Have you no sense of decency Of course he doesn’t:
As many as 80 House Democrats are communists, according to Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.).
West warned constituents at a Tuesday town hall event that he’s “heard” that dozens of his Democratic colleagues in the House are members of the Communist Party, the Palm Beach Post reported. West didn’t elaborate beyond that, however, and didn’t offer up any names at the time. There are currently 190 House Democrats.
West spokeswoman Angela Melvin later defended West’s comments — and clarified to whom West was referring.
“The Congressman was referring to the 76 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. The Communist Party has publicly referred to the Progressive Caucus as its allies. The Progressive Caucus speaks for itself. These individuals certainly aren’t proponents of free markets or individual economic freedom,” Melvin said in a statement to The Huffington Post.
I think the best part of this is just how ineffective it will be. Other than some codgers at the VFW and the tricorner hat crowd in the teahadist movement, the fear of communism isn’t part of the current zeitgeist. The wall fell a couple decades ago, and it’s been a long time since anyone has seen a duck and cover video in school. Worrying about Islamic terrorists in our midst might still have a little cachet, but really, communists? Communism lost. Everyone knows that. Instead of calling the Dems communists, he might as well be screaming “THE REDCOATS ARE COMING! THE REDCOATS ARE COMING!”
pragmatism
this barrel has no bottom to scrape. if only we could adapt the usage of the never ending barrel to meet our storage needs. don’t try to steal this idea. patent pending.
Steve
Only 80? No wonder people think Democrats are a bunch of corporate sellouts!
ET
Seriously?????
This is 2012 not 1912 or 1952 or 1972. He need to wake up and smell the 21st century. We have moved from reds under the beds to mooslim terrorists as the big bad boogy man. Get with the Program Congressman West!
NobodySpecial
Dude’s not even trying if he didn’t claim it was all 666 of them.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Well so much for the Red plot to take country over threw bank bailouts.
MariedeGournay
The anachronisms are coming! The anachronisms are coming!
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Yet, over the last 100+ years, there has been one party that has saved capitalism from those that abuse it and those that have actually tried to replace it with socialism: The Democratic Party.
schrodinger's cat
John [email protected] top
You should read and eviscerate in your own inimitable way the blog post written by chunky Bobo, titled “The liberalism of Fear”. Chutzpah he has it.
Omnes Omnibus
The redcoats are coming?! Eek!
c u n d gulag
Communists!
80 of ’em!!!
Jeez – I wish we had 80 REAL LIBERAL’S in the House!
Seems like someone on West’s staff found a stash of old John Birch society literature after reading Joe McCarthy’s bio.
WHAT A LOON!!!
MattF
My guess is that West meant to say is that some progressives have some connection with unions. Which is, of course, scandalous to any true winger. And then West’s brain (such as it is) made the instinctive “unions = Commies” connection.
kd bart
WOLVERINES!!!!!!!
Carnacki
@pragmatism: It’s called a “Bag of holding.” I keep my spare dragonscale armor in mine
Carnacki
@Omnes Omnibus: I still say the reunification of Germany is a bad idea
schrodinger's cat
I wonder what Comrade West is smoking?
NobodySpecial
@schrodinger’s cat: I have “heard” that cocaine is a hell of a drug.
pragmatism
@Carnacki: THAR BE DRAGONS IN CONGRESS
MattW
Does the actual definition of “communist” matter though? For the last few years Republicans have been hurling context-free terms like communist, sociaIst, nazi, etc. where all that matters is the connotation, that these words are synonyms for “bad thing!”.
Legalize
That would be unindicted war criminal, Alan West right? I have it in good authority that he likes to blow (and be blown) by Hobbits.
catclub
@Carnacki: That was the one that Bismarck worked on, right?
Mike in NC
The GOP is going into the 2012 election cycle with a strategy book circa 1954. Nothing else could explain the anti-woman, anti-immigration, anti-non-white, anti-labor union, anti-gay agenda it has a death grip on. Might as well throw caution to the wind and add anti-communist to the recipe.
JCT
@schrodinger’s cat: No, that way madness lies. Honestly, you can feel your IQ falling as you read that drivel — between Friedman, bobo and his douche “maxi me” the NYT Op-Ed page is a minefield.
Hill Dweller
Chris Christie called Americans lazy at Dubya’s event earlier this week.
