THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XI, Issue # 184, September 2, 2009
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
OBAMA'S COMMUNISTS
By Alan Caruba
COMMUNIST PENETRATION OF AMERICAN SOCIETY: WHY PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA IS COMPLETELY AT HOME
WITH COMMUNISTS -- THE GOAL THAT OBAMA SHARES WITH AMERICA'S COMMUNIST ENEMIES -- HIS DREAM OF THE
COMPLETE TRANSFORMATION OF THE U.S.A. FROM CAPITALISM TO SOCIALISM
FULL STORY:
“Tailgunner” Joe McCarthy, a 1950s U.S. Senator from Wisconsin who lent his name to any effort to expose
America’s internal enemies, was right. At the height of his fame, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy said the U.S.
government was shot through with Communists, many of whom were participating in a vast espionage effort
orchestrated by Soviet agents, operating under the direction and control of the Soviet foreign intelligence
apparatus headquartered in Moscow.
Though McCarthy was singularly unsuccessful in uncovering Communists within the U.S. government during
President Dwight Eisenhower’s first term, the “Army-McCarthy” hearings, April 22 to June 17, 1954, were televised
for all to see, and McCarthy became one of the best known anti-Communists of his day. Were there Communists
and spies for the Soviet Union? Yes, but we would not learn more until a young U.S. Senator from California,
Richard M. Nixon, identified Alger Hiss, a high-ranking U.S. State Department official, as one.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, the records that became available to historians and other scholars
confirmed McCarthy’s worst fears.
During the 1930s and 1940s, Communism appealed to many Americans. Some had soured on capitalism because of the
Great Depression. Others saw Communism at work in the Soviet Union and, believing the propaganda, concluded it
was a viable alternative to Western-style democracy and capitalism. It would take a speech by Soviet Prime Minister
Nikita Krushchev to draw back the curtain and reveal the horrors of living under Joseph Stalin.
Then, as now, Communists found a home in the American labor movement and among the Liberal elites of the
Democratic Party, who saw in the New Deal the way to transform America into a socialist nation, as well as among
America’s intellectuals on its college and university campuses. Not much has changed.
One of the Founders of the “Weathermen” group that conducted a number of bombings in the 1960s is now a
“Distinguished Professor” at the University of Illinois - Chicago. Bill Ayers is also a longtime, close friend of Barack
Obama.
Senator McCarthy was quite possibly the worst person of his era to lead the investigation of Communist infiltration
and Soviet espionage. He was bombast and a boozer. In August, 1954, a U.S. Senate committee released a report
censoring him for having abused his power as Chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
He would remain in the Senate, but his days of glory were over. His drinking increased, and, in May, 1957, he died
from acute hepatitis.
The sad irony of McCarthy’s story is that the U.S. government was, indeed, filled with Communist sympathizers,
known as “fellow travelers,” and with Soviet-run spies. The story can be found in The Venona Secrets: Exposing
Soviet Espionage and America’s Traitors by Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel. “Venona” was the U.S. code
word given to secret Soviet spy communications.
Venona revealed the full extent of the spying that was occurring. Venona documented that Harry Hopkins, a close
friend and advisor to Franklin Delano Roosevelt was also a Soviet spy. Both the FDR and Truman administrations
were chockablock with Communists. The Venona program of interception and analysis ran from February 1, 1943, to
October 1, 1980.
In the post-World War II years, the U.S. Congress created the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security
Agency to discover and monitor not just the Soviets, but many other enemies of the American nation.
A significant example is the way the Soviet Union was able to build its own atomic bomb long before its own scientists
ever could, thanks to the Soviet espionage program. There were many others who were known in spy craft as “agents
of influence”. One of them was I.F. Stone, who wrote a widely read newsletter that provided cover for the actual spies
and their activities. Stone continues to be hailed in journalism circles as an outstanding investigative reporter.
