Success of Communist Ideas in American Government

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The Success of Communist Ideas in American Government

Ever since the beginning of the Cold War, Americans have held the word "Communism" to have many negative connotations. Our country has been focused on preventing the spread of that evil form of government. Wars were fought in foreign lands; American lives were lost protecting the world from Communism. Many Americans would be horrified, then, to find that the righteous system of Capitalism actually incorporates many Communist ideas. In fact, many of Karl Marx's radical ideas have reached the most fundamental establishments in the United States government; the government that did everything in its power to prevent the seeds of Communism from taking root in other countries.

The government Karl Marx envisioned has never seen the light of day. The

Communist governments we're all familiar with, such as the ones in China and the

former USSR, never came close to achieving true Communism. They can be better

described as dictatorships, rather than governments for the people. As such, the

United States was correct in preventing their control over the world. However,

as a result of the use of the label "Communism," many Americans have equated

this noun with "dictatorship." "To be Communist is to be in favor of a

totalitarian government," they say. This simple prejudice lead to the age of

McCarthyism, which destroyed the lives of supporters of Marx's ideas. So has

Marx's Communism survived? Then and now, several of the United States'

government agencies are intrinsically Communist, taking their foundations almost

directly from The Communist Manifesto.

One of the most radic...

... middle of paper ...

... best examples of communism can be found right here, in the United

States.

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