The Redbaiting of Rep. Karen Bass Is Absurd
Rep. Karen Bass is no socialist, but she's hung around a few of us in the past. Because of this, as her name was floated for Biden's vice presidency, she's been subjected to McCarthyist-style smears. We on the Left have to clearly and loudly stand against these attacks — they’re designed to make socialism politically beyond the pale.
Rep. Karen Bass speaks at a House Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill. (Kevin Dietsch-Pool / Getty Images)
“I’m not a socialist. I’m not a communist. I’ve belonged to one party my entire life and that’s the Democratic Party and I’m a Christian.”
If one were to read this quote in isolation, without attribution, or further details, one might assume it was from McCarthy-era America. It might harken to a time when official government bodies hauled people accused of the high crime of being leftists before inquisitors who would then probe their political leanings, searching for the dreaded heresy of left-wing associations or sympathy that would lead them to be excommunicated from civil society.
But that quote was not uttered during the McCarthy hearings or before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) or during the early days of the Cold War. They came from Rep. Karen Bass when speaking to the US media on August 3, 2020.
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