Was Dwight Eisenhower a communist? As a Republican president in 1956, he ran on a platform of expansion of Social Security; federal assistance for construction of hospitals; increased federal aid for medical care of the needy; and the creation of a Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. And an immigration policy that provided a haven for oppressed peoples, based on equality of treatment and free from “discrimination between racial, nationality, and religious groups.”
For at least 45 years, though, the Republican Party’s main policy has been cutting taxes for the wealthy, getting rid of regulations that corporations don’t like, and telling us all that this will result in prosperity for everyone. It was marketed and sold to America by none other than Ronald Reagan himself.
Instead, we have the greatest wealth inequality in the history of the country, billionaires prancing around onstage with chainsaws bragging about cutting “waste, fraud, and abuse,” and the top 0.1 percent—roughly 340,000 people—holding nearly $23 trillion of the nation’s wealth. Republicans in Congress are now telling Americans that we can no longer afford Medicare and Social Security.
Ordinary people across the country are saying, “enough,” and running for office, calling for an end to corruption, making the rich pay their fair share, and making housing and health care affordable. Republicans call them communists.
If you want an America that works for everyone, find a few of these candidates and support them. Write some postcards, do some calling, or make a small donation. You can call them communists or call them democratic socialists, progressives, independents, prairie populists, or Democrats. Maybe even call them 1956 Republicans. Let’s call them members of Congress.
Alison Jones
Baywood-Los Osos
This article appears in 55 Fiction 2026.
Americans have 2 choices:
1. Vote for Democrats and disorder and a return to open borders with a flood of flag burning Jacobins, along with parasitic NGO’s and an army of historical revisionists.
Or
2. Yes, Republicans and wealth concentration. The wealth that has been concentrated has been in the hands of Americans and American companies. Would you rather have an Asian country with a population of 1.4 billion people control or own American wealth? Not me and I am in no way defending our glaring wealth inequality, I am poor.
I’ll continue voting for and encourage all Americans to vote for the Republican party. Otherwise, the only people you can expect to be “prancing around on stage” won’t be billionaires, it’ll be repulsive drag queens, brought to you by the Democratic party.
I am always amused when I hear claims that the rich don’t pay their “fair share” of taxes, especially when that claim is made by people who don’t pay income taxes themselves. The top 10% of earners pay very roughly 80% of the taxes, while the roughly bottom 50% of earners pay nothing. The term “fair” seems to be used pretty subjectively, and with a measure of self-interest by those who demand expensive support from a government that they do not themselves contribute towards.
And it is amusing to hear people conflate spending for vital and commonly used and necessary government services like roads, fire protection, schools, etc. with “socialism”, as if such expenditures are no different than welfare, free medical care, housing and food, and the numerous other programs enjoyed by a limited portion of the population.
Taken to its logical conclusion, the neoliberals conflating “spending for vital and commonly used and necessary government services…” with “socialism” are the same ones insisting we engage yet more pointless wars and expect the public pay for it, rather than tax themselves. Our national line of credit isn’t endless. There’s a point where the market and institutional investors don’t buy our debt, and it’s been happening recently. Once that happens and the 10 year T Bill hits 5%, forget it. We won’t be able to service our debt. At that point, the Fed will be the buyer of last resort and our national debt will be monetized, kind of like Zimbabwe.
*Alternatively, Congress could simply balance the budget rather than rely on deficit spending. Naturally, that would entail slashing defense spending, their golden calf.
Every Democratic president since FDR has been labeled as a communist or a socialist because they have tried to enact programs that helped the working class or those who have fallen through society’s cracks: social security, medicare, medicaid, food stamps, Obamacare and regulations to keep workers safe and our air and food safe.
Last time I checked, the nation was still firmly capitalist.
EVERY Democratic program has been touted as “helping the working class”, a claim which is usually disproven in the application. Hugo Chavez promised Venezuelans a socialist paradise when they elected him, but the hundreds of thousands of desperate people fleeing the country suggest otherwise. And Cubans have spent the last 65 years awaiting their socialist paradise. The wise observer takes the promises of politicians with a grain of salt, including Biden’s promises to control inflation with trillions in additional spending.
Can’t argue about the consequences of trillions in spending. Most of it just gets embezzler. The Pentagon can’t even pass an audit, lol.
So, social security, medicare, medicaid, food stamps, Obamacare and regulations to keep workers safe and our air and food safe didn’t help the working class? History suggests the contrary.
Social security uses the worker’s money, and is hardly a gift. Regulations to protect the air and food keep EVERYONE safe, not just the working class. But programs to put on trans musicals in Columbia benefit only a very small number of people, who are not even American.
A measly $25k to promote the arts and inclusiveness in one of our most important South American allies. Today, Colombia has some of the most progressive legal protections for transgender people in Latin America. I always thought an important part of our foreign policy was to promote civil rights. The Republicans used to agree with that.
John:
Well said.
Michael:
The problem isn’t which party holds the Presidency, the problem is greed. LBJ, Nixon, and Eisenhower were all vilified by capital and enacted various programs that helped the working class.
The industrial my late parent’s generation exported can all be returned. If shareholders were willing to make a modest profit instead of an outsized profit they earn by paying a sweatshop worker in the Philippines, factories could come home to the US. They need to pay American workers a living wage. Unfortunately, capitalists see this as an unnecessary expense. Until they change their perspective, sort of like the French aristocracy did when they saw their king’s head lopped off in the French Revolution, nothing will change.
Mostly agree, but just not sure we really want to start producing textiles, shoes and other cheap goods in the same quantity as we did in the 20th century. I think the Philippines and Asia should keep that lane.
Why not? We need to build an internal economy. Americans need work.
Psychologists describe a ‘thought terminating cliché’ as a technique used by cults to deflect any criticism of their dogma. Examples are the use of the terms Communist or Demon and TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome.)
Oh please, Dems use the same technique to deflect criticism of their culpability in hollowing out our economy and sending our jobs overseas. Terms they use exhaustively are words like “homophobe, racists, jesus freaks, white nationalists…” etc. Meanwhile, the best Democrats can do to actually improve the material condition of people of color is name a street after Martin Luther King, Caesar Chavez, or appoint them to commissions that have zero power. Show us the money, Democrats or just keep your mouths shut.
TDS is a real condition, and in fact it is the basis of most of the Democrat’s platform. “Orange man bad!”. Even in the smallest, most obscure political races with no national issues, Trump will invariably be trotted out like some evil talisman to whip the crowd into hateful hysterics and to open up their wallets to contribute. Democrats will be truly lost without Trump to blame.
The SLO Personnel Board and City Council are holding a hearing next week to determine whether or not to censor the Mayor. It’s on the SLO City website, folks.