Fine. Let’s Talk About Communism.

Americans want healthcare, family time and government that answers to voters. Washington’s owners prefer a scarier noun.

Donald Trump called Abdul El-Sayed a communist. El-Sayed’s alleged revolution: money out of politics, money in your pocket and Medicare for All.

Apparently the hammer and sickle now comes laminated in a Medicare card.

Fine. Let’s talk about communism.

The Soviet Union and Maoist China were murderous authoritarian systems. Fear of them was justified. It also became valuable political property, rented long after the Soviet Union collapsed.

Today the word gets assigned to nearly anything that gives workers leverage. Paid family leave? Communism. Four weeks of vacation? Communism. A healthy school lunch? Communism. Changing jobs while keeping a child’s cancer care secure? Stalin, apparently.

In American politics, “communism” now serves as a guard dog for a business model.

Capitalism Already Does This

Most OECD nations provide universal or nearly universal healthcare. The European Union guarantees workers at least four weeks of paid annual leave. Federal law does not guarantee paid family leave or vacation for all workers. Some federal employees do receive federally guaranteed paid leave, including parental leave. Finland serves free school meals through upper secondary school.

These countries still have private property, corporations, markets and billionaires. Germany calls its system a social market economy. The European Union’s treaty calls for a “highly competitive social market economy.” This is capitalism with public guarantees and a human floor.

The tradeoffs are real: higher taxes, bureaucracy and sometimes waits. Every healthcare system rations something. America rations by price, employment, deductibles, provider networks and whether a sick person can spend three hours on hold.

America can steal every good idea that works. Paid leave can operate as broad social insurance instead of a bill dumped on one small employer. A baby is part of national life, with the cost shared broadly.

We Already Pay the Universal Price. Let’s Buy Universal Care.

The United States spent $5.3 trillion on healthcare in 2024, or $15,474 per person and 18 percent of the economy. A major 2026 comparison found the United States and Mexico were the only two of 20 countries studied with a substantial uninsured population. About 27 million Americans lacked coverage.

America already pays universal care money. The system delivers universal invoices.

In 2025, the average employer family plan cost almost $27,000. Workers paid $6,850 before deductibles. The rest was still labor compensation. In July 2026, West Health and Gallup found that 24 percent of workers relying on employer insurance, roughly 23 million adults, stayed in unwanted jobs to keep coverage, up eight points since 2021.

That is a labor market wearing a leash with a deductible.

Universal coverage gives workers mobility and small businesses room to grow. A contractor can hire and focus on the actual business. A worker can start a company with the family’s healthcare secure.

Medicare for All would require taxes. It would also replace premiums, deductibles, copayments, employer insurance costs and much of the machinery that creates medical debt. Compare total cost, coverage, choice, capacity and transition on both sides.

Pricing today’s private bill at zero is accounting by magic trick.

Build comprehensive coverage. Protect choice. Invest in doctors, nurses and clinics. Negotiate prices. Plan the transition. If anyone has a better path, bring it. I am loyal to the result: everyone covered, workers free to change jobs or start businesses and families protected from financial ruin.

Many opponents bring serious concerns about competence, taxes, waits, choice and transition. Answer them. Then ask whether concentrated political money designs policy for the public or the paymasters.

The last complete federal ledger is 2024. The Brennan Center traced a record $1.9 billion in dark money: about $1.2 billion helped Democrats and $664 million helped Republicans. Good. Say it plainly. This is an American auction with two fundraising teams.

By June 2026, corporations had reported $517 million in midterm spending, already surpassing the entire 2024 record. Crypto companies supplied $189 million.

Federal law bars corporate treasury money from going directly to candidates. Super PACs accept unlimited money from corporations, unions and individuals, then spend as long as they remain officially independent. Admire the wall while the consultants walk through the door.

Election money is tiny beside healthcare costs. Its power is leverage. A few billion dollars can shape laws governing trillions. The purchase price is microscopic beside the return.

That is why “communism” remains useful. It replaces questions about who pays, profits and owns the government. It persuades workers to defend the tollbooth before asking who owns the road.

Political Ownership Comes First

If a conservative committed to ending dark money while a liberal accepted it and offered me a prettier policy menu, I would vote for the conservative. I might hate some votes. But the public would own the democracy where we fought about them.

Campaigns should be financed by individual voters under one modest limit. House money should come from district voters, Senate money from state voters and presidential money from voters nationwide. Business owners and union members may donate as people. Corporate and union treasuries receive no second voice. End Super PACs, anonymous political nonprofits, billionaire funded shadow campaigns and business exceptions.

Disclose every dollar within days. Publicly match small donations so every district can compete. Give qualified candidates airtime. Apply one spending limit.

The Supreme Court treats political spending as protected speech, so much of this requires a constitutional amendment or new precedent. Fine. Amend the Constitution. We have repaired democracy before.

One person gets one vote. One person should never receive a second ballot printed on money.

Then we can argue about healthcare, taxes, guns, schools and the size of government as citizens instead of spectators watching donors choose the menu.

Call universal healthcare social democracy, social insurance, regulated capitalism or Fred. The result matters: care for everyone, freedom between jobs, room for small businesses, time for new parents, lunch for children and government that answers to voters.

The Red Scare began with a real enemy and grew into a permanent sales department. Today its favorite word protects a different concentration of power.

The revolution they fear is smaller, cleaner and entirely democratic.

Voters taking back a government that already belongs to them.

If this gave you a better answer when someone shouts “communism,” follow Executive Dysfunction Weekly and share it. Invite someone who sees it differently. Let’s replace slogans with evidence, one honest argument at a time.

Executive Dysfunction Weekly

Truth. Sarcasm. No Mercy.

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