1w ago

Harris on Trump: ‘We’re dealing with a communist dictator’

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“Democracy sustains capitalism. Capitalism thrives in a democracy. And, right now, we are dealing with, as I called him at my speech on the Ellipse, a tyrant,” she said, referencing her rally last year on the White House Ellipse in Washington. “We used to compare the strength of our democracy to communist dictators. That’s what we’re dealing with right now in Donald Trump. And these titans of industry are not speaking up,”

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1w ago

Harris on Trump: ‘We’re dealing with a communist dictator’

thehill.com /homenews/campaign/5517232-kamala-harris-donald-trump-tyrant-private-sector/

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1w ago

Harris on Trump: ‘We’re dealing with a communist dictator’

thehill.com /homenews/campaign/5517232-kamala-harris-donald-trump-tyrant-private-sector/

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1w ago

Harris on Trump: ‘We’re dealing with a communist dictator’

thehill.com /homenews/campaign/5517232-kamala-harris-donald-trump-tyrant-private-sector/

141 comments

He's a fascist dictator, not a communist one. And when the 'titans of industry' care more about their bottom line than democratic principles, that's a sign to rally against them, not frame one's argument with an echo of McCarthyism.
- Harris continues to demonstrate that she is not only was too incompetent for the job, but also 1/3 of the reason we have a fascist administration. The other 2/3 belong to Biden and the DNC for the curious. I don't think she's too uneducated to know the difference between communism and fascism, i belive she's intentionally conflating the two because at the end of the day, she's still a right wing pig.
  
  So you don't blame the actual fascists in your mathematics?
  
  spoken like a true tankie
- He has taken some very communist steps. The government has taken stake in Nvidia and Intel, as well as received voting shares in Nippon Steel. His government has literally started seizing the means of production...
  
  Those aren't even under the illusion of the workers owning the means of production, though.
  It's fascism, utilizing the pre-existing Christian fundamentalism of American conservatism. The fact it includes kleptocratic state capitalism doesn't change the fascism, or its means of attaining power.
  
  Complete misunderstanding of what the term even means. Like I said in another comment, it's incorrect, antiquated boomer speak.
  
  That's what's called "crony capitalism", in this case. Communism is something completely different.
- It's smart messaging
  Trump is Statist, which is something loathed by both conservatives and libertarians
  
  Conservatives don't care about small government. They just uaw "small government" as a dog whistle to attack racial minorities. New Deal-era and post-WW2 GI Bill policies were quite popular in the South, as they were written to exclude black people from their benefits. It was only with the Civil Rights Act and the Great Society movements, when black people started qualifying for poverty assistance just like white people, that conservatives suddenly started caring about small government.
  
  Except calling him a statest is misleading. He will gladly undermine the state until it is subservient to the party. That's the purges.
  
  I can understand what she was trying to do; pull the libertarians and the conservative small state crowd to the Democrats, but it's a dumb message and I doubt current DNC voters want anything to do with them. This is why they lost so many votes and will continue to lose; they need to attract those who abstain from voting and stop trying to please potential undecided Republicans once and for all.
  Trump's actions mirror the modus operandi of most dictators, whether from the left or right. The way he appointed an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist as health secretary is reminiscent of Stalin promoting Lysenko's ideas against all the scientific evidence independently produced by his peers.
  
  LMAO
  
  Words mean nothing anymore.
  
  these conversations as to which political philosophy is identified correctly: No, its marxism! No communism!, socialism!, bolshevism!, always sprout up. No one cares if he is a "statist". No one cares about finely parsing which brand of leftwing is which. Its a pointless circlejerk where no one gets off in the end, so why do it?
- Nah this is USSR style government at its core. Hes running all the classic dictator playbooks but a lot of this was ripped from USSR
- Some would say he's a commie fascist tankie dictator.
  
  Yeah, uneducated people might say something like that.
  
  hes sewing chaos that means hes actually a anarchist
I mean so close, I do understand what she's trying to get across with things like Intel, yet absolutely dumb messaging.
- Kamala going back to american basics: all communist = bad --> all bad = communist.
  