None of these shameless buffoons have an ounce of self-awareness.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@MattW:
This. And if I’m not mistaken, I could swear that “soshulizt!!!” and “comooniszzt!” have been two of the most damning labels that keep being brought up against Obama and Democrats, because it still somehow works to stir folks up in an emotional frenzy.
schrodinger's cat
@JCT: I wonder how Krugthulu and Gail Collins put up with the idiot brigade.
schrodinger's cat
@Hill Dweller: Did he also call them fat?
pragmatism
this exchange makes it seem like west is playing a heel in pro wrestling.
“I really wish that, standing here before you, was Allen West and President Obama,” West said. “We could have a simple discussion. But that ain’t ever gonna happen.”
“Why not?” an audience member asked.
“Cuz he was too scared!” West responded in a mocking voice.
samara morgan
my vary favorite West comment is when he defended the Iraqi Rape Squad as victims of the libruul media.
Of course, he referred to them as the noble 101st, and not what they actually were.
GregB
Allen West is Claytong Bigsby.
Dcrefugee
“Allen West is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.”
dmsilev
So if, hypothetically speaking, a member of say Stormfront endorsed say Ron Paul, that would automatically mean that Ron Paul is a white supremacist?
Oh wait, maybe that was a bad example.
quannlace
Sigh, my state’s Gov, embaressing us yet again.
Don’t you just love multi-millionaires preaching economic morality to total strangers?
See, if you weren’t so durn lazy waiting for your government check, you too and be rich and successful, and take helicopter on the taxpayer’s dime to your kid’s baseball game.
ericblair
@Mike in NC:
The mid-50’s are about the point where the paleolithic goopers want a complete social do-over from. Well, except for the 1950’s labor unions and tax rates, which goopers have revised into complete nostalgic fantasy. The rest of the goopers play along.
I dunno how they think this is going to sell in the election, when all they want to do is drive their Hoverrounds athwart history and yell “Matlock!”
dmsilev
@pragmatism: Yes, I’m sure that the reason Barack Obama wasn’t there was because he was petrified of West and not because, just maybe, the President of the United States has much better things to do with his time than listen to the insane babble of a confessed war criminal.
amk
Genius has limits while stupidity doesn’t. What a ratfucker.
Mnemosyne
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik:
Fix’d. I seriously doubt that anyone under the age of 50 gets all stirred up by cries of “communist!” but it still brings up a strong atavistic memory for some oldsters.
"Fair and Balanced" Dave
I feel sorry for Alan Keyes. Not only is he no longer the craziest Republican, now he’s not even the craziest black Republican.
RalfW
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik:
Fixed. Because they’re counting on Photo ID to keep the young and non-whites suppressed. Combined with agitated and addled old people = WIN!
[Well, it doesn’t, but they of the limited thinking and no ideas think it will add up that way]
Satanicpanic
Communism might one day make a comeback- it took about 70 years for people to forget what happened when you deregulate banking and have some dummies run the experiment again. So maybe Allen West is just 50 years too early.
kindness
It’ll be curious to see if West wins re-election.
I bet he doesn’t.
BDeevDad
Is he running for Michelle Bachmann’s district?
pragmatism
@dmsilev: in the wingnut constitution, a president with a (D) after his foreign sounding name is obligated to publicly debate members of congress, toupeed reality show stars, former half-term governors, etc. on demand. it’s in there. on the pocket sized constitution.
drew42
Communism never sleeps. It waits.
Kind of like my more neurotic dog.
(eyes dog suspiciously)
EIGRP
I’ve “heard” there’s almost 300 Republican assholes in congress.
RP
What is “communism” in 2012? If it’s defined by its most prominent advocate, i.e., “autocratic, repressive government that favors corporate profits over individual rights and environmental protection,” I think 99% of the Republican caucus can be considered communist.
John PM
But if a Democrat were to say that 200+ Republicans in the House of Representatives are Fascits/Totalitarians, that would be uncivil.
pragmatism
so this is what all of the wingers meant back in november of 2008 after Obama won and they would say, “See you in the bread lines, comrade”. totes makes sense now. only allen west has the intestitudinal fortitude to blow the lid off of this one.
