(Earl Browder - Communist Party Candidate for President, 1940 - yes, we actually had one)

The Communist party (or CPUSA) has been more or less dismissed as a legitimate political party in the U.S. since the late 1940's. But before that time, all through the 1920s and 1930s, the Communist Party in the U.S. was a growing presence and a concern among the two major parties, particularly in the days following the Great Depression. But probably not a lot of people remember the perennial Candidate for President from the Communist Party, Earl Browder.

Earl Browder was General Secretary of the party and was probably the most visible and outspoken critic of the American Political system. He was a vigorous supporter of an alliance between the U.S., the Soviet Union and China, which would be something of a problem when Hitler and Stalin entered into a mutual non-aggression pact in 1939. Still, Browder had supporters and followers and, back in the days when we had the Fairness Doctrine with broadcasting, radio stations and networks were obliged to carry his addresses to a nationwide audience. Like this campaign address from October 10, 1940:

Earl Browder: “One and all, the leaders and ideologists of the Democratic and Republican parties alike forget one little thing; they forget that armaments and soldiers are nothing but instruments of foreign policy. That by themselves they answer no question whatever, that without an intelligent foreign policy, armaments only multiply confusion and danger. That with a wrongheaded and dangerous foreign policy, armaments only rush our country more quickly and deeply into disaster.”

An interesting voice from the past - and something of an illustration of what a real American Communist sounded like, as opposed to the ones approximated these days by the Tea Party. Somebody needs to get their history straight.