Young kids, having not grown up during the Cold War nor taught about it in school, have no idea how miserable Marxist ideology is.
By Robert B. Charles, Navy veteran
Former Assistant Secretary of State
From where does our commitment to freedom come? Are we living it? Do we fully grasp what is happening around us? Is communism creeping forward? Are we stepping up? If not us, who?
Forty-two years ago, an Aeroflot plane put me down in Moscow, paint peeling, airport corridors lined with drunk Red Army soldiers, all with AK-47s. A pie-eyed Oxford student, raised in rural Maine by the Greatest Generation, the grayness, laziness, depression, and fear in people – was hard to digest.
Communism had sucked the life, the once-Christian souls, out of this society. Over the next two years, I spent time in Soviet-dominated Poland, Catholic and not to be silenced, even under Marshall Law. Their fight was heartening, and in time their courage was rewarded.
While faith kept them going, life was hard. The spontaneity you expect of kids was gone. In its place was fear, even among adults. No one made eye contact. Conversations were not had in public.
For a rural Maine kid in his mid-20s, this stuff was strange and sobering. Young Americans have no idea what communism is. Billed as utopian, social justice, equity-based, class-focused, it is at first wildly alluring – then utterly devastating, all individual rights crushed, often violently.
If you indulge me, I will take you there. Then – and now – ten characteristics define communist-leaning societies, regardless of what laws say. You will find these every time, which makes you think.
First, the elites in government run the show. They ratchet up coercion, intimidation, insist on conformity, suppress independent thought, scorn critical thinking, and promote sameness.
They change the language, invert words, confuse public understanding of old ideas, and adopt freedom-sounding or progressive-sounding words and phrases to push coercive acts. They turn on those who will not conform, target them for humiliation, job loss, social, legal, and political penalties.
The goal, at first subtle, then accelerating with cancellation, social, legal, and political penalties, is to suppress all independent thought, with political violence is necessary, create fear of the state.
Second, they push centralized decision-making, one-party control, and no room for non-conformists. They ramp up “group-think,” target those of faith – especially Christians and Jews. They push atheism, penalize churches, church education, and those of faith.
Third, they make private ownership of property hard, eventually coopting the “means of production,” putting as much as possible under public control. This starts with new burdens, new penalties, taxes, regulations, eventually the taking of land, ending of private businesses.
Fourth, they target the children, create fear of the state, unthinking devotion to it, encourage informing on parents, and put loyalty to the state over family. By separating children from parents, the communist wolf carves children away from the family.
In the Soviet Union, the Communists created child groups to reinforce ideology: the Little Octobrists for children 7 to 9, Young Pioneers for those 9 to 14, and Komsomol for those under 28.
By going after the children, they sowed seeds for communism’s later harvest, generations indoctrinated to put Communism above family, faith, and freedom. That was the plan.
Fifth, they criminalized political opposition, created false charges, fed non-conformers to “kangaroo courts” (leftist judiciary), penalized – or silenced – them. Assertions of individual rights, parental rights, or any non-conforming views were reliably punished, often severely.
Sixth, government institutions were corrupted, with elites profiting from corrupt acts, no accountability until corruption was “normalized,” something everyone (in government) did.
Seventh, the electoral system was corrupted, elites saying elections were fair, all corrupt in fact, outcomes predetermined, populations increasingly demoralized, participating in name only.
Eighth, free markets in energy and “means of production,” distribution, and consumption were state-controlled, favoring elites with corrupt benefits, impoverishing everyone else.
Ninth, as freedoms were suppressed, fear and depression grew, producing escapism through alcohol, drugs, and common crime, creating a useful distraction, an excuse for more oppression.
Finally, all in our Bill of Rights disappeared: free speech, free exercise of religion, freedom to assemble, seek redress, keep and bear arms, be safe in one’s home, expect due process or equal protection, a fair trial, or any other rights. All were suppressed until they essentially disappeared.
That – as I observed so shockingly – was why these families, parents and kids, walked in fear. That is why the airport guards were drunk. That is why planes were not maintained. That is why – until seven decades had passed and Reagan encouraged them to overthrow communism, it prevailed.
Far from wonderment, utopia, or any of the nonsensical promises of Marxism, even dressed as socialism, communist ideology brings only pain and suffering. It has killed 100 million people.
So, my question – in this urgent moment for America, closer to home in Maine, is this: Do any of these characteristics of communism look familiar? Is this ideology creeping on us? You tell me.
As poet Robert Burns wrote, “The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.” So, look around. Do you see signs? If so, are we stepping up? If not us, who? If not now, when?
_
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!
BOOKS:
The Devil and Karl Marx: Communism’s Long March of Death, Deception, and Infiltration by Paul Kengor
The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Communism by Paul Kengor
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Socialism by Kevin D. Williamson
Witness by Whittaker Chambers
School of Darkness by Bella V. Dodd
The Devil and Bella Dodd: One Woman’s Struggle Against Communism and Her Redemption by Mary Nicolas and Paul Kengor
The Naked Communist: Exposing Communism and Restoring Freedom by W. Cleon Skousen
The Naked Socialist: The Story of Socialism from its Ancient Roots to Modern Times by Paul B. Skousen
The Red Decade: The Classic Work on Communism in America During the Thirties-The Stalinist Penetration of America by Eugene Lyons
The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
Leave a Comment