Red Baiting Comes Back

Why I think it won't work

Near Flatbush Ave., Brooklyn, 2024.

Quick answer: the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, and most people now alive in America barely know what a bomb shelter is.  

Donald Trump is trying to launch yet another American Red Scare. We had a big one after World War I and the Russian Revolution, and another big one after World War II - the commies took over eastern Europe, we "lost" China to the ChiComs, Joe McCarthy has a little list.

Both of these Red Scares worked big-time. They scared the patootie out of ordinary Americans, who thought the commies were coming, and would knock on the door of their new house in a brand-new suburb, and demand the keys to the family car, and drive away. Bye-bye car. How do you live in a suburb without a car?

Nowadays we're still scaring the patootie out of small school children by making them hide under their desks or in a closet. But the threat now comes from the Second Amendment, and that of course is as American as apple pie, and so, if you're not dead, just pick up your trauma and march on.

The world has moved on from Red Scares. People don't think commies are coming for their cars. There is no boogie-man like Joe Stalin in the Kremlin. In fact, Donald Trump, our president, just loves Vladimir Putin, the current occupant of the Kremlin. 

I don't see how you can bring back the Red Scare. Stephen Miller will try,  because he's running out of bullets. But this one looks like a dud.

Near Ft. Greene Park, Brooklyn, 2025.

See also There's Got to Be a Better Way, A Shortage of Serviceable Ducks, Slingshot.