How Trump's Republican Party Went Soft on Communism

Source: Reason
Published: Jun 18, 2018
Author: Steve Chapman
Post Date: 2018-06-18 09:36:31 by Deckard
Views: 3078

It’s the most astonishing reversal in modern American political history.

If you had told Ronald Reagan in 1988 that in 30 years, the president of the United States would be chummy with communist dictators in China and North Korea, eager to please a brutal Kremlin autocrat, and indifferent to the needs of our military allies, he might have said: That's what you get for electing a Democrat.

Today's Republicans make up a party he wouldn't recognize. For decades, the Russians and Chinese dispatched spies and enlisted American sympathizers to try to harm the United States and tilt its policies in their favor. Under Donald Trump, they don't have to. They have a friend in the Oval Office.

It's the most astonishing reversal in modern American political history. Over the past century, the right accused liberals and Democrats of excusing the crimes of Josef Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Fidel Castro. Often, the criticism was well-founded.

Harvard's John King Fairbank, the dean of American China scholars, spoke for many on the left in 1972 when he said the communist revolution was "the best thing that has happened to the Chinese people in centuries." President Jimmy Carter, who spurned Americans' "inordinate fear of communism," was shocked by the invasion of Afghanistan. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, he lamented, "lied to me."

Conservatives saw Carter as a starry-eyed dupe. "The most flagrant offenders of human rights including the Soviet Union, Vietnam, and Cuba have been the beneficiaries of administration good will, while nations friendly to the United States have suffered the loss of U.S. commercial access and economic and military assistance," said the 1980 Republican platform.

"The evidence of the Soviet threat to American security has never been more stark and unambiguous, nor has any president ever been more oblivious to this threat and its potential consequences," the platform added. "The president's failure to shoulder the burden of leadership in the Western alliance has placed America in danger without parallel since December 7, 1941."

All these charges have deafening echoes today. But this time, the credulous appeaser failing our allies is a Republican president. For communist dictators such as Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un, Trump exudes admiration and amity. To the anti-Western Russian President Vladimir Putin, he offered congratulations for winning a rigged election.

When it comes to Canada's Justin Trudeau and Germany's Angela Merkel, by contrast, he seethes with resentment. With Trump, it's better to be a long-standing American adversary than a faithful ally.

That about-face strains belief. More incredible still is that the Republican Party has chosen to follow his lead. GOP leaders and conservative commentators have turned themselves inside out praising behavior they would have torched had it come from a Democratic administration.

This new outlook might be defensible if it were the product of a conscious, informed reassessment of our role in a changing world. But it's not. It's almost entirely the product of the takeover of the Republican Party by Trump. Anything he says immediately becomes its semiofficial policy—no matter how deeply it contradicts past doctrines.

The pattern is uncannily reminiscent of the Communist Party USA in the years leading up to World War II. First it opposed President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a capitalist lackey. Then, as fascist movements rose in Europe, it joined with noncommunists on the left in "popular front" organizations that aligned with FDR in opposing fascism.

An abrupt turnabout came in 1939, when Stalin signed a nonaggression pact with Adolf Hitler. American Communists jumped to defend this cooperation with the Nazis—and condemned Roosevelt for providing aid to Britain, which was at war with Germany.

When Hitler and Stalin proceeded to divide up Poland by force—putting millions of Polish Jews under Nazi rule—the party defended the dismemberment. When Hitler shocked Stalin by invading the Soviet Union, American Communists shifted yet again, getting behind Roosevelt and calling to help the countries fighting Germany.

Many members of the Communist Party USA couldn't stomach these grotesque reversals and chose to leave. But many remained loyal, quickly changing their beliefs to fit whatever the Kremlin did.

"Both the CPUSA leaders and the rank and file absorbed Stalin's ideological hatreds as their own," wrote the peerless historians Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes. These Communists wore "special glasses that allowed them to see only what Moscow saw and that rendered all else invisible."

Republicans of 50 or even five years ago would be appalled at how Trump has reshaped American foreign policy. But then, they weren't wearing special glasses that warped their vision. They were seeing clearly.

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#1: misterwhite    To: Deckard (#0)

If you had told Ronald Reagan in 1988 that in 30 years, the president of the United States would be chummy with communist dictators in China and North Korea, eager to please a brutal Kremlin autocrat, and indifferent to the needs of our military allies, he might have said: That's what you get for electing a Democrat.

However, if you had told Ronald Reagan the truth -- that in 30 years, the president of the United States would force China into free and fair trade, would bring peace to the Korean peninsula, would reach out to Russia, and would demand that our allies pay their fair share for defense, he might have said: "Where is that guy? I want to shake his hand."

misterwhite posted on 2018-06-18 10:49:01   Reply   Private Reply

#2: interpreter    To: Deckard (#0)

interpreter posted on 2018-06-18 12:36:37   Reply   Private Reply

#3: interpreter    To: Deckard (#0)

That is the most ridiculous post I've seen yet on LF (and I've seen a bunch over the years. Trump has been the hardest on China of any of our presidents. The one who was the softest on China was Obama because of his ridiculous "free trade" policy. That policy has put many Americans out of work because American products have been replaced with cheap Chinese imports. And they are cheaper mostly because China does pay any regard to our patent and copyright laws, and does not pay the inventor or patent holder one penny in most cases. Trump is trying his best ti fix that (mainly with tariffs), and return the manufacturing process and jobs to Americans.

