“I mean really., who could be against an organization opposed to the evils of Nazism?”

Helen Gahagan-Douglas (Photo below)

In the western world, Communists operate similarly to Amway vendors. Amway salespeople have been trained for years to create their own unique business names and are strongly encouraged to deny any association with Amway itself- maker of the slapdash merchandise they peddle. Like the luckless Amway distributors, Communists too suffer under a damaged brand. Most consider them for what they are: miserable merchants of failed and unwanted ideas. Yet, the differences between the two are of course, obvious. For most of us, the uninvited visit by an Amway distributor is akin to that early Saturday morning rap on your front door from a pair of Jehovah’s Witnesses. A mere annoyance.

With Communists, it’s different. Communism has long history of brutal, dictatorial governance which represses individual liberty coupled with the mass murder of political opponents. Under Communism, people live in misery. That’s why in most communist countries, past and present, there are high walls and/or paramilitary border guards to keep people from fleeing the anguish and despair they experience in their “worker’s paradise.”

The disdain people harbor toward Communism, is not merely because Marxist policies have failed horribly and caused human suffering on a mass scale wherever they’ve been attempted. It’s primarily because when it comes to mass murder, the Communists have made the NAZIs look like a girls Sunday school choir. Stalin alone: 50 to 60 million murdered (some Russian historians suggest more). Moa Zedong: 80 to 100 million people sent to their deaths. Pol Pot: 3 million. The Communist Vietnamese: A cool million- give or take. Hence, Communists are abhorred worldwide- particularly by those who are forced to lived under this evil ideology.

Thus, like Amway distributors, Communists in free countries, also tend to distance themselves from their radioactive label. To accomplish this, they set up what are known a “Front Groups.” Yes, just like Amway merchants, Communists are also urged to give their organizations names that don’t contain certain despised words such as, for example…, “Communism” or “Marxism.” In fact, the names Communists use for their front organizations often have the most ridiculously virtuous and altruistic sounding designations such as, “The U.S. Peace Council, “The American League of Peace and Democracy, The National Lawyers Guild” or “The National Federation for Constitutional Liberties.”

How does a Communist Front Organization work, you ask? Well, its purpose is to help validate or at least make palatable, certain Communist objectives and ideas. Leftist, from Lenin to today’s woke generation are always seeking validation for both their poor lifestyle choices as well as their illogical and overly emotional political dogma.

Perhaps the most notorious of the many Communist Front Organizations in American history, was the calculably misbranded and benevolently named “Hollywood Anti-Nazi League.” The Hollywood Anti-Nazi League’s objective was to at once promote anti-Nazi themes in Motion Pictures and Radio dramas as well as to use the power of Hollywood to change American public opinion on U.S. involvement in World War II and in particular, Communism itself. The later was and remains a hard sell- to be sure. Prior to Pearl Harbor, Americans were overwhelmingly against sending their sons to die in another “European war.” That however, didn’t stop Communists from trying through the power of motion pictures, to change American public opinion on the matter.

Thousands of otherwise loyal and patriotic Americans joined the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League. These were the well-meaning yet, gullible people, mostly from the Entertainment Industry, for whom Communists going back to Lennin, have laughingly referred to as the “Useful Idiots.” These were the naïve liberals of whom the Communists who ran the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League, delighted in mocking behind their backs. Fortunately, undercover federal agents eventually infiltrated the League, which was well into its death throes when its Communist leadership pulled the plug on the operation. This, on orders directly from Moscow, following The German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact which was signed in 1939.

Suddenly, the NAZIs weren’t so bad anymore- at least to the Communists. Yes, the NAZIs were only evil until they cut a deal with Comrade Stalin to invade and divide between themselves, Poland- a then democratic nation.

In fact, the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League was formed by an actual foreign Communist Agent, Otto Katz, who was trained in espionage and subversion in the Soviet Union and was later arrested and deported after his status was uncovered by the U.S. Government. Katz founded the organization with the help of other American Communists Party members including, an American Crypto-Communist and failed aspiring screen actress named Helen Gahagan.

