senate candidate Mary Peltola in Alaska—are performing very well in this midterm election year. And the Democratic party’s tolerance for toxic views and toxic behavior in politicians does not remotely compare to the Republican party’s cult of Trump (not to mention its vast gallery of elected and appointed officials with ugly views and ugly character flaws).
Yet even the first steps on the road to Trumpification should be avoided: The further you go down that road, the harder it is to reverse.
Two of the ten newly naturalized Americans flanking Mamdani were women in headscarves.
Chevalier’s social media history also includes posts that reflect a rather toxic brand of progressive identity politics—for instance, a 2019 tweet that appears to attack black and Arab men with white female partners, accusing them of “fetishizing ugly colonizer women.” Chevalier recently told the New York Times that she is “very sad” about some of her old posts which “really sowed some division.”
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