And what you said about Moscow is even more ridiculous because Russia gave up communism over 17 years ago.

And I predict that before Trump leaves office, there wont be any atheist countries left anywhere in the world. And it is not just me predicting that because its in the Bible. The atheist whores are only allowed to reign for 70 years (max) just like the Soviet Union, the mother of the whores, only lasted 70 years. China's days (and also North Korea's) are numbered (and the number is 70).

Barry Midyet

PS, Obama's refusal (and the many presidents before him) to allow Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel also ended at precisely the 70-year point (down to the exact day and hour) as also prophesied . Trump has fulfillment many prophesies already, and before he leaves office every prophecy in the Bible leading up to the glorious millennial rule of the Church will have been fulfilled. Then we will enter heaven (on Earth).

Resistance is futile.

interpreter posted on 2018-06-18 13:24:28   Reply   Private Reply

#4: Liberator    To: misterwhite, no gnu taxes, tooconservative, Deckard (#1)

If you had told Ronald Reagan the truth --

-- that in 30 years, the president of the United States would force China into free and fair trade, would bring peace to the Korean peninsula, would reach out to Russia, and would demand that our allies pay their fair share for defense, he might have said: "Where is that guy? I want to shake his hand."

Exactly. THAT is the TRUE narrative.

Trump appears to have accomplished more as President to benefit the USA and world in the last 16 month than in Poppy, Dubya, Bubba, and The Commie Kenyan the last 30 years. It can easily be argued that those 4 Presidents worked to sabotage America from within.

Yes, The Gipper would have not only approved of Trump's accomplishments but high-fived Trump.

Let's remember that after all, it was Reagan who befriended the Gorby, leader/hood ornament representing Kremlin's brutal Commie autocracy. He also dismissed his staff's advice and went Full-Commando with his "Evil Empire" speech. (The same Leftist Media also claimed Reagan would create a nuke exchange and "start WW3" -- sound familiar?)

The above BS spin from Reason.com is the ironic perspective from...those who support or ARE Communists. FULLY expected of Soros-salaried shills and obviously globalist-Marxist propaganda outlets.

The author of the above "Trump-is-Evil blah-blah-blah" is Steve Chapman. He is a "star" at Reason.com. Why?

Chapman is an active member of "The Resistance", a Trump/America hating liar and shill. See a pattern below? YOU be the judge:

Liberator posted on 2018-06-18 14:04:35   Reply   Private Reply

#5: Liberator    To: interpreter (#3)

I should have pinged you to the above...

Btw, your response was SPOT ON:

"That (criticism of Trump) is the most ridiculous post I've seen yet on LF (and I've seen a bunch over the years. Trump has been the hardest on China of any of our presidents. The one who was the softest on China was Obama because of his ridiculous "free trade" policy. That policy has put many Americans out of work because American products have been replaced with cheap Chinese imports...."

(snip)

Trump is trying his best ti fix that (mainly with tariffs), and return the manufacturing process and jobs to Americans.

And what you said about Moscow is even more ridiculous because Russia gave up communism over 17 years ago."

Amen.

Liberator posted on 2018-06-18 14:08:53   Reply   Private Reply

#6: no gnu taxes    To: Liberator (#4)

Trump isn't being soft on anybody. He is simply saying "give me what I ask for and I'll give you something in return."

Sort of like the Godfather.

Sort of.

no gnu taxes posted on 2018-06-18 14:16:59   Reply   Private Reply

#7: Liberator    To: no gnu taxes (#6)

Trump isn't being soft on anybody. He is simply saying "give me what I ask for and I'll give you something in return."

Sort of like the Godfather.

I hear ya.

Trump made the Norker an offer he couldn't refuse.

Barry would have just air-dropped a USD billion outside the guy's front stoop...and declared it a "Another diplomatic success!!" (MSM would still be applauding)

Liberator posted on 2018-06-18 14:24:34   Reply   Private Reply

#8: Vicomte13    To: Deckard (#0)

Russia isn't Communist.

Vicomte13 posted on 2018-06-18 15:07:00   Reply   Private Reply

#9: Tooconservative    To: Liberator (#4)

The above BS spin from Reason.com is the ironic perspective from...those who support or ARE Communists. FULLY expected of Soros-salaried shills and obviously globalist-Marxist propaganda outlets.

They are part of the Kochtopus. Mouthpieces of the Koch brothers. Meh, there are worse things. At least they aren't funded by the Chamber of Commerce goons.

Yes, The Gipper would have not only approved of Trump's accomplishments but high-fived Trump.

Reagan would say, "If only I had the opportunity to have a GOP House and Senate with weakened filibustering." Reagan would have envied Trump all these opportunities to remake the judiciary for decades, to rip out regulatory authority root and branch, etc.

Reagan simply never had the chances to do things the way Trump does.

Tooconservative posted on 2018-06-18 17:35:46   Reply   Private Reply

#10: Deckard    To: interpreter (#3)

And I predict that before Trump leaves office, there wont be any atheist countries left anywhere in the world. And it is not just me predicting that because its in the Bible.

Okey dokey Nostradamus.

Deckard posted on 2018-06-18 18:03:06   Reply   Private Reply

#11: no gnu taxes    To: Liberator (#7)

Trump made the Norker an offer he couldn't refuse.

That's probably the next step if he doesn't get what he asks for.

no gnu taxes posted on 2018-06-18 19:57:14   Reply   Private Reply