OPINION:
In case you missed it — there was an interesting Twitter war this weekend.
“Can we all agree that Marjorie Taylor Green[sic] must be expelled from Congress?” wrote Robert Reich, who served as secretary of Labor for President Clinton, and in various other political capacities during the White House administrations of Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford.
Rep. Greene wrote back: “Don’t know you, but when I saw Berkley[sic] in your bio, I got it. Just put the hammer and sickle with it.”
Greene also tweeted: “Being a communists professor, you’ve never done the real hard work that builds the economy, you just teach ideas that will destroy it.”
And Reich responded, “All you do is promote hate.”
They also traded grammar barbs about the misspellings of Greene’s last name and Berkeley.
But the undercurrent is this: Greene raises the hackles of plenty in Congress, mostly on the Democrat side, who see her determined and unapologetic — and yes, oft-brash to the point of impolite — defense of individual liberties as counterproductive to the designs of Big Government, of bigger government, of a big collectivist government the left is busily trying to usher into America.
Reich is part of that collectivist government. So naturally, when he sees someone who’s unafraid to fight the Marxist takeover, he wants to lash out — he has to lash back. But in this Twitter exchange, Greene had the facts on her side.
Reich is a communist.
He doesn’t call himself that; he thinks of himself as a social justice warrior, fighting for the people. But that’s what all communists say about their communist selves, especially the intellectual class of communists to which Reich belongs.
Look at his webpage, RobertReich.org.
“Workers are always essential,” he wrote, in a post titled, “Workers Matter and Government Works: Eight Lessons from the Pandemic,” published this past Sunday.
“Healthcare is a basic right,” he wrote. “America must insure everyone.
“Conspiracy theories can be deadly,” he wrote.
“The stock market isn’t the economy,” he wrote. “Stop using the stock market as a measure of economic wellbeing. Look instead at the percentage of Americans who are working, and their median pay.”
“Wages are too low to get by on,” he wrote. “Raise the minimum wage, strengthen labor unions, provide universal childcare, and push companies to share profits with their workers.”
What — no free college?
“Remote work is now baked into the economy,” he wrote. “Companies will have to adjust. And much commercial real estate will remain vacant. Why not convert it into affordable housing?”
Umm … because it doesn’t belong to the government to convert as willed, as pleased?
“Billionaires aren’t the answer,” he wrote. “To afford everything the nation needs, raise taxes at the top.”
Which segues nicely into the summary Number Eight: “Government can be the solution,” he wrote.
Except when they’re the problem.
And as Ronald Reagan famously said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”
Communists don’t like to call attention to their beliefs as communist because they know, at least in America, that the C-word carries negative connotations. So they hide their communism by calling it something else. They say they’re democratic-socialists, or progressives, or simply Democrats with a heightened concern for social justice causes. Then they hurry and call out the conservatives as haters before the low information types catch wind of their communism.
“Hate is destroying our country,” Reich wrote to Greene.
See?
But make no mistake: If it walks like a duck, looks like a duck, sounds like a duck, it’s a duck.
If it cries like a communist, lies like a communist and decries individual freedom like a communist — it’s a communist. And so, as Greene rightly pointed out, is Reich.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Socialists Don’t Sleep: Christians Must Rise Or America Will Fall,” is available by clicking HERE.
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