Since 1945 the American left has tried to fend off attempts to tar it with being called communist. In particular, Russian communist. Liberals and Socialists have been tarred with the same brush that made Russian communism evil.
But they aren’t the same. Liberals in other countries are very pro business and hence pro capitalism. Socialists have made it clear that they too like capitalism in its good periods it’s just that they see socialism as a necessity to gloss over capitalism’s problems.
It got so bad in America for these two groups that much backtracking went on. But really what good liberal or good socialist could find fault with that communism saying “from each according to ability; to each according to need”. The problem came with defining needs or ranking abilities.
Russian communism went awry with dictatorships. Before Lenin, there was little said that communism must have a dictatorship. Still, all the real world examples of communism had dictators in charge. Today the socialists and liberals see this and wish to work within the confines of a democratic capitalism. And they are popular doing this. Look at how many people said “Feel the Bern” before Sanders the socialist was defeated by the dirty games and undemocratic machinations of the Democrat party. Every poll that pitted him against Trump, said that Bernie would win more handily than Hilary.
Still Sanders is fighting. Will he or won’t he turn the democrats to the left? I think he can and the Communist! accusation doesn’t have the power it once did. Because of this I see a democrat turn to the left and a shift to winning.
Meanwhile, the right is seeing that aligning itself with Russia helps it in the dirty tricks department. No one seems to doubt that Trump got into power with the help of Russia.
How does Trump deny the Russian influence? Why he says Russia should be in the G7. This is a group that barely tolerates Trump. With every other president, the USA was considered the first among equals. Now it’s more like last among equals. Trump can pretend that he doesn’t care but he seeks odd comrades in his bid to have some state on his side. I’m looking at you Kim Jong Un and North Korea.
The right can deny they owe something to Russia. But the facts show that they actually owe a lot to the former superpower. Unlike the American left, who grew up as defiant to Russian ideology.
