We all see the polls that show that descent of MAGA, but we also see the continuous attempts, which may actually be successful, by Trump to rig the mid-term elections, so we remain nervous that what should be a relatively certain takeover of the House of Representatives by the Democrats, and the potential takeover of the Senate, may either be thwarted by immoral (who even has an idea these days as what is or not illegal?) actions of the Trump administration.

Our nervousness is increased by the increasing emphasis by the GOP that Democrats are Communists. As nonsensical as this is, there are those Americans who probably have always believed this (or at least believed this since the days of that great Commie, Franklin Roosevelt), and there are others who are less sure, but who just don’t want to take a chance that that this may actually be correct. And it does no good to counter by saying that the Trump crowd are fascists, because while right wing America is deathly afraid of Communism, they don’t even know what a fascist is.

This brings to mind something I learned long ago reading about Lithuania during the Second World War. Okay, here is a mini-history lesson. Between World War I and World War II, there was an independent country called Lithuania for the first time in centuries. Its boundaries were a bit different from today’s Lithuania (most importantly, Vilnius/Vilna/Wilno, today’s capital city, was in Poland, not in independent Lithuania, and Kaunas/Kovno was the capital of the country), but the country existed, a result of the Treaty of Versailles. Previously, it had been a part of the Russian (tsarist, not Leninist Russia) empire.

When Hitler’s Germany moved east in 1939, and arranged to divide up central and eastern Europe with the Soviet Union, Lithuania naturally fell into the area of influence of the Soviets, and stayed that way until the Germans broke their agreement with the USSR and moved their armies through Lithuania, east towards Moscow.

Let’s pretend that Lithuania had an option. Let’s say it had to decide whether to be dominated by Stalin’s USSR, or Hitler’s German Reich. What would it have decided?

The answer is clear. The Jews in Lithuania, and there were several hundred thousands of them who were very important to the Lithuanian economy, and who had a long history in the country, clearly would have favored the Russians. Why? Not because they had any love for Russia, or Stalin, or Communism, or the USSR, but because if the Germans took over Lithuania, they would all be murdered (as in fact the vast majority were when Germany moved through the country, and even before in anticipation of the German advance). The remainder of the Lithuanians felt very differently. They did not feel themselves targeted by the Germans (only Jews and Gypsies did – and of course intellectuals and opposition politicians), and they assumed that life under German occupation, while not ideal, would be livable. On the other hand, if the Communists moved in, their lives would be torn asunder, their property would be stolen from them, their freedom curtailed, and so forth.

In other words, Communism affects everyone, so most everyone is afraid of it and against it. Fascism, on the other hand, only affects those groups targeted as enemies by the fascists, and if you are not a member of one of those groups, your life will continue without change, and in fact may even in some ways be improved. If the United States becomes a fascist oriented nation (as Trump wants it to be, whether he recognizes that or not), his supporters will, they think, be the winners, so why should they be against it. On the other hand, if the Communists take over……

So, to a certain number of Americans, arguing that Democrats are communists will be a winning argument for MAGA. So, the Republicans, who don’t care at all if they lie, as we know, will call all Democrats communists.

So what will the Democrats do? In part, they will ignore the screaming of the Republicans. “No one will really think we are communists”, they will think (incorrectly). But, worse than that, they will ignore the attempt (against successful, I am sure, to some extent) to target some of the Democrats as communists, because some of the “progressive” Democrats, who are members of the Democratic Socialist faction of the party and who are winning elections here and there, are calling themselves not only Democratic Socialists, but socialists, pure and simple. And if you think you can explain the difference between being a Democratic Socialist, a socialist, or a communist to conservative Americans, you are kidding yourself.

And this panics those Democrats (by far the majority) who are not Democratic Socialists and who don’t even know what it means to identify that way. So the “moderate” Democrats start badmouthing the Democratic Socialists as if they are as dangerous as ….. communists!

We will now have the Democratic Party (it was Will Rogers, right, who said “I don’t belong to any political party. I am a Democrat.”) split in two, divided among itself, and playing right into the hands of the Republicans.

The Democrats should know better than that, but apparently they don’t. The fact is that the majority of political positions taken by the most moderate of moderate Democrats, and the members of the Democratic Socialists, are identical, including things like more support for housing, and education, and civil rights, universal health care. In fact the only reason the moderate Democrats are yelling at the progressive Democrats is that they fear that the Republicans calling the progressive Democrats communists will hurt the party. But what they are doing will hurt the party even more.

There is no reason why all Democrats (of course, all is too broad a word, I know that) can’t get together with general policy positions which are those of moderate and left wing Democrats alike, and which are policies that the majority of Americans do or should endorse. But it does not look like this will happen.

New York is one of the big battlegrounds here. That is where the majority of Democratic Socialist type victories have occurred. But New York is also the home of the Democratic leaders of both Houses, Schumer and Jeffries. This is another reason why, as I have been saying consistently, that to ensure victory in November, these leaders should be replaced. Of course, that won’t happen.

In addition to all the other problems we will have to face between now and November, we will get numb to Republicans calling all Democrats communists, we will see the Democratic party itself failing to separate itself from the claims, and we will see the likelihood of double Democratic victories in November narrow and narrow.

That’s it for today. It will be a busy one. Not going to take the time to proofread. Sorry about that. I will bear the slings and arrows of my wife’s criticism.