Congressman Allen West is being hammered for his comments alleging
that certain Democratic members of Congress are communists. It’s
the kind of accusation (West
is not backing down) that sets liberals seething in rage. An
even worse sin was that West dared to quantify his accusation,
attaching a number to the alleged Reds. He said there are “78 to
81” Congressional Democrats who are communists.
Naturally, all of this is a huge no-no, reflexively sending
liberals into fits and shouts of “McCarthyism!”
I want to say three things relating to West’s remarks: First,
some criticism of West’s critics. Second, a defense of West’s
critics. And, finally, some criticism of West, which I offer
constructively. I like Allen West, consider him a rising star in
the Republican Party and conservative movement, and want him to
succeed.
First, on West’s critics:
Their concern about West’s exaggeration and name-calling and
lack of “civility” has little credibility coming from an ideology
(liberalism) and political party (Democrats) that thrive on
exaggeration and name-calling and a lack of civility. I could
easily point out a litany of examples. It’s as simple as the latest
liberal/Democrat gambit accusing Republicans of a “war on women”
merely because they believe the federal government shouldn’t force
taxpayers to fund contraception and Planned Parenthood. For that
crime, West’s colleague Maxine Waters called Republicans
“demons.” Nancy Pelosi said they want women to “die
on the floor.” Dianne Feinstein
insisted they want “to sock it to women.” Harry Reid claimed
Republicans have placed a “bull’s eye on women.” Barbara Boxer
described it as a “vendetta” against women. And, in sum,
Congresswoman Barbara Lee called
it a GOP “war on women.”
I could go on and on. We all could. Do a Google search on the
words “George W. Bush” and “Hitler” or “Nazi.” Or recall the
obscene statements from Democratic lawmakers regarding the Iraq
war. Remember that Senator Dick Durbin compared our troops at Gitmo
to “Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime — Pol Pot
or others.”
But only when a Rush Limbaugh blows his top — or someone like
Allen West issues charges like this one — does the New York
Times start issuing calls for civility.
Point made. Now, for my second and third points:
Allen West needs to be much more careful. He sloppily overlapped
categories and blurred key lines of distinction — which, as a
brilliant thinker who makes nuanced distinctions, he doesn’t
usually do. Of course, the Left makes this easy for us to do.
Witness my
last piece for American Spectator, which focused on
The Nation’s list of all-time most influential
“progressives.” Number one was a socialist, Eugene Debs. Also on
the list were hardcore communists like Paul Robeson, who literally
loved Stalin — and actually won the Stalin Prize. The list is
filled with Soviet sympathizers, dupes, and even a onetime Soviet
agent. Moreover, Allen West is totally correct in stating that
communists have long used the word “progressive” as a cover. If I
had a dollar for every communist or communist front that masked
itself as “progressive,” I’d be a multi-millionaire. I could show
example after example from Soviet Comintern archives, CPUSA
documents, the Daily Worker, you name it.
Nonetheless, that said, the left side of the political spectrum
is very broad. It includes Democrats, liberals, progressives,
“social-justice” Christians, socialists, communists, Marxists,
Leninists, Stalinists, Maoists, and more. There are distinct
differences, even if and when a liberal Democrat favors something
that Marx favored. For instance, point 2 in Marx’s
10-point plan in The Communist Manifesto calls for “a
heavy progressive or graduated income tax.” Advocates of this
include basically the entirety of the Democratic membership of the
House of Representatives — but it doesn’t make them Marxists.
Consider point 3 in Marx’s 10-point plan, which calls for
“abolition of all rights of inheritance.” Many “liberals” and
“progressives” advocate that to some degree (via taxation), but I
know of no Congressional Democrat calling for complete abolition of
all rights of inheritance.
Likewise, Marx wrote this: “the theory of the communists may be
summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.”
Liberals happily place all kinds of restrictions on private
property, but I know of no Congressional Democrat who would go as
far as Lenin and Stalin and Mao and Pol Pot and Castro.
Here’s the reality that often complicates things for
conservatives as we look at the Left: Liberals agree with
communists on many key sympathies — workers’ rights, the spreading
and redistribution of wealth, a narrow to non-existent income gap,
a central government offering a wide array of “free” government
services, a favoring of the public sector over the private sector,
class-based rhetoric (often demagoguery) toward the wealthy,
progressively high tax rates, an expansive federal government, a
cynicism of business and capitalism, to name a few. The differences
are matters of degree, but they are crucial differences — so
crucial, in fact, that liberals are not communists.
Allen West didn’t say that every liberal in Congress is a
communist. Yet, he did say that there is a huge portion. Even
worse, in his initial statement, he said that “78 to 81” were
actual Communist Party members, or about 40 percent of the
Democratic membership. Clearly that’s not accurate. If it is, then
West should be chiseled into Mt. Rushmore for exposing the greatest
threat to Washington since the War of 1812 — and we should
commence a national march to the Capitol right now, with
torches.
I assume that West misspoke, and meant communists (lower case
“c”) in ideology, not actual card-carrying Communist Party
members.
Sure, West appears to be thinking of the far-left Democratic
Socialists of America, many of whose members justifiably invite
suspicions, as well as the Congressional Progressive Caucus. What
he ought to say, however, is that a large number of them share some
sympathies and even certain goals with communists, but they’re not
full-blown CPUSA members.
Enough said.
Unfortunately, liberals won’t do anything to expose communists
in their own ranks. They never have. Communists know that, and for
100 years have been successfully using liberals as
dupes to advance communist causes. Frankly, liberals don’t seem
to care if there are communists hiding and brooding and making
fools of them. It doesn’t bother them like it bothers us
conservatives, leaving it to us to blow the whistle — and thereby
invite their scorn as Neanderthal anti-communists. There’s nothing
that liberals detest more than anti-communism. Their preferred
villain is Joe McCarthy, not Joe Stalin.
What Allen West must learn is the lesson of McCarthy for any
modern conservative: If you’re going to call certain people
communists, you better be absolutely, 100% certain. They and their
mass media will go ballistic, demanding a level of precision from
you that they never demand from their own name-callers. Our side
must be more cautious. It’s unfair. It’s pure hypocrisy, yes. But
that’s the deck that’s stacked against us.
Allen West, your courage and boldness is refreshing — but
please be more careful.