The latter, Ms. Gahagan, was a college dropout of modest intellectual appetites. She had enjoyed steady work on Broadway from 1923 through the early 1930s , due to her pleasantly passable signing voice and her well received talent as a chorus dancer. She was also a fine stage actress and earned solid reviews in couple of Off-Broadway plays.

Ms. Gahagan left Broadway in the early 1930s to make an attempt at her dream of stardom in the motion picture industry. This is where her career difficulties began. Unlike the stages of Broadway, where audience members view performers from afar and where heavy stage make-up is plied to cover a multitude of flaws, Hollywood films frequently rely on close-up shots of screen actors’ faces.

While it would be unfair to characterize Ms. Gahagan as homely, as she was certainly not, her unremarkable facial symmetry made her an unmarketable commodity in the picture show medium. Ms. Gahagan, despite her best efforts, was only able to secure a single supporting role in the forgettable B-Movie, She (1935). The producers hired Ms. Gahagan as they found her somewhat irregular features and slightly crooked smile suitable for the minor role of the film’s Evil Queen villain, which she eventually played. Shall we somewhat charitably say that this role didn’t exactly thrust Ms. Gahagan into some type of tormented inner struggle of the soul to explore her character’s deepest motivations. Nor did it require her to stretch her talents as a actress to their outermost limits. After the film’s less than well received release, Ms. Gahagan’s cachet as a film actress waned further into oblivion, ensuring that her first film role would also be her last. Hence, on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, there are Stars for Woody Woodpecker, Lassie and Rin Tin Tin but, not Helen Gahagan.

Now, officially a failure and under economic hardship yet, too proud to return to Broadway in disgrace, Ms. Gahagan gravitated toward far-left politics and just like most malcontents in our society today, she became enamored with Marxist political theory. Yet, her otherwise slavish devotion to Karl Marx would cause her not the slightest moral quandary in her later aggressively pursuing and ultimately marrying a wealthy husband- an “enemy of the people.” That Husband was screen star and suave Hollywood leading man, Melvyn Douglas. Thus, Helen Gahagan would become Helen Gahagan Douglas, or at least she would remember to incorporate her husband’s name when she sought political office.

With the wealth, celebrity and social connections of her husband, the newly arrived Ms. Gahagan-Douglas would spend the rest of her days championing every cause that if adopted, would have hurt her ostensible country of citizenship, The United States of America, and helped the Communist world. She was a tireless benefactor for the later and a devout critic of the former until the very day she drew her last breath. Fortunately for our society, none of the major causes championed by the onetime aspiring cinema actress amounted to much- other than causing her to accumulate a rather thick FBI file. This brings us to how the piously self-important Ms. Gahagan-Douglas would unwittingly played a decisive role in catapulting the career of one of the 20^th Century’s most prominent anti-Communists. This would be her only legitimate claim to fame.

In 1944, Ms. Gahagan-Douglas, with her husband’s connections and copious amounts of his money, managed to get herself elected to one of the most Left-leaning congressional districts in California. This was the first steady, full-time job she had held in her life. Then in 1950, Ms. Gahagan-Douglas, drunk on her own vainglory, boldly announced that she would mount a primary challenge against the popular incumbent Democratic Senator- a Liberal New Dealer named Sheridan Downey. Downy, who supported every New Deal policy of FDR, was apparently not far enough Left for Ms. Gahanna-Douglas and her rich Marxist friends. Senator Downey was as shocked as anyone, when Ms. Gahagan-Douglas declared, seemingly out of the blue and over the protests of the California Democratic Party, that she would challengesllc the beloved and long serving Senator. With seemingly unlimited money coming in from her husband and his Hollywood friends, as well as from hardened Leftists from all parts of the country, Gahagan-Douglas was able to dwarf Democratic Senator Downey’s message. She attacked Downey with vicious slurs against his character and misrepresented his voting record.

