Success of Communist Ideas in American Government Essay example -- Exp

The Success of Communist Ideas in American Government      Ã‚   Ever since the beginning of the Cold War, Americans have held the word "Communism" to have many negative connotations. Our country has been focused on preventing the spread of that evil form of government. Wars were fought in foreign lands; American lives were lost protecting the world from Communism. Many Americans would be horrified, then, to find that the righteous system of Capitalism actually incorporates many Communist ideas. In fact, many of Karl Marx's radical ideas have reached the most fundamental establishments in the United States government; the government that did everything in its power to prevent the seeds of Communism from taking root in other countries.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The government Karl Marx envisioned has never seen the light of day. The Communist governments we're all familiar with, such as the ones in China and the former USSR, never came close to achieving true Communism. They can be better described as dictatorships, rather than governments for the people. As such, the United States was correct in preventing their control over the world. However, as a result of the use of the label "Communism," many Americans have equated this noun with "dictatorship." "To be Communist is to be in favor of a totalitarian government," they say. This simple prejudice lead to the age of McCarthyism, which destroyed the lives of supporters of Marx's ideas. So has Marx's Communism survived? Then and now, several of the United States' government agencies are intrinsically Communist, taking their foundations almost directly from The Communist Manifesto.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   One of the most radic... ... best examples of communism can be found right here, in the United States.    Works Cited    Air Transportation Association - Industry Information. 21 July 2000. Air Transportation Association. http://www.air-transport.org/public/industry/16.asp    Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. 13 Oct. 2000. The Federal Reserve Board. 14 Oct. 2000 http://www.federalreserve.gov/    Brief Corporate History of AT&T, A. 2000. AT&T Corp. 17 Oct. 2000. http://www.att.com/corporate/restructure/history.html    Marx, Karl. "The Communist Manifesto." A World Of Ideas. Ed. Lee A. Jacobus. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford, 1998. 212-232.    Public Transportation Ridership Statistics Index. 17 Oct. 2000. American Public Transportation Association. 17 Oct. 2000. http://www.apta.com/stats/ridershp/index.htm