  Yeah, completely overloaded and missed used term at this point that doesn't reflect the realities of anything in today's world outside of antiquated boomer speak.
  She needed to grow a spine and say fascist.
- Even when attacking Trump, Democrats can't resist taking swipes at leftists...
  
  It’s too easy lmao look at these comments. I’m so disappointed in all of you commies I thought you had more fight in ya! Poor you! Utopia delayed!
- As much as I dislike it, this is the right messaging.
  Anyone with half a brain will say "... This isn't communism" but only the tankies who vote for Putin will really care.
  But all the children of immigrants who fled horrifically evil "communist" regimes? The people who side eye the college kids wearing dictators on their chests? THIS speaks to them.
  And... things are looking a lot like a 20th century "communist" dictatorship. So...
  
  THIS speaks to them.
  Or it'll make them laugh. Probably will make them laugh. If this rhetoric worked it would've stopped Hitler.
  
  Why would this speak to them? They didn't grow up under communism. All they know is that their parents say it's bad, but they don't actually know why it's bad. Chances are they don't really care that Trump is likened to a communist because they don't understand the implied meaning behind the word. It's the same with calling Trump a fascist. The average American doesn't care because they don't know anything about fascism beyond "it's a bad thing". It's just a bad word which makes it the equivalent of calling Trump an asshole.
  
  Speaks to me: commies hated free speech, they hated free markets, they had ample corruption, cronyism, and were full of contradictions and human rights violations. The USA government spent 50 years and billions of dollars on propaganda that disparaged everything trumps America is doing. Time to call upon it before the boomers die
Misleading, editorialized title. Any worthwhile journalist wouldn't quote somebody on words they didn't literally say.
- bad journalism for sure.. however, you can infer the meaning here. i don't think she'd separate 'tyrant' and 'communist' for distinction. still, hate how this shit passes as acceptable writing.
- She did literally say that
  https://x.com/HotSpotHotSpot/status/1970343099151892487
  
  She literally didn't.
  We used to compare the strength of our democracy to communist dictators. That’s what we’re dealing with right now in Donald Trump.
  Can it be presumed it's what she meant? Arguably. But presumptions are not quotes, and it's not acceptable to attribute a quote to someone that didn't say the words you are claiming they did.
You are not interpreting this correctly, and neither is TheHill / Independent / whatever.
Think about it step by step.
Some time ago, America was hardcore opposed to the USSR and the Communist bloc. Americans like her grew up hearing comparisons with Communist dictators and how they did X, Y, and Z. The bogeyman many people grew up with was a communist dictator who hated free speech, co-opted the state and therefore personally controlled industry, cracked down on artistic expression...
That's what we're dealing with now. Not from the perspective of a McCarthy Boogeyman; Kamala isn't saying he's a communist. But from the adult perspective where we're supposed to care about free speech, a private industry, liberal art... Trump is the thing people grew up hearing about.
Tldr; Kamala didn't say this. This never happened. Watch the interview and think about what she means. Journalism strikes again~
Edit: Here's a simpler example: "We went years hearing from the right about demonic liberals abusing kids. Well Trump is that—that's what we're dealing with now."
That isn't saying Trump is a demonic liberal. It means "the thing everyone hated is here in a different form"
- “We used to compare the strength of our democracy to communist dictators. That’s what we’re dealing with right now in Donald Trump. And these titans of industry are not speaking up,”
- Maybe she needs to be more careful about her words then.
Propaganda against socialism and communism still going strong in the usa
- Never went away, never will.
  The country is founded on personal gain, it's the foundation that it was bloodily built on from the very beginning. It would undermine everything that our current beneficiaries of this legacy stand for to even remotely embrace socialism.
  The idea was to pump "rugged individualism" until there were no communities left, and then everyone who managed to shave off the most cash can fuck off to other countries or their own yachts in the ocean.
  
  Hell, half the KKK story on Jews is about stopping Communism
Well. That tells me all I need to hear. The DNC had decided to lose. Again.
Good luck. You're gonna need it.
She still doesn't get it. Capitalism inevitably leads to fascism. It's a core feature.
- Capitalism leads to corporate monopolies leads to fascism.
  
