With tweets and utterances, President Trump attempts to create enemies where none exist. Trump’s recent enemy of the moment is a revived socialist-communist boogeyman. History reveals Americans have rejected communism, but the communist movement got traction through broad spectrum social justice advocacy and incredibly stupid actions by government officials.
During the Great Depression, peaceful and anti-communist WWI veterans camped in our capital to plead for early payment of their bonuses to feed their families. President Hoover, convinced the encampment was a communist insurrection, ordered Maj. Gen. Douglas MacArthur to clear the camp. Hoover reconsidered and twice ordered MacArthur to stand down. MacArthur defied the president and attacked our veterans, which gave credence to the communist argument our government would violently oppress popular movements.
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover even included Martin Luther King and Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling when he lumped social justice advocates with communists to inflate his tally of communists. Careers of thousands of loyal Americans were derailed by blacklisting, rumors, assaults, and innuendo. The communist movement faded when our government acted on integration, voter rights, and poverty.
The obvious lesson is stop the scare tactics of conjuring enemies, and act for social justice (democracy).
