There are forces determined to destroy the American experiment (and they're not white supremacists, Joe).  The most dangerous are attacking from within. They're using asymmetrical warfare to attack socially, economically, and ideologically to compromise our system of governance and bring about a new vision for America. Unfortunately, they use identifiers that hide their real intent.  I've been struggling with what to call them.

In my writing, I've tried a lot of names for the "fundamentally change America" insurgents.  Many don't work because they are literally incorrect.  I hate distortions of the English language.  One can't win the debate of ideas if the words of the debate don't have static meanings.  Other labels are just inadequate in describing the threat.

A "liberal" is someone who stands for liberty.  That is literally the opposite of what our "liberals" stand for.  They use cancelation and censorship to quiet disagreements.  They distort the law to crush dissent.  They use moral relativism to break our sense of right and wrong.  They don't deliver liberty.  They deliver oppression and corruption.

"Progressive" doesn't work much better.  A progressive is supposed to be a person who values progress.  But those operating under the progressive banner have

• created conflict in the name of social justice,
• destroyed our prosperity in pursuit of ecological justice, and
• used wildly out-of-control spending to buy our way out of problems that actually require human development.

In the name of "progress," they have delivered social strife, criminal chaos, and economic collapse.  They haven't delivered progress — only regression.

Even though I use it a lot, I don't like the label "leftist," either.  "Left" is a navigational instruction, not an ideology.  Going left isn't an act of evil, but leftists are evil actors.  It's a distortion of the language, meant to hide the agenda behind a camouflage of words having nothing to do with their actual political objectives.

Then there's the party name "Democrat."  Democrats have no core ideology, in spite of what their name implies.  Their reason for being is not to promote self-governance, but to amass power.

Democrats have supported

• slavery and reparations,
• the KKK and BLM,
• Jim Crow and Critical Race Theory,
• the termination of children as an individual right, and
• government dominion over our health.

The Dems will support anything that enhances their power.  They have no guiding principles other than that.  They are the allies of our enemies — the Vichy, willing to sacrifice our welfare in exchange for power.  "Democracy" has nothing to do with what Democrats promote.

None of those labels adequately describes those who are actively working to undermine America's founding principles.  Let's stop denying the threat and call them what they are: communists.

I was a child of the Cold War.  We learned the evils of communism in history and social studies at school.  I never thought we'd be talking about America as a communist country — yet we leave people in power who are moving us in that direction.

Let's examine what communism is.  Communism is the establishment of a communal society, in which the state controls the means of production and the populace works for the welfare of the commune — not the welfare of individuals.

Personal freedom must be sacrificed for the commune.  In the last three years, the government has attempted to take away our property rights, our rights of association, our freedom of speech, and our freedom to manage our own medical decisions — all for the good of the commune.

In communism the state controls production, dictating what will be produced and when it will be produced.  The government determines what crops can be grown and what they will be used for (e.g., food or renewable energy).  In recent years, the demands to nationalize the financial and energy industries have become increasingly loud.

The state also controls the distribution of products and wealth.  Barack Obama articulated it clearly when he said:

There's only so much you can eat.  There's only so big a house you can have.  There's only so many nice trips you can take.  I mean, it's enough.

He meant that having more than you need undermines the welfare of the commune, and the state will decide what that "needed" amount is.  The rest will be redistributed.  Some call it reparations.

In a communist society, the state controls information.  The propagandists tell the population what they need to hear to advance the needs of the commune — like saying that state control is necessary to provide equity.  They also hide anything that would undermine the commune — like the extent of state corruption.

A communist state crushes dissenters as criminals — because nothing is more criminal to a communist than challenging the state.  Communists invented the concept show me the man, and I'll show you the crime.

If the state creates enough criminal statutes — more than any human can memorize — it can find anyone guilty of something.  Prosecutorial discretion is then used to target dissidents and protect friends and allies.  A criminal who firebombs a pregnancy center is ignored, while a man who protests at an abortion facility is prosecuted.

Is America transitioning to communism?

• Oppression of personal freedom — check
• Distortion of information — check
• Government control of distribution — check
• Selective prosecution of opposition — check
• Government control of production — coming soon to a farm or factory near you

Bernie and the Squad will object, claiming they're not communists.  They identify as something much more noble: socialists, who just redistribute a little wealth for equity.

Bernie is lying.  The man spent his honeymoon in the communist paradise of the USSR.  He knows what it is.  He's just using "socialism" to hide his true objective.

AOC and the Squad are simply fools.  The extent of the bartender from Brooklyn's understanding is that socialism gives everybody free stuff from the government.  It's an endless Christmas morning — without the annoying religious overtones.

Here's what Bernie and Squad aren't telling Americans: a socialist is merely a communist in transition.  Socialists like the communism concept, but they know that the word frightens free men, so they haven't "come out" yet.

Communism-light (socialism) has been tried many times and has never worked.  Socialists allow private ownership of property and use government for redistribution of wealth — trying to achieve the equity of communism with the productivity of capitalism.

But the redistribution causes productivity to fall — demanding ever-increasing redistribution.  The death spiral of falling productivity and increasing redistribution eventually results in shortages — of everything.  As Margaret Thatcher famously said, "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."

When that happens, socialism either collapses (people in Venezuela are eating zoo animals to survive) or turns into communism — seizing everything for the state.  That's what Bernie and the Squad want for America — in the name of social justice.

Let's recognize our domestic enemies for what they are. They aren't in favor of liberty or progress.  They have no morality guiding their actions.  They aren't promoting self-governance.  They're trying to ease us into a communal existence of "one for all" and "all for none," where individuals serve the needs of the state — and are otherwise expendable.  They're commies.

John Green is a political refugee from Minnesota, now residing in Idaho.  He has written for American Thinker and American Free News Network.  He can be reached at greenjeg@gmail.com.

Image via Picryl.