Posted on 05/05/2012 5:37:38 PM PDT by neverdem
Congressman Allen West is being hammered for his comments alleging that certain Democratic members of Congress are communists. It's the kind of accusation (West is not backing down) that sets liberals seething in rage. An even worse sin was that West dared to quantify his accusation, attaching a number to the alleged Reds. He said there are "78 to 81" Congressional Democrats who are communists.
Naturally, all of this is a huge no-no, reflexively sending liberals into fits and shouts of "McCarthyism!"
I want to say three things relating to West's remarks: First, some criticism of West's critics. Second, a defense of West's critics. And, finally, some criticism of West, which I offer constructively. I like Allen West, consider him a rising star in the Republican Party and conservative movement, and want him to succeed...
--snip--
Sure, West appears to be thinking of the far-left Democratic Socialists of America, many of whose members justifiably invite suspicions, as well as the Congressional Progressive Caucus. What he ought to say, however, is that a large number of them share some sympathies and even certain goals with communists, but they're not full-blown CPUSA members...
--snip--
There's nothing that liberals detest more than anti-communism. Their preferred villain is Joe McCarthy, not Joe Stalin.
What Allen West must learn is the lesson of McCarthy for any modern conservative: If you're going to call certain people communists, you better be absolutely, 100% certain. They and their mass media will go ballistic, demanding a level of precision from you that they never demand from their own name-callers. Our side must be more cautious. It's unfair. It's pure hypocrisy, yes. But that's the deck that's stacked against us.
Allen West, your courage and boldness is refreshing -- but please be more careful.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
Hell, I’ve been calling rats communists, fascists and Nazis for 20 years. Doesn’t bother me a bit.
If they object, they can always step outside and try to correct me, but they never do.
Why?
I wonder.
Bump!
Seconded!
The Democrats Progressive Caucus is nothing less than Communist, Communist inspired organization within the House of Representatives with only one Senator amongst the named.
There have been many posts about the Progressive Caucus here at Free Republic going back into the early part of the last decade IIRC. It isn’t a myth. It’s a fact. Today there are as many as Rep. A. West claim there to be in the Democrat Party.
If I weren’t on dial up, and needing to get on with other activities right now, I’d load this post up with links. Perhaps LucyT could do that for us if she has the time. I have to run right now.
I love Allen West! He makes the RATS froth at the mouth and piss all over themselves!
I’m sick of the BS that we shouldn’t be able to call a spade and spade and this belief that we have to pander and cower in fear of the leftist demagouging media. When are we going to get the balls to stand up to this krap? We lost Andrew Breitbart who was doing it for us. Now it’s time we step up to the plate and start standing up and naming names. I don’t have one problem with what Allen West said. It’s the truth. And these people are not namby pamby socialists, they’re communists, outright.
America’s Mein Kampf
July 03, 2005
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1435948/posts
.
Communist Goals (1963)
Congressional Record—Appendix, pp. A34-A35 ^ | January 10, 1963
Sunday, March 12, 2006
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1595013/posts
.
Pelosi leader of ‘Progressive Caucus’
November 11, 2002
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2109332/posts
.
American Socialists Release Names of 70 Congressional Democrats in Their Ranks
August 14, 2010
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2570536/posts
.
Is It Crazy To Suggest Democrats In Congress Might Be Communist?
April 11, 1212
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2870892/posts
2012 - Congressional Progressive Caucus
All members are members of the Democratic Party or caucus with the Democratic Party. There are currently 75 declared Progressives including 72 voting Representatives, two non-voting Delegates, and one Senator.
