Democrats are having a communist moment — yet again.
From New York to Colorado, the most radical candidates in multiple races are poised to win in November, dragging the party ever more leftward.
Just as in every other communist revolution, their first goal is to make foes of society’s most productive and wealthy people.
And right now the richest of them all, Elon Musk, is Public Enemy No. 1.
What’s happening to Musk is straight from the pages of Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” playbook, specifically Rule No. 13: “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it and polarize it.”
The torrent of abuse directed at Musk has increased dramatically in the last few weeks, ever since Musk’s investments crossed him into “trillionaire on paper” territory.
That’s when Democrats like California Rep. Ro Khanna and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren started agitating to seize Musk’s assets — because it’s just so gosh-darn unfair for him to profit from his unbelievable successes.
“A 5% tax on Elon’s trillion net worth would literally pay for free college and trade school for every American,” Khanna ludicrously wrote on June 5.
The helpful community note attached to his X post should have set him straight: Khanna’s proposal would net $60 billion — just a fraction of the $160 billion spent every year spent on tuition in bachelor’s degree programs alone.
Warren echoed his seize-first-do-math-later sentiment when she posted that a slice of Elon’s assets could pay for “child care for all three and four year olds in America.”
This, of course, is nowhere near the reality: Seizing 100% of Musk’s wealth would keep the entire government running for about three months, total.
And the hysteria ramped up from there.
On June 22, Khanna accused Musk of having “possibly sentenced to death” an incredible “4.5 million children,” when Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency recommended cuts to USAID.
Note the word “possibly,” carefully inserted to keep Musk from suing Khanna into oblivion for that nasty bit of slander.
Then came Nicholas Kristof, fresh off his nonsense column accusing Israeli prison guards of using dogs to rape prisoners, who started naming names of people Musk had ostensibly killed.
“Yamah Freeman was a 23-year-old woman who died in childbirth because Musk cut funding for the diesel for ambulances in her part of Liberia,” Kristof alleged.
And how about Peter Donde, he demanded, “a 10 year old in South Sudan who had his HIV medication cut off.”
Yet Musk did no such thing: DOGE didn’t actually make any cuts to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which since 2003 has spent over $130 billion of Americans’ tax money on HIV education and eradication around the world.
In fact, as Musk tried to explain, much of DOGE’s work entailed asking recipients to confirm that the money America sends them is actually reaching the people it’s supposed to help.
“Anything that appeared to be legitimate lifesaving funding continued,” he pointed out, “and is now administered by the State Department.”
It didn’t matter.
None of Musk’s accusers were arguing in good faith: They were too busy personalizing and polarizing their target.
Their allegations didn’t have to be true, or even make any sense — just invoking Musk’s name and stirring up the hatred was enough.
Ironically, many of Musk’s most rabid accusers are themselves very wealthy.
The Free Beacon’s deep dive into Khanna’s personal finances this week revealed that his two school-age children have “large ownership shares in three private golf clubs” — and his wife drives a $190,000 car.
The communist nomenklatura always have insider privileges, but this is a bit much.
How is it acceptable for Khanna to live in comfort and splendor while an ambulance in Liberia has no fuel?
How could he permit his children to hoard their wealth, rather than spending it to save HIV-positive children’s lives?
The relentless attacks on Musk combine open envy with the politicized push for a socialist system that would confiscate everything he’s earned.
And they’re pure poison in an era of “assassination culture” cheered by the left.
The lies about him are meant to lather the base into a frenzy — and while the ostensible target is Elon Musk, what’s really in the crosshairs is America itself.
Right now the United States is engaged in a humanitarian mission to save lives following the earthquake in Venezuela.
America is always there when the world needs us.
But that generosity can’t leave us open to multi-decade scams that rob us blind, lest every death on Earth be laid at America’s feet.
We’re a country that allows people to reach their full potential and make as much money as they can imagine.
We’re also a country that does unimaginable good in this world.
The socialists need to destroy that truth if they’re to succeed in their devastating aims.
We can’t let them.
Karol Markowicz is the host of the “Karol Markowicz Show” and “Normally” podcasts.