  Yes. I really don't get it. Everybody has played monopoly but it seems like nobody has learned the lessons of the game.
- She was never a good pick for the role. She should have faded into obscurity after losing the primary in 2020.
How the hell is Trump a communist? What is she smoking damn.
The support for capitalism over all else is expected, neoliberals do little else, but this level of delusion? Worrying.
- Americans use the word communism as pejorative without having even slightest idea what it actually means. In this case she is speaking language that majority of Americans will understand
  
  Americans understand the word "dictator" even if you don't put "communist" in front of it. This was a choice that doesn't make any sense. It only annoys the minority of people who understand what words mean.
  Whatever fingers you want to point regarding Harris' (and Democrats') relationship with voters to the left of them, this is simply antagonizing. Politicians will tell enormous lies to court the right, but won't tell the truth to court the left.
  
  Most Americans confuse "communist" with "Bolshevik".
- He did nationalise 10% of Intel. Without paying for it, even, if I understand correctly.
  
  The is some argument to be made to compare him to Stalin with all the industrial policy, trade manipulation, attacks on civil liberties and rule of law, and purges of those disloyal to him. But he hasn't committed genocide in the US yet.
  
  He stole 10% of Intel. You really think we as a nation are going to see any of that? At least communists like Mao and Stalin weren't doing terrible things just to enrich themselves.
Wow and Harris just airballs it. Jesus.
In point of fact, capitalism is demonstrably quite enamored with authoritarianism in more places than just the US.
Fucking hell did she really need to throw in the red scare bullshit?
- So the headline is misleading at best but i still feel like the ambiguity raised by inserting a term like that was just piss poor form and just about par for the course on both journalism and the messaging clarity of the DNC.
  
  “We used to compare the strength of our democracy to communist dictators. That’s what we’re dealing with right now in Donald Trump.
  It isn't that ambiguous.
  Her calling a fascist capitalist a communist shows how she is not equipped to deal with America's problems though.
  
  Completely agree
Did she actually say the quote in the title? Or is that the editor's work? In context it seems like she was causing Trump a tyrant, as are communist dictators, but not a communist:
She was pressed on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” about why she didn’t anticipate such action and responded that she believed “titans of industry would be guardrails for our democracy.”
“And one by one by one, they have been silent, they have been … feckless,” Harris said. “It’s not like they’re going to lose their yacht or their house in the Hamptons.”
“Democracy sustains capitalism. Capitalism thrives in a democracy. And, right now, we are dealing with, as I called him at my speech on the Ellipse, a tyrant,” she said, referencing her rally last year on the White House Ellipse in Washington. “We used to compare the strength of our democracy to communist dictators. That’s what we’re dealing with right now in Donald Trump. And these titans of industry are not speaking up,”
Maybe I'm being too charitable. But that's how I read it, perhaps because I don't want to believe that senior Democrats can't tell a communist from a fascist.
Ma'am, with the greatest possible respect, Trump is as much a communist as the Nazis were socialists.
- He's redistributing wealth among the people, it's just you're not people
Harris is certainly well educated enough to know that Trump is not a communist; presumably these dipshit comments are for right-wingers, because she's trying to appeal to them again.
Goddamned neoliberals
- They literally exist just to kill leftism in the united states now. No other benefits offered
- I think she's parroting her donor's concerns. They don't like the direction the wind is blowing. Mamdani has them spooked.
Oh my fucking god shut the fuck up Kamala.
Trump is exhibiting classic dictator behaviors. Dictatorships are not exclusively right or left. History is full of dictators who use "communism" or fascism as a base.
This is where people conflate and confuse things like the FL Cubans who didn't like Kamala because "she's a socialist/Communist and I came from a country with a bad leader like that!"
They can't distinguish a ruling style from the underlying governing structure.
A dictator is a dictator is a dictator.
And you can look at dictatorial regimes across the spectrum and it's the authoritarianism and the dictator that is the common thread.
hilarious to hear Americans use terms like Socialist, Communist, Fascist even at the levels of supposedly highly educated and clearly they have no idea what they are talking about.
- Fascist
  weeeeelllllll.... If you're in a place where you could throw a rock and hit one, maybe? /s BTW
Democracy sustains capitalism. Capitalism thrives in a democracy
Exactly what a neoliberal would say.
- Really it’s the exact opposite. Capitalism is antithetical to democracy. How could it be otherwise when wealth and power is concentrated in the hands of the few.
- She isn't wrong she just fails to mention that capitalism is parasitic. Cancer thrives. Diseases thrive. They thrive by destroying, consuming and exploiting.
This feels similar to what Biden tried to do (which failed spectacularly, btw) when he tried to outflank Trump on the border from the right, the summer before the election.
Its not clear understands what she's doing here and is confusing the language of communism with that of authoritarianism. So she's saying Trump isn't capitalist enough? Like who is it she thinks this rhetoric is going to move? Who is this argument designed to work on?
- No, she is actually correct. He has taken some very communist steps. The government has taken stake in Nvidia and Intel, as well as received voting shares in Nippon Steel. His government has literally started seizing the means of production. His supporters are usually very anti communist yet, here he is doing what communists would do. If the message was conveyed correctly it might work. However, coming from Harris it just sounds like a sore loser. Bernie has actually praised these specific moves and that should really rattle his base. Instead the DNC will probably use this as a way to attack progressives by saying they supported Trump.
  
