Who’s a Communist? Unnamed Marxist Ideas in American Life

Marxism and communism have become renewed words of insult in recent American politics. Recalling the Cold War era when “Republicans and Democrats … were fighting communism … on a distant shore,” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson now sees that threat in his Democratic colleagues, adding ominously, “it’s here…. The barbarians are in the gate.” Yet Americans might be surprised about how many of their own views have roots in these dreaded ideologies.

Modern communism has its origins in the theories and politics of Karl Marx (1818-83). He was both a scholar and an activist, scrutinizing how capitalist free enterprise became dominant and working in the International Workingman’s Association to overthrow concentrations of power by the wealthy. In their ideas and in practices, Marx and his followers treated socialist management of business production by the state as a goal of revolution and a potential stage toward the idealistic hope for societies with independent workers freed from the shackles of both business and government power.

Only after Marx’s death did communist states form to apply his critique of societies dominated by elites, first in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, starting in 1922. The communist reference to “soviets” or local councils indicated their ambition to organize from the bottom up. But Joseph Stalin squashed those hopes by concentrating power into oligarchic one-party rule and ruthless top-down dictatorship. With propaganda, economic support, and militance, the Soviet Union promoted Marxist revolutions around the globe.

This is the Marxism that has instilled fear in American politicians and other citizens. But that political brutality and even Marx’s own political goals have existed alongside his intellectual and cultural commentaries. Those ideas have lived a life of their own, even in the US.

Psychology: Marx observed that capitalism alienates human relationships at work and beyond. He noticed the boredom of repetitive factory work, the coldness of treating people and things as commodities, and the hollow bitterness of living without purpose. Counselors tacitly address his insights about the psychological fallout from alienated feelings in competitive conditions weighing people down in demanding jobs and hectic social life. And environmentalists notice dangers in treating natural wonders merely as commodified resources for business profits. Marx pioneered awareness of these feelings.

Religion: Following Marx, communists have said that organized religion is a human creation to keep people afraid and obedient to those in power. This outrages many religious believers, but with First Amendment freedom, Americans are as free to believe this as to be Buddhist or Zoroastrian, humanist or agnostic. Atheists who are Marxists or anti-Marxists are just part of the American scene. And even staunch religious believers notice that organized churches sometimes bow to political power. Marx was part of a cohort of modernist intellectuals raising critical questions about traditional religion.

Economics: Marx maintained that people make decisions based on their economic positions in life. Business schools and corporate offices also operate with this same “economic determinism.” Marxists and business leaders alike, including many Republicans, are keen to understand their fellow human beings in terms of their economic interests. This is frustrating to some Americans for religious or ethical reasons, but most citizens actually crave organizing their lives around economic interests. In fact, economic betterment is a centerpiece of the American Dream. When our economic structures were first taking shape, Marx noticed their growing influence.

Government: Marxists object to capitalist free markets because they let businesses reap profits from the hands of workers doing the work. Down with free enterprise, they say. Hard-core communists want to eliminate private property. Socialist trust government ownership of business enterprises to be less harsh. Most Americans divide between Republicans wanting less government regulation and Democrats wanting government not to own enterprises but to protect workers, retirees, veterans, the rights of those out of power, and the natural world. What Democrats call striving for fairness with government playing the role of umpire among economic players, Republicans call steps toward communism—even if not with the red of communist revolutionaries, at least pink, hence the slur of liberals as “pinkos.” Yet Democrats voting for regulation are not supporting communist or socialist defiance of capitalism; in fact, they point to regulation strengthening free enterprise. Some Republicans paint a broad brush, calling “communist” any degree of interference with a totally free market. Yet ironically, the current Republican president has adopted socialist ideas in all but name with government purchase of shares in companies including Intel and US Steel. Communists would not call the president a “comrade,” but with these steps perhaps a “roader,” for one on the road to communism.

History: Marx said that all of history “is the history of class struggles.” That shows the thinking of economic determinism applied across time. Members of American political parties also talk readily about tensions between economic classes, from Republicans who promise that tax cuts for the wealthy will create jobs for workers, to Democrats who want progressive taxes, with the rich paying more, to cover the costs of government programs. When American politicos say, “It’s the economy, stupid,” they are echoing a Marxist idea.

Ideology: Communists have presented themselves as the party of the workers. Some Americans, from democratic socialists to Republican populists, have similar sentiments, but still more Americans have favored business interests. Up until a century ago, that support for the interests of companies was often militant with police cracking down on labor unions. More recently, Americans have made business CEOs into heroes with celebration of entrepreneurship. And now, so too do Chinese communists! Tremendous increases in wealth disparities, and impatience with the role of money in politics, however, are raising attention to worker interests with concerns akin to what Marx was thinking now circulating across the political spectrum. Concern for workers does not make Democrats or Republicans communists. And the actual membership in the American Communist Party remains very small.

Politics: Communists have supported revolutions of the working class against the power of business. This is the part of communism that thoroughly defies American political thinking. This nation had a revolution (and a second one if you count the Civil War), but most Americans have little stomach for more revolutionary change—even though the levels of inequality in this country are greater than in the Russian Empire before the Russian Revolution.

The very mention of communism fills many Americans with horror, for many good reasons when looking at communist politics. Yet fear of Democrats as “hard core, godless Communists,” in the words of President Donald Trump, is not only an exaggeration. The dramatic charge also overlooks ways that Marxist ideas have been circulating in America for years without alarm and below the radar of awareness—apparently, even in the president’s mind.

Restlessness about the alienation of constant competition, anxious glances at people’s economic station in life, or even supporting some government regulation, does not make communist comrades out of those with these concerns. Still, many Americans would shun these ideas for guilt by association with communism—if so labeled. Meanwhile, Americans with liberal and conservative leanings continue to practice these ideas by other names. They are just parts of the cultural scene, not because Americans seek violent revolution but because they benefit from Karl Marx’s astute diagnoses about modern challenges. Then the prescriptions can be all American.