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When did the GOP start using "dirty commies!" as a political ploy?


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2013 Jun 12, 6:32am   6,280 views  14 comments

by edvard2   ➕follow (1)   💰tip   ignore  

Of course communists and socialists didn't really exist prior to the revolutions first in Russia then elsewhere. But aftewards, and especially from the 50's and onward they sure made convenient boogiemen for right to use as something to claim would happen whenever they didn't get their way or if they were clearly losing a debate:

" Oh yeah? pass that bill and communists will show up on your doorstep tomorrow!"

" I disagree with that magazine article. Must have been written by communists who snuck into the newsroom at night and re-wrote them!"

" Oh yeah? Well even though I am clearly losing this debate, its because you all are communists in disguise!"

This tactic seems to have become a long-standing stalwart in the right's limited number of tools in the ole' toolbox. But surely before this they must have had other means to debate against something? I am rather curious what the GOP was like in the days before using communists as such a convenient ploy.

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1   Tenpoundbass   2013 Jun 12, 6:39am  

When Democrats started wearing knee high goose steppers you pinko comtard.

2   edvard2   2013 Jun 12, 6:41am  

.... and my point was just made even more clear.

oops. I just spilled my soda. Stupid communist elves on my desk musta' done it!

3   Tenpoundbass   2013 Jun 12, 6:52am  

glad I could help...

4   Dan8267   2013 Jun 12, 7:15am  

edvard2 says

Of course communists and socialists didn't really exist prior to the revolutions first in Russia then elsewhere.

The Communist Manifesto was written by Karl Marx in 1848. Communism was intended for an industrialize nation like Germany, not the agrarian Russia that implemented Communism completely differently from how Marx envisioned it. Turns out that Communism, Capitalism, and Socialism each can be implemented in vastly different ways.

Socialism existed since the Stone Age. There is evidence of care-giving to the elderly and injured in Stone Age tribes. Jesus was a hard-core socialist.

It is impossible to run a society without some socialism. You can't privatize all infrastructure, all military, and government itself. Only fools favor private army, police, and fire fighters.

5   edvard2   2013 Jun 12, 7:23am  

Dan8267 says

The Communist Manifesto was written by Karl Marx in 1848.

Ok, fair enough. But the premise of my post was about what time period did the GOP use the threat of communism as a tool? The simplified reason behind doing this is to drum up fear in their eager constituency. But to do so you would need to have examples. So in that case the example would have been states that had adopted Communism as a governing system. As such, the GOP could then say: " ooooooohhhhh.... better not do that or we'll turn into communists... like XXX communist country."

Clearly this was not always the case. So at some point the tactic was employed. At which point would be a curious thing to know.

6   edvard2   2013 Jun 12, 7:36am  

I think it was before that. Actually I was watching an interesting documentary about FDR the other night and it discussed some of his programs and the New Deal. What was interesting is that you probably could take that experience and trade it with Obama's and it would have been nearly identical. In the 30's as today there were large corporate lobbys that were against some of the programs and some GOP politicians claimed that the plans were Socialist. But I think FDR handled it better by coming right back and dismissing those claims by clearly and thoroughly explaining how the plans worked.

But I digress: The usage of the threat of communism was very much in use even in the 1930's. Perhaps then it was more pertinent because at that time there were numerous communist organizations and political movements in the US that enjoyed some degree of popularity.

7   New Renter   2013 Jun 12, 8:04am  

Enjoy Your Hope and Change says

edvard2 says

Ok, fair enough. But the premise of my post was about what time period did the GOP use the threat of communism as a tool?

Since the start of the Cold War i.e. in 1947.

Communism specifically as a boogeyman? 1917.

The October Revolution was led by Vladimir Lenin and was based upon Lenin's writing on the ideas of Karl Marx, a political ideology often known as Marxism-Leninism. It marked the beginning of the spread of communism in the 20th century.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution

The Russians were not kind to their former overlords.

EDIT - The Palmer raids of 1919-1920 are one of the early responses to the threat of communism alone with anarchists and radical leftists.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmer_Raids

8   Dan8267   2013 Jun 12, 8:10am  

edvard2 says

Ok, fair enough. But the premise of my post was about what time period did the GOP use the threat of communism as a tool?

