Communism in 'Merican

In America, “communism” is not an economic system. It is a scare.

Suggest that people should not go bankrupt because they got cancer and someone will whisper “communism” the way Victorians used to say “cholera”. Propose a minimum wage that keeps pace with rent and suddenly you are Lenin, personally, with a fake beard and a five year plan tucked under your arm.

The term now covers a remarkable range of offences. Libraries. Buses. Teachers. Recycling bins. Queueing. The idea that fire brigades should turn up whether or not you have a credit card. All communism. Especially if it helps someone you do not personally know.

Ask for universal healthcare and Americans will explain, very patiently, that this is exactly what Stalin did. He began with hospitals, and within weeks everyone was living in a grey apartment, wearing the same hat, eating beetroot, and reporting their neighbour for insufficient patriotism. History, apparently.

The real giveaway is that nobody using the word can define it. Ask what communism is and you will get a haunted look and a story about Venezuela. Or Cuba. Or a university campus where someone asked them to use a different pronoun once. Marx never gets a mention. Neither does public ownership. It is all vibes and cable news graphics.

This produces the uniquely American political spectrum, where the centre is right wing, the left is barely allowed to exist, and anything to the left of a tax cut for billionaires is treated as an early warning sign of the gulag. Europe looks on, mildly baffled, from countries that have had public healthcare, state pensions, and labour rights for decades without accidentally summoning Trotsky.

The irony is that the loudest anti communists are often quite keen on handouts. Farm subsidies are fine. Military contracts are sacred. Corporate bailouts are just “supporting job creators”. It is only when money flows downwards that it becomes Marxism.

So no, America is not “fighting communism”. It is fighting the terrifying idea that society might, on occasion, act like one.