She knowingly engaged in outright lies, calling the liberal Senator, “a tool of big business and oilmen.” In response, Downey brought up Gahagan-Douglas’ longtime support of Soviet tyranny then, when the timing couldn’t possibly have been worse, Senator Downey became ill. Forced to leave after being diagnosed with potentially life threatening health issues. He would spend the next four months confined to a bed, in the Bethesda Naval Hospital, leaving Ms. Douglas with a free run of the board. Downey’s sudden illness sent mainstream Democrats into a panic.

On the last day one could legally file to run for the U.S. Senate in California, the establishment of the California Democratic Party was able to persuade businessman, WWI hero and civic booster, Manchester Boddy, to jump into the race. Boddy, also a New Deal liberal, was the publisher of the Los Angeles Daily News. He was a man best known for his progressive values, business acumen and high moral character. Boddy entered the race far too late and in the end, it was Gahanna-Douglas’ money and media savvy, as well as her willingness to smear her opponents, that carried her to the surprise primary victory and the Democratic nomination for US Senator.

The nomination of Ms. Gahagan-Douglas alarmed many California Democrats. For most establishment Democrats, her message seemed downright UnAmerican. Soon, a committee was formed by California’s Democratic leaders, so panicked over Gahagan-Douglas’ Leftist rhetoric, that they decided to support her Republican opponent in the 1950 California U.S. Senate election. Even the sitting Democratic President Harry Truman, was reluctant to endorse Gahagan-Douglas and only later would do so half-heartedly. Many other national Democrats, including future US President John F. Kennedy, would donate money to Ms. Gahagan-Dougals’ Republican opponent. Who was that Republican opponent?

It was none other than future Vice-President and President of the United States, Richard Nixon. Nixon had already made a name for himself by aggressively pursuing Communist subversives as a member of Congress.

While Nixon would have had an uphill battle in unseating Senator Sheridan Downey, as more California Democrats flocked toward Nixon with their money and endorsements, it became clear that Gahagan-Douglas was destined to be a pushover for Nixon. Nixon was urged to call out Gahagan-Douglas’ Communism. Concerned FBI agents leaked details of her Communists activities and parts of her FBI file to the Nixon Campaign. Nixon declined to act on this information, citing overkill. He instead simply referred to her as the “Pink Lady.” Quite a charitable description given who and more importantly, what she really was. Gahagan-Douglas lost to Nixon in a landslide. The “Pink Lady’s” political career was abruptly and permanently ended- although, not her radical Marxist activism. Nixon, propelled to the National Stage as a Communist slayer, was chosen as General Eisenhower’s running mate in 1952 and served eight years as Vice-Present. He would later go on to be elected and reelected President of the United States.

The Pink Lady who, more than anyone, propelled Nixon’s meteoric rise, would spend the remaining few decades of her life as a bitter, humorless troglodyte- like Dickens’ Miss Havisham. She became enveloped in a black cloaked, self-consumed, downward spiral of hatred toward both America and its people. Over time, the public seemed to forget who she even was or for that matter, care about the issues she advocated for. Media interest in her ebbed profoundly.

On the eve of Ronald Reagan’s historic election as President, The Pink Lady died a lonely death in despair. Most Americans had forgotten who she was and few took the time to read even the modest obituary space, afforded her passing, on the very most back pages of their daily newspapers.

Prior to her unheeded demise, she had become a recluse. She remained holed up in her Manhattan Co-Op Apartment- a modern Norma Desmond, ready for her close up but lacking any takers.

She had moved as far away from California as she could, the state whose people had so wounded her frail amour propre in their overwhelming rejection of her as an Actress, Politician and even as a person. She was said to be broken in spirit and perpetually angry at the ignorant and unwashed masses of voters who always seemed quick to reject her and her various Leftist causes or issues de jour. “Those dumb, ignorant voters,” she would sometimes be heard mumbling under her breath, as she stumbled listlessly around her apartment in her threadbare, rumpled and often dirty, pink bathrobe. Others during her last years, including her housekeeper, reported her as often muttering incoherently, to herself, “They’re all racists you know! All of them!”

“But of course they are- oh Evil Queen!”