“A specter is haunting America – the specter of communism.” That is a variation of the opening line of “The Communist Manifesto”(1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, which states: “A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of communism.”

Is it possible that the ghost of communism is indeed haunting America? How could that be? Didn’t we win the Cold War?

In the late 1980s, the Berlin Wall came down, and the Eastern European nations threw off the yoke of Marxist bondage. Then in the early 1990s, the Soviet Union – the “evil empire” as Ronald Reagan called it – imploded.

Historians Eugene Genovese and his wife Elizabeth Fox-Genovese once published the Marxist Perspectives magazine, but then became disillusioned by communism. They told the National Review (1997) after the Soviet Union went kaput: “When it all collapsed, the question was, after 70 years, what do we have to show for it? … tens of millions of corpses.”

Fast forward to today, and we see democratic socialists (virtual communists) winning one primary after another. It’s not just in New York City or Los Angeles, but now it has happened in the Denver area.

NPR reports (July 1): “Democratic socialists have been on a hot streak lately. Last week, a pair of democratic socialists won competitive primary matchups in New York, another one won in Philadelphia back in May, and on Tuesday, in Denver, it happened again.”

This wave includes the November 2025 victory of the democratic socialist and Islamist Zohran Mamdani, who became the mayor of New York City, our nation’s largest city – and the historic capital of capitalism.

The irony of these victories of the communists in our time is that their rise coincides with the 250th anniversary of the birth of America. It is ironic because at its basic level, America is predicated on the notion that our rights come from God. Communism is predicated on the notion that there is no God.

Communism says that when the workers seize the means of production and political power, then they will usher in the workers’ paradise. But the founders of America said human nature is fallen; therefore, power must be divided. James Madison, a key architect of the Constitution, said, “All men having power ought to be distrusted.”

Mamdani wished America a happy 250th birthday in a speech last week: “We see the wealthiest country in the history of the world – one where children go to sleep hungry while the world’s first trillionaire hungers for more. We see monopolies that dominate every industry and oligarchs who buy elections.” So, happy birthday, America – you greedy jerks.

But 250 years ago – thanks largely to the hard work of the men and women of extraordinary Christian faith 400 years ago – America was born. The United States of America was the ultimate creation of the blood, sweat, toil and tears of the Pilgrims, the Puritans, the Anglicans, the Quakers, the Presbyterians, the Catholics, the Baptists, the German dunkers (the Amish, the Menonites), the Methodists and so on that helped settle this land. In most cases, they came here for religious freedom.

Samuel Adams, the lightning rod of the American Revolution, was described as “the last of the Puritans.” He was very concerned that everything his ancestors sacrificed for – religious freedom, which led to all the other freedoms – was at risk in the colonies.

In 1771, Adams declared, “The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil constitution are worth defending at all hazards. And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors. They purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood.”

The Puritans set out to create “a city upon a hill,” but by the 1770s, that “city” was at risk. The British were threatening to take away our God-given rights. Hence, Samuel Adams helped provoke the American War for Independence.

But today our cultural elites have led us down a path of unbelief, and now we are reaping the consequences.

Many young people today, struggling to make ends meet, find the promises of “free stuff” quite attractive. But they don’t realize that there is nothing free. Someone has to pay for it. And the politics of envy only exacerbate our misery, not alleviate it. And in extreme cases lead to ultimate misery.

Marx and Engels end their book, with the observation the workers “have nothing to lose but their chains.” Ironically, perhaps no system in history has led to more chains and loss of freedom than communism.

But without God, we will not succeed in the battle against communism or any of the other anti-God “-isms” that may arise. As founding father Patrick Henry stated, “It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains.”