Cement Shoes
The Trump administration is reviving the communist bogeyman to target pro-Palestinian voices, while Democratic leaders ignore the 75 percent of their own voters who want to end military aid to Israel.
Rev. J. Mark Davidson
7/23/20263 min read
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, the chief architect of the Trump administration’s fascist and racist mass deportation project, has now recycled vile anti-communist propaganda reminiscent of the Cold War, just in time for the midterm elections. Miller has villainized political views the Administration doesn’t like, such as those of Hasan Piker, Zohran Mamdani, Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman, and Ben Cohen of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, and activist organizations such as Code Pink, The National Lawyers Guild, and The Southern Poverty Law Center. Many of these individuals and organizations are known for strong support for the Palestinian people and principled criticism of Israel. Unsurprisingly, they are being smeared as “terrorist sympathizers,” “communists,” and “radical left-wing lunatics.” Of course, these individuals and peace and social justice organizations are exercising their constitutional free-speech rights, and pose absolutely no threat to the public good. In fact, they perform an essential public interest by challenging an increasingly dystopian status quo. In a transparent attempt to chill dissent, the government is threatening to take decisive action against them and their supporters, including long prison sentences. As Chris Hedges points out in his commentary on this State Department document, the key word is “terrorist,” because that means these individuals and organizations are subject to draconian terrorism laws, and the Trump administration has “committed itself to hunting down and rooting out ‘the radical left.’” Meanwhile, the Trump administration is doggedly pursuing its campaign to deport pro-Palestinian peacemaker, Mohsen Madawi, a Columbia University graduate, consensus-builder, gentle soul, and practitioner of Buddhist nonviolence.
In the ridiculous view of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, this dissent is not an authentic, homegrown response to the Trump administration’s warmongering, authoritarianism, and complicity with genocide. No, it’s all part of an ominous “Cuban conspiracy,” with Cuban agents supposedly infiltrating American leftist organizations and essentially dictating their positions on a range of peace and justice issues. Rubio is ramping up his decades-long anti-communist crusade and hatred of the Cuban revolution, claiming that tiny, starving Cuba (!) is “the ideological center of a global communist conspiracy” that constitutes a threat to U.S. national security. The Trump administration is fabricating the Cold War-era communism bogeyman as a pretext for a U.S. military assault on the island nation. Nothing like another “shock and awe” spectacle – this time inflicted on Havana and the extremely vulnerable Cuban population - to continue distracting us from the mounting list of unresolved and worsening crises – the Iran War debacle, the Epstein Files, the affordability crisis, authoritarian attempts to rig the midterms, rampant oligarchic corruption, and ICE’s flagrant lawlessness.
In numerous public appearances and news reports, Biden administration officials are now beating their chests with regrets about not stopping Israel’s genocide of Gaza, and offering lame excuses about why they did what they did. They seem to want us to feel sympathy for their angst and their sleepless nights. They want us to believe that they were really against it all along. They want to be let off the hook for their shameful failures. Candidly, it’s pathetic. There is no justification for genocide. Full stop. All their “reasons” are totally illegitimate. It comes down to a spectacular lack of moral and political courage. They served powerful vested interests in the U.S. military-industrial complex, upheld a murderous status quo arrangement between the U.S. and Israel, undermined international and American laws, and enabled a genocide. It was a profound moral failure. Even assuming this hand-wringing is sincere and not performative, it won’t bring back all those lost innocent lives, shattered families, and flattened cities. The scars will last for generations.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party leadership continues to bury its head in the sand, rejecting the cries of 75% of its voters who want an immediate end to US military aid to Israel. House of Representatives Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) released a “Dear Colleague” letter making it clear that he is opposed to efforts to reduce, condition, or eliminate U.S. military aid to Israel. Minority Leaders Jeffries and Schumer, both of whom are beholden to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin, are wearing “cement shoes.” They are utterly stuck in the failed paradigms of The War on Terror and “the unbreakable bond” with Israel. Sadly, they have thus far shown themselves completely unable to pivot away from servitude to pro-Israel donors and debunked Zionist talking points, even though it has been shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that Kamala Harris lost the 2024 presidential election because she toed the Biden line on Gaza. While our aged, corrupt elites remain stuck in failed paradigms, wearing “cement shoes,” the nimble, spirited work of liberation, justice, and peace continues.