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On 13 August 2026, Communism reared its ugly head in Union County, Pennsylvania, at the County Government Center. This occurred through a confluence of circumstances. Five weeks earlier, the Republican majority governing the County passed a policy prohibiting political speech and any partisan activities in the building. This in effect evicted the Democrats from a public forum they had used for twenty years. The Democrats and Republicans had used County facilities for a total of fifty years before the ban.
But then, on August thirteenth, Republicans held a political rally in the County Government Center. It was advertised as a concealed-carry seminar, but it was much more than that. Three local Republicans campaigned at the event: State Representative Stephanie Borowicz, District Attorney Brian Kerstetter, and Union County Board of Commissioners Chairman Preston Boop. They did this in lots of ways, but the essence of their message was that Republicans are the party the safeguards the Second Amendment. That's political speech. That's partisan activity.
Leaving Communism's flawed economic theory aside for a moment, an evil characteristic of Communism is one-party control of all political speech. A one-party communist state concentrates political authority in a single ruling party and denies competing political organizations an equal right to organize, advocate, and speak. Political expression is permitted only insofar as it remains within boundaries established by the ruling party. Opposition speech, competing political association, and criticism that threatens the party's control, is censored or suppressed. That's China and Cuba, but it's also now Union County, Pennsylvania.
JOHN E. WALLACE
Lewisburg
Submitted by email