Linda Featheringill
The actual commie quote:
Taken from this essay:
http://www.cpusa.org/convention-discussion-what-can-we-learn-from-the-movement-for-health-care-reform/
This was not an official position paper by CPUSA but comments by one member of the Party. [Does that matter?]
Well, now you know.
Jay in Oregon
The Congressman was referring to the 76 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. The Communist Party has publicly referred to the Progressive Caucus as its allies.
Yeah, well, Osama bin Laden wanted GWB to be re-elected. By the transitive property of right-wing fucknut political theory, that makes Bush a member of al-Qaeda!
wasabi gasp
WTF Shoobuklz, gimme the pr0n!
amk
twitterdom
Opposing civil rights for a minority? Check. Keeping women in their place? Check. McCarthyism? Check.
They’re pining for the 50’s.
Randy P
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik:
Didn’t they claim Obama to be both a commie and a fascist in 2008? As well as a terrrorist of course. And a muslim who should be ashamed of the Christian pastor of the church he’s been attending for umpteen years.
Don’t expect cognitive dissonance to bother these people. It’s a fundamental part of their DNA.
Chris
@ericblair:
The 1950s are where the Republican base wish they could go back to. The 1890s are where the Republican elites wish they could go back to
Linda Featheringill
@Chris: #53
Back when the Red Menace was still a “spectre haunting Europe”?
:-)
J
@MattW: But as quoted above, he said ‘members of the communist party’.
Is Gus Hall still alive?
Mike
The walkback will include West not hearing the question clearly, and therefore wasn’t responding to the “card-carrying” or “American legislature” parts. He was merely referring to 78 to 81 citizens who belong to both parties. Which now that I think about it is double registration and maybe Operation Veritas should get on the case as to whether these people are double-voting in Marxist and Democrat Party primaries!
Lizzy L
OMG.
Somebody, quick, dig up J. Edgar!
JWL
Americans were deliberately, systematically traumatized for decades about the Red Menace. ‘Communism’ is trans-generational boogeyman. It will be generations before the word itself will fail to resonate with large swathes of the electorate. Or smaller swathes, as is the case with West. But you can rest sure there are those that believe every idiot word of his preposterous claim.
Teddy Salad
Once we get this settled, we should go after that Hitler fellow. I think he’s trouble.
g
The Communist Party has publicly referred to the Progressive Caucus as its allies.
Talk about your moving goalposts! West claimed that they were “members of the Community Party.” So having the Community Party “refer to” them = card-carrying, dues paying members?
(I am not convinced of the referral, either, but I’m too damned lazy to look it up.)
g
@Linda Featheringill:
ah, of course!
Villago Delenda Est
We put human sewage like Allan West to death after WWII.
Just sayin’.
El Cid
Calling them “Antiproducerists” would be too obscure, and calling them all foreign-born Muslims might be too much to accept.
fasteddie9318
I just want you all to know that I did an extra round of my daily Stalin Denunciation and Chastisement in order to counter the pernicious influence of the Communist Party on the right-of-center Democratic Congressional Caucus. I had to make a marshmallow Stalin to beat today because I was out of cabbage and I’ve never been very good at molding a believable Stalin out of my wife’s Nutella, but hopefully the process still worked as intended.
Sal
I saw on RawStory and Huffington that some people are saying West blows goats.
"Fair and Balanced" Dave
@Sal:
Yep..as many as 80.
Chris
@JWL:
“Traumatized” is a word I’d save for people who actually went through a trauma (e.g, in this case, Russians or Chinese). “Brainwashed” seems more appropriate here.
Not that I’m a fan if communism by any means, but 99% of the anti-communist activism in this country was never directed at actual Communists, and I doubt if most of those eager Red-baiting folk had any idea what they were opposing.
Joe Bohemouth
Funny thing is, on the Scary Far Left, CPUSA has s rep for basically being Mondale Democrats. You r average firebagger would be denouncing them as shameless corporate Obots.
Joey Maloney
@c u n d gulag:
In West’s private bathroom. With the pages stuck together.
Hungry Joe
“You know when fluoridation began?…1946. 1946, Mandrake. How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy, huh? It’s incredibly obvious, isn’t it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual, and certainly without any choice. That’s the way your hard-core Commie works. I first became aware of it, Mandrake, during the physical act of love…Yes, a profound sense of fatigue, a feeling of emptiness followed. Luckily I-I was able to interpret these feelings correctly. Loss of essence. I can assure you it has not recurred, Mandrake. Women, er, women sense my power, and they seek the life essence. I do not avoid women, Mandrake…but I do deny them my essence.”
