“We can’t even raise the minimum wage. Do Republicans really think this stuff is going to happen?”
US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) speaks to members of the media as she arrives at the US Capitol Building on May 21, 2026 in Washington, DC.
(Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Julia Conley
Jul 23, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
Republican fearmongering that communism is on its way to the United States is a perennial feature of US political discourse—despite the fact that their warnings proved wrong in the 1930s when President Franklin Roosevelt passed Social Security and other New Deal programs and recently when Mayor Zohran Mamdani neglected to usher in a communist era in New York City, even as he moved forward with plans for universal childcare and a network of city-run grocery stores.
On Thursday, progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) mocked the GOP’s latest claims that Democratic politicians who support Medicare for All and other broadly popular universal proposals are putting the US on what House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) recently called a “dark road of death to communism.”
“We can’t even raise the minimum wage. Do Republicans really think this stuff is going to happen?” Ocasio-Cortez told a reporter on Capitol Hill after they’d asked whether the recent victories of democratic socialists and other progressives could end up “as full-blown communism.”
With 78% of Democratic voters supporting an expansion of the Medicare program to everyone in the US—which would end healthcare’s treatment as a for-profit endeavor in the US and put the medical system on equal footing with those in other wealthy countries—a number of Democratic House candidates who support the proposal have won primary races in recent months, including Melat Kiros in Colorado, Claire Valdez in New York, and Adam Hamawy in New Jersey. In Michigan, US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, a Medicare for All advocate, has polled ahead of his centrist opponent Rep. Haley Stevens in numerous recent surveys.
As Republicans aim to maintain control of the Senate and House in the midterm elections—having ripped nutrition assistance and Medicaid away from millions of Americans, driven up healthcare costs for people who have insurance through the Affordable Care Act, supported the invasion of Iran as it has sent gas prices soaring, backed billions of dollars in Pentagon spending and military aid for Israel as Americans struggle to afford essentials, and supported a president who says he doesn’t “think about Americans’ financial situation”—they’ve attempted to revive old claims that the new crop of progressive Democrats “are a danger to you and your family,” as Johnson said this week.
The House speaker called the progressive primary winners “crazy little mini-Mamdanis who are popping up all around the country,” while House Republican Conference Chair Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) warned that “the radical left feels they need to hide what their policies are... Let’s call it what it is: It’s communism.”
Ocasio-Cortez, who is said to be a potential 2028 presidential or Senate candidate, called the warnings “very silly” and suggested they came from lawmakers who are dead-set against healthcare being treated as a right in the US instead of a profit-making business.
“They’re trying to scare people because they don’t want us talking about the fact that we all have a right to healthcare,” said the congresswoman. “So they want to call everything they don’t like communist because if people actually wake up to the fact that their elected officials are screwing them over when they get here, then they’re going to realize they deserve better and that healthcare as a right isn’t crazy, it isn’t pie-in-the-sky.”
“They want to call this stuff communist because they don’t want us to realize that the rest of the developed world has guaranteed healthcare,” she added. “So they want to call it communist because they don’t want you to know that Germany, Italy, the UK, Canada—everybody else—has it better than us, and we spend the most money for the worst care in the modern, developed world.”
In another interview Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez expanded on her condemnation of Republicans’ healthcare policies.
“This administration is killing Americans,” she said. “They are killing people by taking away their healthcare. They are killing women by having them bleed out in parking lots. They are killing seniors by imposing cuts to Medicaid and to Medicare recipients... The fact of the matter is they are for UnitedHealth. They are for Big Pharma. They are for these corporations, and they are cutting your healthcare.”
Republican fearmongering that communism is on its way to the United States is a perennial feature of US political discourse—despite the fact that their warnings proved wrong in the 1930s when President Franklin Roosevelt passed Social Security and other New Deal programs and recently when Mayor Zohran Mamdani neglected to usher in a communist era in New York City, even as he moved forward with plans for universal childcare and a network of city-run grocery stores.
On Thursday, progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) mocked the GOP’s latest claims that Democratic politicians who support Medicare for All and other broadly popular universal proposals are putting the US on what House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) recently called a “dark road of death to communism.”
“We can’t even raise the minimum wage. Do Republicans really think this stuff is going to happen?” Ocasio-Cortez told a reporter on Capitol Hill after they’d asked whether the recent victories of democratic socialists and other progressives could end up “as full-blown communism.”
With 78% of Democratic voters supporting an expansion of the Medicare program to everyone in the US—which would end healthcare’s treatment as a for-profit endeavor in the US and put the medical system on equal footing with those in other wealthy countries—a number of Democratic House candidates who support the proposal have won primary races in recent months, including Melat Kiros in Colorado, Claire Valdez in New York, and Adam Hamawy in New Jersey. In Michigan, US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, a Medicare for All advocate, has polled ahead of his centrist opponent Rep. Haley Stevens in numerous recent surveys.
As Republicans aim to maintain control of the Senate and House in the midterm elections—having ripped nutrition assistance and Medicaid away from millions of Americans, driven up healthcare costs for people who have insurance through the Affordable Care Act, supported the invasion of Iran as it has sent gas prices soaring, backed billions of dollars in Pentagon spending and military aid for Israel as Americans struggle to afford essentials, and supported a president who says he doesn’t “think about Americans’ financial situation”—they’ve attempted to revive old claims that the new crop of progressive Democrats “are a danger to you and your family,” as Johnson said this week.
