AI Summary
5 min readThe communist comeback
In Michigan, a candidate endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America just won a contentious Senate primary. President Trump, meanwhile, has been warning about communists, claiming "I would be the greatest communist in history" while arguing that communist promises lead to "squalor in 12 months." Then last month, the U.S. government requested the extradition from Spain of a wealthy American citizen and professed communist named Fergie Chambers. The question hanging over all of this: is there a real communist threat, or is this a new red scare?
The accidental revolutionary
Fergie Chambers is not your typical communist. He's a former heir to the Cox Media fortune who accepted roughly $250 million from his family to essentially go away. Journalist David Paisner, who has reported on Chambers, describes his political awakening as beginning in middle school at St. Ann's School in New York City—"a sort of school for famous people's children," as Paisner put it. A teacher there gave him Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, and a Marxist history teacher "really sort of challenged him on his family's kind of role in propping up the system we have."
Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.
Read Full Summary →Free • No credit card required
Never miss an episode of Today, Explained
Get every new episode summarized in your inbox — free, ~5 minutes to read.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
What you'll learn
- 1 (00:06) **The DSA Primary Win and a New Red Scare** - The episode opens with the context of a DSA-endorsed candidate winning a Michigan primary and Trump's anti-communist rhetoric, framing the central question: real threat or new red scare?
- 2 (02:05) **Introducing Fergie Chambers: The Millionaire Communist** - The US government requested the extradition from Spain of Fergie Chambers, a wealthy American heir who accepted ~$250 million from his family and now funds leftist causes.
- 3 (06:42) **What Does Fergie Chambers Actually Want?** - Chambers envisions a full Marxist revolution, distinct from the DSA or Bernie Sanders-style socialism, and he explicitly wants to see the US fall.
- 4 (08:39) **The Evidence Against Chambers and His Actual Spending** - Without seeing the sealed indictment, Paisner notes Chambers funds leftist media projects, bail funds, abolitionist groups, and Gaza aid groups, but whether any money reached Hamas-linked organizations is unknown.
- 5 (10:03) **Is There a Real Communist Resurgence?** - Paisner argues Fergie Chambers is a wealthy outlier, not evidence of a meaningful communist resurgence, and the Trump administration's campaign against communism is at least a century old.
- 6 (12:13) **Transition to the DSA Question** - The episode pivots to ask whether the DSA itself is full of communists, bringing in historian Maurice Isserman to provide historical context.
- 7 (15:49) **Defining Communism and Its American History** - Isserman defines communism as a split from socialism inspired by the Bolshevik Revolution, favoring total transformation of capitalism with state ownership and one-party rule.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
There's a new Red Scare bubbling up in politics. Just how real is the communist threat?
This episode was produced by Dustin DeSoto, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Gabriel Dunatov, engineered by Patrick Boyd and David Tatasciore, and hosted by Noel King.
"Are you a Communist?" poster in Forest Hills, New York City. Photo by Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images.
Listen to Today, Explained ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. New Vox members get $20 off their membership right now. Transcript at vox.com/today-explained-podcast.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
More from this podcast
Today, Explained →