Hmm . . . I thought President Donald Trump was a capitalist, a free-market libertarian. However, the man who lives in a gold-plated monument to architectural debauchery and absurdity thinks it’s okay to limit American access to consumer goods. When asked whether his insane tariffs will raise prices, Trump acted like his hemorrhoids were raging before admitting it might cost a couple of dollars more to buy a babydoll for a baby — aged eleven. Trump then asked, How many baby dolls does a child need? The same goes for pencils. Trump’s position is clear. He wants to use the government to control what people can buy and for how much. This sure sounds like communism to me.
Communist regimes are noted for using central planning. Google describes communist central planning thusly:
Communist central planning, a core feature of planned economies, is a system where a central authority, typically the government, makes major economic decisions, including what to produce, how to produce it, and who gets what. This contrasts with market economies, where decisions are largely driven by individual consumers and private firms.
Note what this definition says: the government makes major economic decisions, including what to produce, how to produce it, and who gets what. In the United States, Trump and his merry band of robber barons make major economic decisions, including what companies can produce (using tariffs to price businesses out of markets), how it can be produced, and who gets what — say, baby dolls and pencils. This is communism.
What’s next? Baby doll and pencil ration cards?
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.
I think Dear Leader, like all other communist and Facist regime leaders, practices what Orwell referred to as “doublespeak”- saying what is needed to justify whatever they are doing, even if it the most ridiculous thing for any given situation or is a complete contradiction to what was said the week before.
I don’t think economically Trump would qualify as a “communist”, but as far as his manner of governing, no doubt. For all the libertarian/freedom vibe he tries to exude, Trump has no problem with using the federal government to force his will on the states. Look at Maine, for example. He is using economic coercion to force Maine to comply with his ban on transgender athletes in school sports. Communists and Facists historically used similar methods of inducing scarcity to exert control over a smaller populace that wants nothing to do with their ideology.
He also (like the real “Dear Leader” in North Korea) relies very heavily on propaganda and fear to promote success when failure is all around. For both communist and Facist regimes, loyalty and solidarity with the leader and movement is of utmost importance, more so than keeping the roads paved and the electricity on. That is why even today there are people who try to paint Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union with a positive brush (ex. “Hitler built the Autobahn, the Soviet Union had free health care”). Both were true…but…you know..
Great post here,John. I’ve noticed in stores lately, that certain products have disappeared for the shelves already. Hershey’s Cocoa powder for baking. Can’t get it anywhere. There’s either an empty slot,or generic store brands. I bought Target’s version. To hear that milk won’t be tested anymore,even as H5N1 has been found in milk, it definitely smacks of Communist deprivation and future rationing. That buzzword is coming up more and more. I grew up believing those days were over,as most people did. Because of the way DT speaks, he talks in code, as all dictators do. Watch out for any time he uses” beautiful” in a proclamation. It means something terrible. Like ” my beautiful Christians.” My ” Big, Beautiful Bill”. Other times that word appears. You described the economy style of dictators so well! It’s a time of Deja Vu for people from Communist countries, or hard right ones. They have the same speaking style when telling citizens what’s expected of them. He called the borderline between Canada and America ” fake.” He does have minions in Canada, and Alberta is mulling seceding from the country. And joining the US ! Worse yet is this long- winded title for this new EO, is called ” Strengthening and Unleashing America’s Law Enforcement To Pursue Criminals and Protect Innocent Citizens.” It’s on the White House website ( whitehouse.gov) and kicks in July 27th. Many call it a prelude to Martial Law. And yet, almost silent when it comes to India and Pakistan firing missiles at each other. It could go nuclear. Everyone will be affected by this. Is this a gift to him ?
Why thank you, Yulya! You are spot on. My own personal belief is that the farther to the extremes a Facist or Communist regime gets, the more alike they become, just with different flair and icons.
I certainly did not experience the Soviet Union, but I did grow up in the 1980’s and heard enough about life behind the iron curtain to know it was not a place most people seemed to want to really live in.
That’s not to say there aren’t people who have nostalgia for that time or way of life. I read somewhere that some folks collect vintage items from East Germany..of course they forget that same country built a wall and gave their guards authority to shoot anyone trying to to cross- not trying to get in but instead trying to get out.
