Communism is on the ballot this year.. And not just any soft “socialism” either… Tim Walz, Kamala’s running mate taught students in Nebraska during the 1990s how wonder Chinese communism is because “everyone shares” or something..
As a high school teacher in the 1990s, Democratic vice presidential candidate and Minnesota governor Tim Walz appeared to extol life under Chinese communism, telling his students that it is a system in which “everyone shares” and gets free food and housing.
“It means that everyone is the same and everyone shares,” Walz said during a lesson on China’s communist system in November 1991. “The doctor and the construction worker make the same. The Chinese government and the place they work for provide housing and 14 kg or about 30 pounds of rice per month. They get food and housing.”
Walz’s remarks were reported in a 1991 article in Nebraska’s Alliance Times-Herald that focused on his work on student exchange programs in China. At the time, Walz was teaching social studies at a Nebraska high school.
Teaching high school students that communism means “everyone shares” is reductive to the point of absurdity. Maybe if this were a lesson for 3rd graders I could see it but even then the alternative would be something like democracy means everyone gets a say. The compare and contrast of those two statements could provide a very basic lesson for younger kids.
But for high school kids you expect a lot more. Did Walz offer any comments about the downside of communism in China or elsewhere? About state control of everything from the media to major corporations? He did mention the one-child policy but only that those who violated it would have to pay a tax. No mention of forced abortions.