  Definitely not communism - these moves don't have the intent or the effect of bringing forth (or supporting) a dictatorship of the proletariat. They are purely for the consolidation of power and wealth - the exact opposite of communist ideology.
  State stake, ownership, or nationalization of companies isn't new. Fascist regimes of old also participated in similar tactics.
  This is a jab to get under the skin of fascist supporters - and it might work, I dunno - but it isn't factually communism. And also, this is democrats repeating to fascists that they will smash lefties faces in along with them when the time comes.
  
  "Dogs have ears. I have ears. Therefore I am a dog."
A fascist dictator, not a communist dictator.
- Not a huge difference when it comes to the communism most people are familiar with. Look at the Soviet Union and tell me Corporate and State power wasn't merged.
Because calling your enemies commie leftists is definitely not something fascists do.
She can't say fascist because fascism is the merger of corporate and state power which is what the US has been building since forever.
This seems to be a misquote, unless this is a separate quote they just didn’t bother to put in the article.
My read is she’s saying Trump is a dictator like they had in “communist” countries. I would frame this a bit differently but there certainly are similarities.
TIL Harris doesn't know the difference between communism and facism.
- In fairness, the differences are slim.
  The thing people fail to realize is, the political spectrum isn't a line that goes from left to right. It's a ring, and the extremities almost touch.
  
  Comunism is stateless and classless.
  How can you have fascism with no state, and no leaders?
  
  You show your ignorance with this. I won't deny that Marxist-Leninism does bear resemblance to fascism, but there's a lot more to far-left politics than Marxist-Leninism (which would more accurately be called Stalinism), and even those guys have more than "slim" differences to fascism. In short, educate yourself.
These people don't even know what a communist is. They just have "red bad" drilled so far into their heads that it's right next to "woke" as a catch-all term for bad things.
Libs love losing and blue MAGA will eat all of this shit she's saying while advertising her crappy book up.
What an incredibly stupid thing to say as one of the only public statements since losing an election to a bozo.
No need to compliment him by calling him a communist. He's a dictator who operates a system built around a cult of personality where he delegates authority to sycophants not based on ability to do the job well, but on shared ideology, capacity to serve within the cult of personality, and his personal liking of them, alongside an economic policy built around society serving capital which serves the cult of personality. English actually has a word for such a system but it's legally questionable to refer to the current regime using it at the moment.
MAGA Communists continue to be vindicated
Somebody failed political science class in highschool, apparently.
She'll say anything but criticizing Israel. That's why she lost.
She a little confused but she got the spirit
"Bad things are happening, and my (former) financial backers aren't doing anything about it!"
=[
"Trump bad, just as bad as communism, did I already say communism bad? Votes please"

141 comments