There will always be folks who crave the “order” (or the illusion of order) that supposedly comes from a totalitarian regime, regardless of whether it is a far right nationalist/theocracy or a far left “liberation” style dictatorship. Because at the end of the day a persons politics becomes an extension of their own identity.
Well, I was just in China and Vietnam on a business trip. Vietnam is still a country with a lot of working poor. They’re building (and have built) large apartments and communities to support the factories that are prevalent, but most people aren’t living in the best conditions.
China has done a good job of planning and growing since I first visited in 2004. They’ve invested in education and infrastructure to support the growth of urban areas. They’ve planned newer communities to include business centers, shopping centers, schools, parks, recreation centers, etc. Those newer areas around Shanghai, Qingdao, Shenzhen, etc, are really nice. They’ve made owning electric vehicles a priority by taxing gas and diesel vehicles, and air quality is much better than 20 years ago. They’ve promoted about 10 Chinese car companies that produce (really nice) electric vehicles, as well as importing EVs from foreign car companies. Their air travel, rail travel, road travel have improved quite a lot. There’s something to be said for the centralized planning. There’s Healthcare covered by the government, employers provide a housing subsidy to employees (not the whole cost but everything helps), quality education (though there are high expectations and long hours for children which has led to a mental health crisis). Unfortunately, there’s a crisis among younger people as jobs aren’t plentiful, and I was told when I was there that the economy wasn’t great at the time (right before Trump started his tariff bullshit – I can imagine it’s worse now).
However, China in particular is a surveillance state. Cameras are everywhere. You can leave your bag unattended, and you don’t have to worry that someone will steal – because of the surveillance. There isn’t freedom to access outside media sources. It’s against the law to be an unmarried woman who has a baby. LGBTQ rights are nonexistent. Religious freedom is nonexistent. There’s a cost to strict government control.
Trump likes the idea of control without actually putting in the work. He’s happy to let business oligarchs run the economic parts, Christian nationalists run the cultural parts, and his ideas are about tearing everything down. He doesn’t understand that strong infrastructure is necessary for strong economic growth. He doesn’t understand that an educated populace is a productive populace – he’d rather leave education to be available to the wealthy who can train managers while exploiting uneducated workers. He likes the idea of being an authoritarian with parades and pictures of Dear Leader everywhere without doing the work.
I wouldn’t characterize tariffs as communist, though they certainly aren’t laissez-faire. In tactical hands they can effectively protect certain industries. What Trump is doing isn’t productive. First off he is usurping the power of congress to tax. When Trump can use emergency tariff powers and congress redefines the term “day” you have one unhinged man doing some really crazy things. The result won’t be anything good. Companies generally won’t create factories in the U.S. because it is a huge investment which is a fool’s gambit because of the tariff ON tariff OFF nature. This throws a huge wrench in established businesses. The result won’t result in “buying American”, it’ll be empty shelves. No one in America makes it and no one will pay 250% of the price of something. Many modern manufacturing businesses are both exporters and importers. Nothing to clown around with.
When I was a libertarian, most of my fellow-travelers (so to speak) believed in free trade. They were therefore against tariffs and anything else that impeded free trade. (they also opposed tariffs because they hated taxes in general) In their way of thinking, “the market” should “decide” where things are made: If consumers don’t want to pay higher prices for domestically made goods, they won’t.
To add to Troy’s point: The companies won’t build factories in the US because of the investment and risk, but also because China and other countries have more advanced automation technology. So goods can be produced more efficiently, with less human labor, than in American factories.* And whatever factories are built (the shuttered plants in Steubenville, Flint and other “rust belt” cities, if they are still standing, won’t be reopened) will be constructed in ‘right to work” (how’s that for Orwellian doublespeak) states where unions have little to no power
*–I was reminded of this in a conversation with someone who worked for a lumber company, He told me that cut-down trees are shipped to China to be sawn into boards or other pieces, even if they are not turned into manufactured products, because the Chinese sawmills are so much more efficient. In some cases, those sawn pieces are shipped back to the United States, or to other countries, to be made into furniture or whatever.