Premise granted. The GOP today is using Communism, Socialism, and Terrorism as bogeymen.

Anti-Communist hysteria goes back at least to the 1920s in America and it's heyday was in the 1950s with McCarthyism. The evil bastard, Joseph McCarthy, was a Democrat early in life but switched over to the Republican party in 1952 just before beginning his witch hunt.

Of course, the roles of the two parties swapped during the 1960s. Prior to 1960, the GOP was the party of Lincoln and there were two Democratic parties, the Northern Democrats and the evil Southern Democrats (a.k.a. Dixiecrats). During the 1960s, LBJ saw the writing on the wall and thought the Democratic Party had to get rid of the racist Dixiecrats. Meanwhile, the GOP embraced the racist Jesus freaks in the Southern Strategy. The Dixiecrats flocked in droves to the GOP and make up its core, and the Tea Party, today.

So, as to your question, when did the GOP start embracing Communism as a boogie-man, it's hard to say. In practical terms, today's GOP began in the 1960s, so that would be your answer. There was a GOP that was largely responsible for McCarthyism in the 1950s, but that GOP was more like today's Democrats. Just take a look at President Ike; he's more like Bill Clinton than any other president after 1960.

In any case, the Republican Party only started becoming evil in the 1960s because of the Southern Strategy. The Dixiecrat, their ancestors, and their descendants have always been evil; it's just an evil, Southern culture much like the culture of the Middle East and for much the same reasons.

The Republican Party, however, wasn't beyond redemption until the stolen election of 2000 and the tyrannical reign of the Cheney administration. At that point they became irredeemable extremist despots.

Unfortunately, the Democratic Party is starting to follow in their footsteps, adopting Republican ideas.

9   Dan8267   2013 Jun 12, 8:12am  

New Renter says

The Russians were not kind to their former overlords.

Yes, but that has to do with concentrated power, not the economic system of Communism.

Economic systems are like underwear. You change them whenever you need to.

10   edvard2   2013 Jun 12, 8:19am  

Dan8267 says

Unfortunately, the Democratic Party is starting to follow in their footsteps, adopting Republican ideas.

if that were really the case then all that would happen would be that you'd have rooms full of people simply staring at each other doing nothing but twiddling their thumbs seeing as how the GOP has more or less decided to sit on their behinds and do basically nothing actually constructive over the last 4 and a half years.

11   Tenpoundbass   2013 Jun 12, 8:19am  

Dan8267 says

The Dixiecrat, their ancestors, and their descendants have always been evil; it's just an evil, Southern culture much like the culture of the Middle East and for much the same reasons.

Yeah gotta watch out for Kooter, when no body is watching he stomps on his John Deere hat, and sports a turbin, and his wife beater doubles as a burqua for his wife.

12   New Renter   2013 Jun 12, 8:25am  

Dan8267 says

New Renter says

The Russians were not kind to their former overlords.

Yes, but that has to do with concentrated power, not the economic system of Communism.

Economic systems are like underwear. You change them whenever you need to.

The killing of the czar and the decades of horrors which followed were used to demonize communism. Sure the economic system of communism may not inherently result in crazy nutcase dictators destroying everything in sight but given what happened in China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Cuba, North Korea, and pretty much every place Communism was tried hasn't helped the case for it.

Dan8267 says

Economic systems are like underwear. You change them whenever you need to.

Lets start by cutting back on the FIRE industries.

13   Dan8267   2013 Jun 12, 12:12pm  

New Renter says

China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Cuba, North Korea, and pretty much every place Communism was tried hasn't helped the case for it.

Have you noticed that all those nations are allies or friendly with each other and Russia? I don't think that's a coincidence.

History could have easily played out differently with Communism being associated with Western Europe or small tropical nations or anything else.

I don't think that Communism is a good economic system for large economies, but I based that opinion on reasons that apply equally to Capitalism. Neither system scales well because they concentrate rather than distribute power and control. Distributive systems are inherently more scalable than centralized ones.

14   thomaswong.1986   2013 Jun 12, 12:48pm  

edvard2 says

I think it was before that.

Damn dirty ape..

http://www.youtube.com/embed/Cdmqn9JIuzc

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