Arizona
Ed Pastor (AZ-4, Phoenix)
Raúl Grijalva (AZ-7, Tucson) - Co-Chair
California
Lynn Woolsey (CA-6, Santa Rosa)
George Miller (CA-7, Richmond)
Barbara Lee (CA-9, Oakland)
Pete Stark (CA-13, Fremont)
Janice Hahn (CA-36, San Pedro)
Michael Honda (CA-15, San Jose)
Sam Farr (CA-17, Monterey)
Xavier Becerra (CA-31, Los Angeles)
Judy Chu (CA-32, El Monte)
Karen Bass (CA-33, Baldwin Hills)
Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-34, Los Angeles)
Maxine Waters (CA-35, Inglewood)
Laura Richardson (CA-37, Long Beach)
Linda Sánchez (CA-39, Lakewood)
Bob Filner (CA-51, San Diego)
Colorado
Jared Polis (CO-02, Boulder)
Connecticut
Rosa DeLauro (CT-3, New Haven)
[edit] Florida
Corrine Brown (FL-3, Jacksonville)
Frederica Wilson (FL-17, Miami)
Georgia
Hank Johnson (GA-4, Lithonia)
John Lewis (GA-5, Atlanta)
Hawaii
Mazie Hirono (HI-2, Honolulu)
Illinois
Bobby Rush (IL-1, Chicago)
Jesse Jackson, Jr. (IL-2, Chicago Heights)
Luis Gutierrez (IL-4, Chicago)
Danny Davis (IL-7, Chicago)
Jan Schakowsky (IL-9, Chicago)
Indiana
André Carson (IN-7, Indianapolis)
Iowa
Dave Loebsack (IA-2, Cedar Rapids)
Maine
Chellie Pingree (ME-1, North Haven)
Maryland
Donna Edwards (MD-4, Fort Washington)
Elijah Cummings (MD-7, Baltimore)
Massachusetts
John Olver (MA-1, Amherst)
Jim McGovern (MA-3, Worcester)
Barney Frank (MA-4, Newton)
John Tierney (MA-6, Salem)
Ed Markey (MA-7, Malden)
Mike Capuano (MA-8, Boston)
Michigan
John Conyers (MI-14, Detroit)
[Minnesota
Keith Ellison (MN-5, Minneapolis) - Co-Chair
Mississippi
Bennie Thompson (MS-2, Bolton)
Missouri
William Lacy Clay, Jr. (MO-1, St. Louis)
Emanuel Cleaver (MO-5, Kansas City) - Chairman, Congressional Black Caucus
New Jersey
Frank Pallone (NJ-06, Long Branch)
Rush Holt (NJ-12)
New Mexico
Ben R. Luján (NM-3, Santa Fe)
New York
Jerry Nadler (NY-8, Manhattan)
Yvette Clarke (NY-11, Brooklyn)
Nydia Velázquez (NY-12, Brooklyn)
Carolyn Maloney (NY-14, Manhattan)
Charles Rangel (NY-15, Harlem)
José Serrano (NY-16, Bronx)
Maurice Hinchey (NY-22, Saugerties)
Louise Slaughter (NY-28, Rochester)
North Carolina
Mel Watt (NC-12, Charlotte)
Ohio
Marcy Kaptur (OH-9, Toledo)
Dennis Kucinich (OH-10, Cleveland)
Marcia Fudge (OH-11, Warrensville Heights)
Oregon
Earl Blumenauer (OR-3, Portland)
Peter DeFazio (OR-4, Eugene)
Pennsylvania
Bob Brady (PA-1, Philadelphia)
Chaka Fattah (PA-2, Philadelphia)
Rhode Island
David Cicilline (RI-1, Providence)
Tennessee
Steve Cohen (TN-9, Memphis)
Texas
Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18, Houston)
Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX-30, Dallas)
Vermont
Peter Welch (VT-At Large)
Virginia
Jim Moran (VA-8, Alexandria)
Washington
Jim McDermott (WA-7, Seattle)
Wisconsin
Tammy Baldwin (WI-2, Madison)
Gwen Moore (WI-4, Milwaukee)
Non-voting
Donna M. Christensen (Virgin Islands)
Eleanor Holmes Norton (District of Columbia)
Senate members
Bernie Sanders (Vermont)
Former members
Sherrod Brown (OH-13) - Elected to Senate
Roland Burris (IL Senate) - Retired from Congress
Julia Carson (IN-07) - Died in December 2007
Lane Evans (IL-17) - Retired from Congress
Alan Grayson (FL-8) defeated for re-election in 2010
John Hall (NY-19) defeated for re-election in 2010
Phil Hare (IL-17) defeated for re-election in 2010
Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (MI-13) defeated for re-nomination in 2010
Eric Massa (NY-29) - Resigned in March 2010
Cynthia McKinney (GA-4) - Lost Congressional seat to current caucus member Hank Johnson
Major Owens (NY-11) - Retired from Congress
Nancy Pelosi (CA-8) - Left Caucus when Elected House Minority Leader
Hilda Solis (CA-32) - Became Secretary of Labor in 2009
Stephanie Tubbs Jones (OH-11) - Died in 2008
Paul Wellstone (MN Senate) - Died in plane crash in 2002
Robert Wexler (FL-19) - Resigned in January 2010 to become President of the Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Caucus
Thanks for the links & list. I was surprised seeing that three were defeated in 2010. I would have thought they they were in very safe districts.
You’re welcome, neverdem.
Has anyone heard from decimon? His last post was Saturday, January 21, 2012 10:16:34 PM.
