Meet Your Friendly Neighborhood Communists

We've all made fun of the corny dating phrases that begin something like, "Hi, my name is Jon. I'm a writer, a Capricorn, and I like long walks on the beach." They rarely ever work. Yet someone must have forgotten to tell the communists -- just watch this recruiting video from the Communist Party USA:

The video above, from June and via Weasel Zippers, was featured on the website of CPUSA's Houston chapter. Coincidentally, one of that group's leaders just happened to post some thoughts on the election, which explain what your friendly neighborhood communists advocate:

A friend of mine recently reminded me that when there is no tension between opposing forces, there can be no progress. Frederick Douglass said, “Without a struggle, there can be no progress.” This is what is missing today in the class struggle. Working class unity is needed to overcome the powerful influence of the corporations, but this does not mean following the Democratic party program to the letter. Progressives should support Democrats who fight for the interests of the working class and should support policies which favor working class interests. However, we should oppose with all our might any politician and/or policy which favors the interests of the wealthy. If we do this, we can answer the question “Which side are you on?” with a great deal of pride. [Emphasis added]

Now that's interesting. Also interesting is that leader's admonishment that, in general, progressives should align themselves with Democrats. Trevor Loudon has more on that over at NewZeal.

Loudon on his blog has uncovered some convenient changes to a CPUSA website: it has apparently scrubbed one of its sites to erase its 2004 support of Barack Obama.

In 2007, CPUSA boasted about that support:

Not so much anymore. Today, an edited version leaves out some key information:

There seems to be two possible explanations. Either CPUSA has pulled its support because Obama isn't progressive enough, or CPUSA could be protecting the president from scrutiny.

Louden has his theory:

The communists naturally want to protect their "friend" from negative fallout should such associations become publicly known.