By Bob Gaydos

Senator Eugene McCarthy, left and Donald Trump. Birds of a feather.
Anna Lefkowitz / MS NOW; Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post via Getty Images; Getty Images

  “Are you now, or have you ever been …”

  It’s come to that already. The sure sign of a desperate man and a desperate party. The “communist” threat.

   Give me a break.

   Stuck with historically low polling numbers, the result of a lost war of choice, high gas prices, high food prices, failed projects all over D.C., a measles outbreak, a diarrhea outbreak, a bleak jobs report, restlessness among the ranks who must face reelection and the always present specter of the actual release of the Epstein files, Trump has fallen back on the oldest Republican gimmick. Calling Democrats communists. “Godless communists.”

    Shades of Joe McCarthy. And shades of Roy Cohn, the Wisconsin senator’s pit bull lawyer during the televised Army-McCarthy congressional hearings in 1954 that pitted neighbor against neighbor, friend against friend, no evidence needed. Just the question: Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?

      Trump learned at Cohn’s side. When in trouble: Accuse, insult, insinuate. Repeat. Take the focus off yourself. With his world and support crumbling around him, clearly more delusional by the day, Trump looked around and saw two popular Democrats with foreign-sounding names, policies at odds with his brand of fascism and identified what he desperately thought were targets of opportunity.

     The new mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, and the new Democratic Senate candidate in the state of Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed are both well-accomplished, intelligent, well -spoken native-born Americans, both Social Democrats, both Muslim with Muslim-sounding names.

     Communists! Clearly. And the Republican sheep in the Congress picked up the cue. Any popular Democrat with proposals that sound like they might be good for people‘s health, wealth and welfare must be communists.

    Head Start, Medicare, Snap. Tax the wealthy. Feed the poor. Communists.

    Not really. Not even close. But the sheep figured maybe the MAGA diehards won’t know the difference. (They won’t). So they picked up the call. But first, the Republican cowards approved Trump‘s personal lawyer to be the top law enforcement official in the country, passed a quickie interim budget so the country wouldn’t have to shut down and then they fled town. No, they didn’t pass Trump‘s Save Act designed to save his butt by making it difficult for a lot of people to vote in November. They didn’t have the votes, so they ran away.

     That left Trump alone in the White House, posting inane comments and photos on social media all night, selling advance access to his posts, reaping money from Bitcoin and anything else with his name on it, a personal lawyer as U.S. attorney general to protect him from the IRS and “communist” state attorneys general, a war with Iran he started and can’t win even though Pete Hegseth used up all our ballistic missiles, Jeanine Pirro deciding she’s an actual lawyer and refusing to prosecute an innocent person for damaging the Reflecting Pool, ICE still roaming the streets, America’s reputation badly tarnished internationally and the Epstein …

    Look! Communists! Over there! Don’t vote for them!

    That’s Trump — a new bottom every day. I do not blame him for being who he is; I simply detest him. In truth, I’m sick of him. I do, however, blame the Republican Party for infecting American society (not just politics) with this utterly despicable human being.

     I mean every elected Republican official, from the House Speaker, Senate Majority Leader, the entire cabinet, to every governor, senator, congressperson, state legislator, attorney general, county executive, county legislator, mayor, supervisor, councilman, who has stood silently by and let Trump make a mockery of our laws, our democratic system of government and lay waste to any sense of decency or decorum befitting the most powerful political leader on the planet. Ladies and gentlemen, you are him.

    I intend to post that last paragraph as much as possible between now and the November election. It can’t be said too much.

    Communist indeed!

    At long last, Republicans, have you left no sense of decency?