A specter is haunting America – the specter of communism. Nearly four decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union and China’s opening to the markets, conservative influencers have revived the rhetoric of their old Cold War crusade. Donald Trump has joined them, dubbing his opponent “Comrade Kamala” and calling her a “Marxist” during their recent debate. Her running mate Tim Walz is being portrayed as the new Manchurian candidate because of his educational trips to the People’s Republic.

The temptation to associate one’s political enemies with a foreign adversary is, of course, always irresistible, as Barack Hussein Obama and Moscow Don himself have gradually learned their lesson. The current reinterpretation of the Red Scare rhetoric may also be a reaction to the electoral weakness of anti-woke rhetoric, which was demonstrated in the failure of the Ron DeSantis campaign. The assumption seems to be that linking progressives to the historic empire of evil will make the threat they pose clearer to voters than further criticism of Disney’s newest LGBTQ cartoon character.

Establishment Democrats think the “communist” attack is absurd and cynical: How could a candidate backed by a long list of Fortune 500 CEOs pose a threat to capitalism? A small number of self-described Marxists who reject the lesser-evil argument for Democrats take a similar view. Although equating today’s corporate-friendly, socially liberal progressivism with revolutionary communism is laughable, there is actually some overlap between liberalism and Marxism that deserves closer consideration, albeit not in the form suggested by Trump and the Republicans.