California's Cold War Anti-Communism Persists in Law, Diaspora Politics, and Bipartisan Culture, Giving Trump's Red-Baiting a Receptive Audience
Source: Michael G. Vann. "Rabid Anti-Communism Still Shapes the Politics of California." November 1, 2026. jacobin.com
The Gist
The author argues that when Trump calls California 'communist,' it is not just empty noise from outside the state. California has a long history of red-baiting in its laws, in the careers of Nixon and Reagan, and in the politics of Vietnamese refugee communities. That history means anti-communist appeals still find an audience there, across both parties.
Conclusion
Anti-communism remains a deeply rooted force in California politics, and Trump's crude 'communist' rhetoric resonates there because it draws on real institutional, legal, and cultural legacies of the state's Cold War history, so California should not dismiss it as something imported from red states.
Premises
- California was a laboratory for Cold War repression, including the 1950 Levering Act loyalty oath, which cost University of California professors their jobs.
- California anti-communism launched the political careers of Nixon (via HUAC and the Hiss case) and Reagan (via HUAC collaboration, anti-communist GE speeches, and attacks on Berkeley), who used it to discredit liberal institutions, discipline the Left, and mobilize conservative voters.
- The legal legacy persists: in 2008, a bill to repeal Cold War-era provisions against Communist Party membership passed the legislature but was vetoed after Vietnamese American mobilization, and Government Code sections 3100–3109 and background-check provisions still derive from or reference Cold War anti-communist laws.
- Diaspora politics sustains anti-communism: Vietnamese refugees and their descendants in Orange County and San Jose maintain a mythologized anti-communist memory of the Republic of Vietnam, ally with white conservatives like Bob Dornan, and some have supported Trump.
- Anti-communism in California is bipartisan, as when Democrat Stephanie Nguyen joined Republican Tri Ta in opposing 'Jane Fonda Day,' and it also appears in cruder forms such as the 2017 Huntington Beach rally.
- Calling California 'communist' is absurd given its concentrated capitalist wealth, yet the charge works because it taps into these institutions and memories.
Assumptions
- Historical continuity: present-day anti-communist attitudes and laws are meaningfully caused by, rather than merely coincident with, Cold War-era developments.
- Vietnamese American opposition to the 2008 repeal bill and to Jane Fonda Day reflects reflexive anti-communism rather than legitimate concerns about historical memory or lived experience under communist rule.
- Residual legal provisions such as the loyalty oath and background-check references are evidence of ongoing anti-communist influence, not merely bureaucratic inertia.
- Trump's rhetoric finds receptive audiences in California because of these legacies, rather than because of other factors such as general partisan polarization or economic discontent.
- A minority of Californians (diaspora communities, a few legislators, protesters) can stand as evidence of the state's broader political culture.