The House speaker called the progressive primary winners “crazy little mini-Mamdanis who are popping up all around the country,” while House Republican Conference Chair Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) warned that “the radical left feels they need to hide what their policies are... Let’s call it what it is: It’s communism.”
Ocasio-Cortez, who is said to be a potential 2028 presidential or Senate candidate, called the warnings “very silly” and suggested they came from lawmakers who are dead-set against healthcare being treated as a right in the US instead of a profit-making business.
“They’re trying to scare people because they don’t want us talking about the fact that we all have a right to healthcare,” said the congresswoman. “So they want to call everything they don’t like communist because if people actually wake up to the fact that their elected officials are screwing them over when they get here, then they’re going to realize they deserve better and that healthcare as a right isn’t crazy, it isn’t pie-in-the-sky.”
“They want to call this stuff communist because they don’t want us to realize that the rest of the developed world has guaranteed healthcare,” she added. “So they want to call it communist because they don’t want you to know that Germany, Italy, the UK, Canada—everybody else—has it better than us, and we spend the most money for the worst care in the modern, developed world.”
In another interview Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez expanded on her condemnation of Republicans’ healthcare policies.
“This administration is killing Americans,” she said. “They are killing people by taking away their healthcare. They are killing women by having them bleed out in parking lots. They are killing seniors by imposing cuts to Medicaid and to Medicare recipients... The fact of the matter is they are for UnitedHealth. They are for Big Pharma. They are for these corporations, and they are cutting your healthcare.”
Strategist calls Trump 'too stupid to know what he’s talking about'
James Carville at Politicon 2016 at the Pasadena Convention Center in Southern California (Creative Commons)
Democratic strategist James Carville didn't hold back in his latest attack on President Donald Trump.
Speaking on his "Politics War Room" podcast with political veteran Al Hunt, Carville wasn't speaking to Trump's advanced age, but his complete lack of intelligence.
Lately, Trump has exchanged his allegations that Democrats are all socialists, for blasting them as communists. Carville implied that Trump likely doesn't know the difference.
"He has no idea what communism is," said Hunt. "Or the difference between communism and socialism. You know, he's just blustering. And he certainly loves Xi Jinping when it's convenient to love Xi Jinping."
During a recent speech to the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in Washington, Trump confessed that it would be so easy to run on a platform of socialism because he could announce that everyone has "free rent."
"From now on, anybody wants a house, don't worry about it. Just pick the house you want. Everybody gets free food. Everything is free from this point forward." He added, "Communism destroys everything, but it's very easy. I'll be honest, I think I'd be the greatest communist in history."
Carville agreed, noting that socialism is an economic system, and while communism is part of an economic system, it's also a political one. He cited Finland as being more of a socialist country than most and noted how hugely successful it was in fighting the former Soviet Union.
Carville said he isn't shocked that Trump is confused because he's not knowledgeable enough on the economic systems, much less the history.
"So, I don't think Trump knows the difference," Carville said. "I really don't. I think he's that stupid. I'm gonna defend him when he uses communism/socialism I think he has no idea of history. He has no idea that Sweden and Denmark and Norway and Finland and countries like that are hugely successful countries are really democratic countries, have a lot of really, really successful businesses and have a real strong program for social insurance. So, I'm going to defend Trump on the grounds that you can always defend him. He's just too f—— stupid to know what he’s talking about."
In their write-up of the podcast, the Daily Beast recalled that Carville recently commented that he thought Trump would resign as soon as the spring of 2027 because the 2026 midterm elections will destroy him.
James Carville at Politicon 2016 at the Pasadena Convention Center in Southern California (Creative Commons)
July 23, 2026
ALTERNET
Democratic strategist James Carville didn't hold back in his latest attack on President Donald Trump.
Speaking on his "Politics War Room" podcast with political veteran Al Hunt, Carville wasn't speaking to Trump's advanced age, but his complete lack of intelligence.
Lately, Trump has exchanged his allegations that Democrats are all socialists, for blasting them as communists. Carville implied that Trump likely doesn't know the difference.
"He has no idea what communism is," said Hunt. "Or the difference between communism and socialism. You know, he's just blustering. And he certainly loves Xi Jinping when it's convenient to love Xi Jinping."
During a recent speech to the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in Washington, Trump confessed that it would be so easy to run on a platform of socialism because he could announce that everyone has "free rent."
"From now on, anybody wants a house, don't worry about it. Just pick the house you want. Everybody gets free food. Everything is free from this point forward." He added, "Communism destroys everything, but it's very easy. I'll be honest, I think I'd be the greatest communist in history."
Carville agreed, noting that socialism is an economic system, and while communism is part of an economic system, it's also a political one. He cited Finland as being more of a socialist country than most and noted how hugely successful it was in fighting the former Soviet Union.
Carville said he isn't shocked that Trump is confused because he's not knowledgeable enough on the economic systems, much less the history.
"So, I don't think Trump knows the difference," Carville said. "I really don't. I think he's that stupid. I'm gonna defend him when he uses communism/socialism I think he has no idea of history. He has no idea that Sweden and Denmark and Norway and Finland and countries like that are hugely successful countries are really democratic countries, have a lot of really, really successful businesses and have a real strong program for social insurance. So, I'm going to defend Trump on the grounds that you can always defend him. He's just too f—— stupid to know what he’s talking about."
In their write-up of the podcast, the Daily Beast recalled that Carville recently commented that he thought Trump would resign as soon as the spring of 2027 because the 2026 midterm elections will destroy him.
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