Among the Soviet spies were Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were found guilty of passing atomic bomb secrets to
the Soviets. The most famous spy of that era was Alger Hiss, who, at one point, served as the Director of the Office
of Special Political Affairs in the U.S. State Department. He would go on to serve as the Secretary General of the
Founding Conference of the United Nations and later become President of the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace.
The current attacks on the CIA include a statement by the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy
Pelosi, who said “They lie to us all the time.” The Obama Justice Department has re-opened an investigation into
interrogation techniques of the CIA as a further effort to discredit the Agency. If you don’t believe this is at the
direction of President Obama, you’re being naïve.
In The Venona Secrets, the authors note that a classic Stalinist tactic was “demonizing an opponent and
then using his vilified name in a broad-brush smear against anyone who challenged Communist views or activities.”
This is why the term “McCarthyism” has entered our political vocabulary. This is also what is occurring right now as
former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin get the treatment.
How can you spot a Communist sympathizer in the U.S. Congress? You can visit the website of the “Progressive
Caucus,” where, as of February, 2009, more than 80 members of the House of Representatives, plus two members of
the Senate, self-identify themselves as Progressives. “Progressive” was the term Communists used after the
McCarthy era. It is still in use today.
Some of the Progressive Caucus members are Representatives Ed Markey (Democrat - Massachusetts) and Henry
Waxman (Democrat - California), co-authors of the “Cap-and-Trade" bill that would impose a huge tax on all energy
use in America. You will find Representative Charles Rangel (Democrat - New York), currently under ethics
investigation for having hidden hundreds of thousands of dollars from authorities. Representative Barney Frank
(Democrat - Massachusetts), the “brains” behind Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s purchase of millions in worthless
mortgage loans, is a member of the Progressive Caucus. He is the godfather of a meltdown on Wall Street that
remains a threat to our capitalist economy.
A significant number of members of the Progressive Caucus are Afro-Americans. They include Jesse Jackson, Jr.,
John Conyers, Barbara Lee, Maxine Waters, Donald Payne, and Bobby Rush -- to name just a few.
With the collapse of the former Soviet Union, many former Communists became “environmentalists,” often playing
major roles in the many organizations serving that cause.
Among President Obama’s ever-expanding circle of “czars” is Carol Browner, the former Clinton-era Director of the
Environmental Protection Agency (1993-2000), whose latest appointment also revealed that she served on the
Commission for a Sustainable World Society, which is part of the Socialist International. Her association with the
group has since been scrubbed from their website.
Most obvious and notorious is Van Jones, who has never made a secret of his political preference for Communism
and who is Obama’s new “Green Jobs” czar. The links between the environmentalist movement and Communist
goals are numerous, nor should it surprise anyone that the “global warming” hoax was birthed in the bowels of the
United Nations.
Today, thanks to the way history is taught in America’s government schools, the threat to freedom that Communism
posed then, and still does pose, is barely a subject for discussion. When he was still an adolescent in Hawaii,
President Obama came under the influence of Frank Marshall Davis, a widely known Communist in the 1950s.
Obama is completely at home with Communists, but is ironically being attacked by the nation’s Far Left for not
fulfilling their dream of the complete transformation of the nation from capitalism to socialism fast enough.
The destruction of the nation’s economy is necessary to complete the transformation, and it is only the outrage and
protests of Americans that will save us from a fate that has been and remains the goal of the nation’s Communist
enemies.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
American Government & the U.S. Presidency:
Presidential Politics & National Leadership
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
The American Political & Cultural Left:
Liberals, Statists, Socialists, Marxists, & Other Leftists:
The Democratic Party, Academia, & the Mainstream Media
Communism: Longterm Enemy of the U.S.A. & Its Allies
Communism, Soviet Imperialiam, & the Cold War:
Case History of Military, Political, & Psychological Warfare
The American Political System:
Politics & Government in the U.S.A.
Caruba blogs daily at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com. A business and science writer, he is the Founder of
The National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information about "scare campaigns" designed to influence
public opinion and policy.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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