Photo: Alex Brandon Associated Press Donald Trump performs his signature dance moves at a political rally in Tucson, Arizona, on Thursday.
Robin Legrand – Agence France-Presse in Washington
Published at 8:45 a.m.
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“Everyone knows she's a Marxist”: during his recent debate with Kamala Harris, Donald Trump once again used rhetoric invoking the “Red Scare” in the United States. The goal? To portray his Democratic rival as a dangerous left-wing extremist.
The former Republican president has made numerous accusations against the vice president in recent weeks, calling her both a “Marxist” and a “communist.”
The woman he often calls “Comrade Kamala” nevertheless claims to be a capitalist. She does not really hold ideas worthy of the 19th-century German theorist or the various radical left-wing movements that emerged from him in the following century.
“She's not a Marxist, she's not a communist,” argues Thomas Zeitzoff, a professor at American University. But for the Republican camp, using such terms “is a way of saying that she is extreme,” this specialist in political violence told AFP.
Because Donald Trump is using an old device from American political history: “red baiting” which aims to provoke by waving the red flag.
Paranoia
The strategy consists of “labeling political opponents as communists, or socialists, or reds,” “not only to denigrate them, but also so that they retaliate and perhaps present themselves in an unpleasant light,” explains Barbara Perry, professor of presidential studies at the University of Virginia.
“Communist,” “socialist,” “red,” all terms “with strong connotations in this country,” marked by several waves of “red scare” after the two world wars, she explains. Two periods when the country thus tended to “withdraw in on itself” in the face of fears of seeing Marxist ideology spread.
In the 1950s, against a backdrop of rivalry with the Soviet Union, this resulted in McCarthyism, named after Senator Joseph McCarthy, the chief “Red baiter and witch hunter” in the American Congress, as Barbara Perry recounts.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000This conservative, a fervent anti-communist, then warned against the supposed infiltration of communists in all strata of American society and thus created a general climate of paranoia across the country, before falling from grace.
“Red baiting has a long history in the United States, and it is interesting to see its return” today, believes Thomas Zeitzoff.
The researcher also identifies a common thread between Joseph McCarthy and Donald Trump, in the person of Roy Cohn. This lawyer, an advisor to the conservative senator in his “Red hunt,” was the mentor of the real estate magnate and future president in the 1970s.
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“Spaghetti thrown at the wall”
Kamala Harris became the Democratic Party's presidential candidate in November just a few weeks ago. Donald Trump is therefore using “red baiting” in part to paint an unflattering portrait of his rival, aimed at Americans who still don't know her well.
And to explain this choice of the Republican candidate, Thomas Zeitzoff and Barbara Perry both use the same metaphor, that of “spaghetti thrown at the wall to see what sticks.” Donald Trump chose to portray her as a Marxist, just as he might have chosen any other pejorative theme.
But the former president still hopes to attract a certain category of voters “by accusing Kamala Harris of being a Marxist,” underlines Thomas Zeitzoff, notably Hispanic and Latino voters. Among this key electorate, many come from families who fled communist countries and have very unfavorable memories of them.
Donald Trump is also targeting another category of the population, according to Barbara Perry: the elderly.
“People who remember the height of the Cold War,” and who believe “to this day that communism is bad.”
It remains to be seen what real effects the Republican candidate can hope for from his campaign.
In his book Nasty Politics, Thomas Zeitzoff demonstrates how the “nasty rhetoric” – insults, conspiracy theories, intimidation – used by certain political leaders, in the United States in particular, has demonstrated a certain ineffectiveness in convincing voters across the world.
However, the upcoming elections “are really close, with really narrow margins”.
This “red baiting” by Donald Trump could therefore “persuade certain people on the margins”, according to the researcher.