To RowdyFFC:
There are some very SERIOUS LEGAL REASONS for being specific in what you call a person, esp. is you use the term “communist”.
Kengor is right in what he says about being very clear in which term you use to describe the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the Congressional Progressive Caucus (AS I HAVE POSTED AT FR MANY TIMES BEFORE).
A “communist, with a capital “C” is one who belongs to the Communist Party USA. Many former CPUSA members now belong to a split-off faction known as “The Committee of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism) (COC or COCDS). They are still “communists” but best to use the small “c” word “communist” or “former CPUSA members” and supporters, etc.
The DSA is an avowedly “Marxist” organization (See www.keywiki.org and www.DiscoverTheNetwork.com” for details.
There are two factions of the once Trotskyite, now Stalinist/Maoist “Workers World Party” (WWP). The WWP itself, to which former Attorney General Ramsey Clark has affiliated himself thru their fronts ANSWER, IAC, etc.
The other faction is “The Party for Socialism and Liberation” in California.
The Trotskyites broke into several organizations in the 1980’s, off of the large Socialist Workers Party (of Peter Camejo, later the VP canddiate with Ralph Nader, for the Green Party), and one major faction created the International Socialist Organization (ISO). The is a small, eunuch-like SWP still in existence. A few other Trot sects also still exist.
The old Maoists have remnants of the “Progressive Labor Party” but they fragmented themselves into dozens of smaller sects.
The main Maoist organization is the “Revolutionary Communist Party” (RCP), which took over the Vietnam Veterans Against the War in Vietnam in 1972-73, just as John Kerry bailed from them to run for congress in Massachusetts. A number of RCP members and supporters also played or still play a key role in the new “Veterans for Peace” (which follows an earlier organization of the same name, VFP, founded by the CPUSA in the 1950’s and then 1960’s. A leader of the old CPUSA-VFP, Leroy Wolins, helped start VVAW, and his Party companion, David S. Canter, was an unregistered Soviet propaganda importer and key Chicago political Kingmaker, including Mayor Harold Washington, and according to his song, “he knew Obama”. Interesting.
There are smaller marxist, socialist (i.e. Freedom Socialist Party) (the former New Party of Obama in Chicago), “progressive” organizations but in the end, when you compare their programs with those of the old CPUSA, they end up being extremely similar in words and goals.
If you call someone a “communist” and aren’t specific as to what organization you are talking about, YOU CAN GET SUED, and will get sued.
Rep. West does need to be informed about “who’s who” on the marxist Left, esp. in Congress so that he doesn’t fall into this semantic trap, as Kengor also warns.
The answer is to read books by Paul Kengor, Ron Radosh, the keywiki and DiscoverTheNetwork sites (among others), Herbert Romerstein, congressional reports (many of which are now online), the books of Trevor Loudon and his websites, the Americong book (online) by Roger Canfield, and of course, my posts.
I was inside some of these groups and knew their leaders. It gave me a tremendous insight into who our enemies were, where, what they were doing, and how they tactically operated.
I have also written professionally on these groups since 1970.
Accuracy is a “must” in our writing and speaking. Then we can give the Left and good exposing in print, on the radio, and TV. Red rats like to flee when you tell the truth.
Rose by any other name, ping.
Hear, hear!
I guess this Kendor guy ascribes to the PC policy that if the truth hurts, don't speak it. I ascribe to the truism that the louder the howl, the closer to the truth.
Thanks for that LucyT. Perhaps we’ll be able to post this enough that some people will actually figure it out that there are real live Communists in the Democrat side of the House of Representatives.
Would be nice if everybody understood that fact.
I don’t care what they currently call themselves. They’re all subscribers to Karl Marx and Freidrich Engles’ Communist Manifesto in which the government controls everything. That’s the direction they’re taking, INCLUDING the biggest confiscation of private property through their nationalized Bank of America to the government’s hands. If we don’t start getting honest about it, they’re going to succeed. The time for being MODERATE and pandering to these people and watching everything we say is over. When we can’t speak to the truth, that means we’re already a communist state. And I refuse to let that happen. And I stand proud beside Allen West when he calls a spade a spade, because that’s what they are.
"78 to 81" congressional Democrats who are "communists."
.
Agree with your position on MMtGR’s post Rowdy. One can parse the topic all day, but sympathizing with the Communist’s perspective, agenda, goals ultimately is no different than Communism. Let the Progressives call themselves what they will. Myself, and many, many more call them Communists.
Kengor’s all wet. If it walks like a duck..............
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