The US is odd politically, because in it political parties aren’t normal membership organisations. Bill Clinton probably isn’t even a card-carrying member of the Democratic Party, because I don’t this that party issues membership cards. However, I have belonged to a political party in Australia for over 30 years, and it issues membership cards.
(I used to know members of the Communist Party of Australia before it dissolved itself in 1991, and members of other far-left-wing parties, though I never actually asked to see their membership cards. I did, however, once ask a person who later became Secretary of my party’s state branch, and who is now a Senator, to see his membership card, and he wasn’t able to show it to me. – And that’s another story in itself.)
My dad’s a communist. He gives a pretty hefty portion of his salary to Workers World every year. It’s well meaning and serves as a useful social outlet and hobby for him.
CPUSA has never been outlawed in the United States, nor could it conceivably be under the First Amendment. However, members and affiliates of CPUSA have been prohibited from many jobs in civil service, the military, and government contractors (look up Executive Order 9835, Public Law 601, and the House Committee on Un-American Activities) and many high profile Communists or people affiliated (often tangentially) with Communism were hounded, prosecuted for incidental crimes, and blacklisted from many industries.
Stranger
As Stranger notes, you can’t do that - “Congress shall make no law regarding…
…the right of the people to peacably assemble”, etc.; note that it doesn’t say “unless you believe in the mandatory redistribution of wealth”.
I’m a red-diaper baby, but probably don’t qualify as right-wing ;). In my case both parents and a set of step-parents. As with Marley’s brother, they are Trotskyist, rather than CPUSA.
I’m not a communist but I have two registration cards that I bought on ebay, one from the Komsomol and one communist party ticket from Ukraine. They’re pretty cool, but I really like Soviet history.
Oh, if I had a nickel for every time I’ve used that joke on him. And using Yakov Smirnov-style jokes on a real Communist is just more fun.
My brother is a regular subscriber to the Workers’ Vanguard and does hand out leaflets and things sometimes. He’s been to some Mumia Abu-Jamal related demonstrations and likes to hang big flags by his room. In addition to Trotsky he is also an admirer of Tito.
I said I was a communist, but a. that was in highschool, and b. I was provoked by a fifteen year-old classmate who bragged about investing in stock. :o
Former card carrying commie here. Former member of the Communist Pioneers of Cuba (ages 5 to 15), and Communist Youth of Cuba (15 to ‘I got the hell out’).
If I had stayed in Cuba I would have been eligible for membership in the Communist Party of Cuba at age 30, unlike the Pioneers and the Youth Parties, where membership is more or less compulsory, membership in the PCC is a much bigger deal. You have to be invited to join, and you must have been seen as a good commie all along. I don’t know that I would have made the cut.
I was a card carrying Young Socialist for awhile. I abhor repressive regimes that happen to have nominal communism, but in theory communism sounds nifty, when implemented in a benign way (such as Star Trek) or if it is built from the ground up (5th Sacred Thing). I don’t think top down communism is possible. At best, a government might create incentives for the people to practice it on their own.