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@MattW:
__
The only lasting effect of these idiots howling at the moon will be to rehabiliate these formerly dirty words amongst the post-Cold War generation. At least during the Cold War words like “communism” and “soshulism” used to have a Somebody’s sneaking up behind yo..Boo! HAHA, made you look! quality to them. Now they are more enticing than anything. Screaming Communist ! Communist ! is going to be about as effective as complaining about pr0n on the internet. All it does it make people go looking for it, who might not otherwise have done so. And some of them are going to like what they see.
Mnemosyne
@JWL:
Honestly, I think “communism” is dead as a scary term. “Socialist” and “socialism” still have some scare value, but I seriously doubt that anyone under age 50 is still terrified of “communism.”
Comrade Dread
Well, I suppose that’s a bit of progress. The GOP has finally moved past the “It’s always 1939!” to “It’s always 1950!”
Maybe they’ll finally catch up to the rest of us sometime in the 2050’s.
nellcote
Didn’t we already go through this when Bachmann said it a couple of years ago?
Shana
Sheesh gang, 30 comments before we get to a “Manchurian Candidate” reference?
sluggo
He caught me. Here is my official Marxist Party Card:
Card
Carnacki
@catclub: The 1990 one. They’re overdue for invading someone.
JWL
@Chris: You put it better than I did.
sherparick
Allan West, war criminal, the gift that keeps on giving. I must admit he is deep down the rat hole to think 65 year old Joe McCarthy rants are going to rally the troops. To borrow a phrase from Charlie Pierce “What a collossal dick this guy is (and a war crminal, a confessed one to be a war criminal.)
“West was charged with violating articles 128 (assault) and 134 (general article) of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. During a hearing held as part of an Article 32 investigation in November 2003, West stated, “I know the method I used was not right, but I wanted to take care of my soldiers.”[10] The charges were ultimately referred to an Article 15 proceeding rather than court-martial, at which West was fined $5,000.[6] LTC West accepted the judgment and retired with full benefits in the summer of 2004.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_West_(politician)
Mike E
Allen West stands his ground against the relentless march of history.
El Cid
@Joe Bohemouth: In fairness, the CPUSA doesn’t have just a “reputation” for being loyal Democrats; every single election they formally declared it necessary to vote for Democrats so as to keep the fascists out of office. (Of course it’s combined with discussions of how the activated working classes can blah blah blah proletariat blah blah blah transformation to soshullism etc.) You don’t have to be far left at all to be aware of that.
Fax Paladin
@Chris: I don’t think JWL meant the Communists were doing the traumatizing.
“Duck-and-cover” was a decade or more before my time and I still had regular mushroom-cloud nightmares as a kid. And while it may not actually involve gulags, machine guns, or bombs, I think someone who found himself out of work for a decade or so because someone told someone else that he was a commie might just have a valid claim to being traumatized.
portlander
Really? Maybe someone should tell China.
Chris
@JWL:
Thanks!
@Fax Paladin:
A true point: I stand corrected.
You’d think that kind of trauma would have led to more backlash against anti-communism than against communism, but I guess not…
@portlander:
Well, they’re not exactly capitalist, but they’re not exactly communist anymore either, not after all the free market reforms they’ve introduced since Deng Xiaoping.
portlander
@Chris:
I don’t know for sure, having never been there myself nor trusting anything in the US corporate media. Have you been?
People I know that lived in China (either born there and living here, or born here and studying there) have said China is straight up Communist. That’s not to say there isn’t free enterprise (which free-market types want to label as “free-market”). But as a friend who has studied law over there has said: you may be allowed to hold onto some of the money you earn through a venture, but that money is not yours, it belongs to the people / the state. Straight up communism; individuals do not own the means of production. It’s all owned by the state / the people.
I think the meme that China has “rudimentary free markets” is just there to soften the blow that communism may prove to be a more efficient economic system than capitalism in the long run. But again, I’ve never been there, and I’m not advocating communism, just observing there’s a certain myopia in the US to the ascendancy of China on the world stage.