Jim Chrisinger is a retired public servant living in Ankeny. He served in both Republican and Democratic administrations, in Iowa and elsewhere. 

Some of my social media friends wonder why I’m so focused and adamant in my advocacy for democracy and the rule of law. Why can’t you just post cute memes, memories, and family events like we do? I come by it honestly.

For three years my wife, Liz, and I lived in communist Czechoslovakia where I served as a U.S. diplomat. We experienced a country with no democracy and no rule of law. We saw the impact of communism on lives, society, and government. Then we witnessed the country’s liberation in the (thankfully bloodless) Velvet Revolution in the fall of 1989.

Liz likes to quote Václav Havel, the dissident playwright turned president of newly-democratic Czechoslovakia. He called communism the slow and insidious murder of the human spirit. He was right.

Republicans yell “communism” anytime a government does something they don’t like. Do they even know what communism is? FYI, “communism” is the Leninist political system overlaying the Marxist economic system of socialism during the Soviet era.

Soviet communism was characterized by:

• no free and fair elections;
• an absence of truth: lies, lies, and more lies;
• law enforcement and courts that target political enemies and favor regime elites;
• compliant politicians and elected officials;
• misinformation and propaganda across all media;
• violence to suppress dissent and intimidate enemies;
• a constitution that is not enforced;
• government employment based on loyalty to the regime instead of expertise, competence, and accountability;
• cronyism and corruption enriching regime elites; and
• indoctrination based on a party line, including book banning.

There’s nothing inherently left or right about that kind of political system. Communism shares much with fascism. The ends of the left-right political spectrum form a circle and join on the far side: red meets brown.

Voters need to understand that Donald Trump and MAGA are promising a similar system here beginning on January 20, 2025. They’ve already started.

Don’t take my word for it. Listen to Donald Trump and his cronies; read about the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, which lays out a blueprint for a second Trump term. Trump and MAGA are remarkably open about their plans. Ignore them at your peril.

Too many Americans take democracy and the rule of law for granted. It’s like when one fish swam up to another fish and asked, “How’s the water?” The other responded, “What water?”

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Top photo of Donald Trump originally published on his political Facebook page in February 2024. Top photo of Václav Havel in 2006 is by Jiří Jiroutek, available via Wikimedia Commons.