To the Editor:
“A decade was marked by ideological zeal, systemic upheaval, cultural cleansing, and concentrated power, all underpinned by the leader’s personal cult and political dominance.”
This description of China’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) sounds eerily familiar today under the Trump administration.
The following are three key policies and campaigns taken by Chairman Mao and his enablers during that period. My observations are in parenthesis.
Mao practiced political purges and mass mobilization. He mobilized millions of Red Guard youths to attack “counter-revolutionary” elements — intellectuals, party officials, and traditional elites—and enforce ideological conformity. (Proud Boys ordered to “Stand down and stand by,” attacking universities, taking revenge on anyone opposing his actions).
Mao was known for struggle sessions and public humiliations. Victims were forced to confess in public, beaten, or tortured — often leading to imprisonment or death. (Trump’s belittling people opposed to his policies, including our allies. Ignoring due process and sending people to foreign prisons.)
Mao systematically purged “class enemies,” resulting in arrests, executions, and mass persecution. (“Class enemies” are now the media, the judiciary, trans people, anyone not a citizen, and law firms that oppose him)
Mao used ideological Indoctrination and a cult of personality. Propaganda saturated society — posters, songs, model operas, even flight attendants teaching Maoist slogans — reinforcing his almost divine status. (Comparisons of Trump to Jesus Christ. Overlooking, ignoring, or rationalizing Trump’s moral behavior, criminal convictions, and impeachments. MAGA culture spread via Trump bibles, trading cards, action figures, and cryptocurrencies.
Mao reordered education. Universities and schools were shut; urban youths were sent to rural areas to “learn from the peasants,” as a form of ideological re-education. (Trump’s attacks on universities, science, and scholarship. Bringing in less qualified people to run the government, firing the “experts”)
The outcomes and aftermath of China’s Cultural Revolution was widespread chaos. Millions were persecuted, hundreds of thousands killed or tortured, deep social trauma and lasting cultural destruction resulted.
Even as Trump “floods the zone” to keep us off balance and unsure of how to respond, the similarities between Mao’s Cultural Revolution and present-day America are too clear to ignore. Reasonable people who supported Trump are beginning to think, “This isn’t the conservative vision of America I voted for.”
We don’t have to live with a government based on fear and chaos. The upcoming mid-term elections provide us with the opportunity to elect new legislators with the guts and spine to check any president’s thirst for absolute power and revenge.
Michael Caudill,
Former Waynesville resident