If Vivek Ramaswamy is the future of the Republican Party, patriotic conservatives will have none of it. Claiming he is “the best candidate to push Trump’s agenda forward,” he has been accused of fudging his resume, to eliminate any mention of getting a Soros fellowship. Even worse, his performance at Wednesday’s debate was a foreign policy disaster, demonstrating extreme naiveté about the communist threat.

Since Mike Pence did betray Trump with his failure to send the 2020 election results back to the states for reconsideration, it is difficult to say anything positive about Trump’s former vice-president. But on the debate stage, he made a lot more foreign policy sense than Ramaswamy, a favorite of the Fox News Channel who has been rising in the polls.

Consider Pence’s comments on the Reagan doctrine: “We said, ‘If you’re willing to fight the communists on your soil, we’ll give you the means to fight him there so our troops don’t have to fight him.’” This was a picture-perfect description of why it’s moral, necessary, and proper to support Ukraine.

Ramaswamy responded, “I have a news flash. The USSR does not exist anymore. It fell back in 1990.”

He seemed unaware that Russian President Vladimir Putin was a former KGB colonel who served the Soviet regime and still works with the Russian communists.

This exchange then took place:

Mike Pence: Did I say USSR?

Vivek Ramaswamy: You talked about the communists and the real communists that we have to address right now…

Mike Pence: Do you do not have any idea what Putin’s aims are?

Vivek Ramaswamy: You already spoke, now I actually have something to say.

Mike Pence: Vladimir Putin has been saying he wants to reestablish the old Soviet sphere of influence.

After a diversion, Pence shot back, saying, “I’m sorry if I insulted him by calling him a communist. He’s a dictator and a murderer and the United States of America needs to stand against authoritarianism.”

Technically, of course, Putin has dropped the communist label, operating under the political party known as “United Russia.” But the Russian Communist Party still exists, operating openly in support of Putin.

“The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) is the second largest party in Russia, yet their views are often ignored in Western media,” states a dispatch from an outfit called Break Through News. It directed me to a YouTube interview of a Russian communist spokesperson. The host, Rania Khalek, was joined by Roman Kononenko, a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the KPRF and First Secretary of the Saint Petersburg City Committee of the KPRF.

This is interesting. My 500 anti-communist videos were terminated by YouTube. But the Russian Communists are given complete freedom to operate on that platform. What’s more, Break Through News solicits tax-deductible donations to put this communist propaganda on YouTube.

The host is described as someone whose work has appeared at Common Dreams, Salon, The Nation, In These Times, Citizen Radio and more. Her website, “Dispatches from the Underclass,” includes an interview with Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Carlos Faria, Cuba’s foreign minister, and Hezbollah’s Second-In-Command Sheikh Naim Qassem.

On February 23, 2023, on Putin’s own website, we are told that the Russian president had a meeting with Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Russian Federation Communist Party faction in the State Duma. It was cordial.

Here’s what Putin told him, according to the official transcript: “I hope as a force representing a significant part of the country’s patriotic movement, the Communist Party will remain such going forward. The party makes a substantial contribution to the political discussion and the quest for the best solutions to move the country forward in the social sphere, the economy, defense and security – we have never had any differences on that level, I think. On the contrary, the Communist Party was often one step ahead and raised national security issues of today and tomorrow with authorities at all levels. Without a doubt, our dialogue is now doubly or even triply important” (emphasis added).

Does it sound like Putin has given up on communism? It sounds like the Russian Communist Party is a member of the ruling coalition and that Putin welcomes the participation of the communists in national life. What’s more, they are pursuing the same goals.

In a letter sent to Russian president Vladimir Putin from Communist party chairman Gennady Zyuganov on April 13, 2023, the former KGB colonel was urged to launch a “patriotic front against the imperial west.” This letter was posted by the Communist Party of Britain. It sounds like the old Soviet-style communist propaganda.

Meanwhile, the Communist Party USA is helping to organize what they call a “major national demonstration in D.C. to commemorate MLK's 1963 march” on Saturday, August 26th, marking the 60th anniversary of the original “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.” The list of left-wing endorsers and sponsors is impressive and includes such groups as the National Education Association and the AFL-CIO.

The Communist Party’s role, of course, is being carefully concealed and the former pawn of Moscow is not listed on the official list of sponsors. But anybody who reads its newspaper, the People’s World, understands that the Communist Party USA is a significant component of the national Democratic Party apparatus. It regularly publishes attacks on Trump, Republicans, and “right-wing” forces in such countries as anti-communist Poland.

As we see, however, in Ramaswamy’s bizarre foreign policy views, Republicans have a problem of their own. Ramaswamy’s failure to understand Putin and Russia is a major embarrassment. Hopefully, it was enlightening to the audience, in that Republicans got a taste of what appeasement and surrender to Russia and China look like. This should be an opportunity to examine the Russian influence seeping into what passes as the modern “conservative” movement.