The new Democrat slogan should be "Honor to the homeland Mother Russia"

I would like to begin this argument by pointing out that at least half of what my opponent pointed out was simply ad hominem attacks on the Democratic party, without any real justification for why there's any relation between the Democratic party, and communism. There is a saying that, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." However, any attempt to draw any sort of analogy to this situation would fail. My opponent is essentially making the argument that because the Republicans were against communism, and the Democrats were against the Republicans, the Democrats were for communism. This is an utterly ludicrous fallacious argument. Additionally, the communism that was practiced in the Soviet Union was far different from the inherently noble ideas that communism in general supports. In the first few paragraphs, my opponent gives the example of Alger Hiss and other Soviet spies in the U.S. government. However, this is in no way a reflection on the Democratic party's loyalties; it might show that the Democrats should have been more careful in picking their employees (although even this is a tenuous position - not everyone working in a Democrat-controlled government necessarily supports the Democratic party), but there's no proof that this has anything to do with whether the Democrats supported Soviet Russia or not - and note that my opponent never even tried to prove that, he simply stated a bunch of facts in the hope of slandering the name of the Democratic party. Also note that it was not unreasonable at all for the Democrats to defend Alger Hiss; even to this day, it is not really clear whether he was guilty, and the evidence at that time was not so clear as to say that the Democrats were Communists for defending him. It is easy to look at things from a historical point of view (they say that hindsight is 20-20), but you must consider what was going on at the time before you make any conclusions. Now, something that is important to note is that all of the "evidence" my opponent gives for the Democrats being Communist is circumstantial at best. Since it is apparent that I need to "defend" the Democrats in this instance, let's just run through a few examples in history. Who was President during the Berlin Airlift? Truman, a Democrat. Who created the trade embargo against Cuba, a Communist state? Kennedy, a Democrat. Who helped in Afghanistan against the Soviets in the 1980s? Carter, a Democrat. Oh, and who got the U.S. involved in the wars against the Soviet Union in Korea and Vietnam? Oh right, Democrats. They have actually done a whole lot more, in terms of actual action, than the Republicans in actually fighting Russia. Would the Democrats have done all this if they truly supported the Soviet Union? I suppose you could believe some conspiracy theory that the Democrats did it in order to ultimately strengthen the Soviet Union... but look what happened to them in the end. One of the major flaws in my opponent's argument is that the socialist policies Democrats advocate in the United States are related to the policies of Soviet Russia. Let's face it: They are completely unrelated. Even if we do tend to share some common principles with Marxism (and this does make sense; Marx proposed a Utopian world after all, is it not such a bad thing to believe in peace and prosperity for all?), the way we practice our socialist tendencies was far different from the way the Soviets enforced theirs. Any attempt to connect them is a half-baked attempt by someone grasping at straws to defend Reagan's legacy instead of actually looking at history from an unbiased perspective. The goals of our policies are to help the societal welfare. Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, etc. are all programs that are designed to help those who are down on their luck, or are too sick or disabled to help themselves, sustain their lives. Again, as I said, one could come up with a wild theory about how this is really the same thing as what the Soviets did; but obviously the facts trump this. We haven't used our socialist policies to terrorize the people or create a dictatorial state; our socialist policies have purely been used to help the populace. In contrast, the Soviet Union always used socialism as a front for its pure dictatorship. Socialism was really a facade used so that leaders like Stalin could gain power. They terrorized the populace, spied on and tortured people, and in general cared about the well-being of the political leaders as opposed to the well-being of the population. Actually, come to think of it, isn't there a political party here in the United States that tortures and spies on its own citizens?