By Howard Fischer
Mail | X: @azcapmedia

PHOENIX — The way Ben Toma sees it, perhaps communism is a good idea — but only on paper.

So the Peoria Republican wants to be sure high schoolers get at least a crash course on the history of communist regimes. And his legislation is crafted in a way designed to convince students the system is bad.

“Of course you want to be generous to people, you want to help people, those that have should share with those who don’t,” said the speaker of the Arizona House.

“The problem is forced charity is no longer charity first of all,” he said. “And, secondly, it doesn’t work in the real world. It doesn’t work anywhere.”

His House Bill 2629 would require there be at least 45 minutes of classroom instruction on communist regimes.

More to the point, the proposal by the Peoria Republican would mandate that instruction include “the prevalence of poverty, starvation, migration, systemic lethal violence and suppression of speech” under those regimes.

This isn’t the first time Arizona lawmakers have put their views about communism into state law.

Two years ago, Rep. Quang Nguyen, R-Prescott Valley, shepherded a measure through the Legislature to dictate that Arizona schools must teach students how the concepts of communism and totalitarianism are in conflict with freedom and democracy.

That law, however, does more than mandate a comparison. It also required the state Board of Education to develop standards that instruct students about “the civic-minded expectations of an upright and desirable citizenry that recognizes and accept responsibility for preserving and defending the blessings of liberty inherited from prior generations and secured by the United States Constitution.”

Arizona also is a state where it took legislators until 2003 to repeal a provision in law requiring public officers and employees to swear they are not or will not become a member of the Communist Party. That was despite the fact the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 37 years earlier in favor of a Tucson teacher that such an oath was unconstitutional. The justices said people who join such groups and who do not participate in its unlawful activities, “surely post no threat, either as citizens or as public employees.”

But other statutes remain, including a provision in the state Election Code that prohibits the recognition of the Communist Party of the United States, complete with a legislative finding that the constitutional rights of Arizonans “do not include the right to embrace communism or to attempt to persuade others to embrace communism.”

And state laws protecting employees against discrimination do not apply to anyone who is a member of the Communist Party.

Toma’s proposal actually has two parts.

The first would declare Nov. 7 each year as “Victims of Communism Day.” While not a legal holiday, meaning a day off, it would be observed on that day in schools or, if they are closed that day, the following day when classes are in session.

What makes Nov. 7 significant is that is the date in 1917 when the Bolshevik political party seized control of the Russian capital, a precursor to the founding of the now-defunct Soviet Union.

Then there’s the lesson that would be mandated in any American government course needed to graduate from high school. And Toma even has included a list of leaders and their history that he thinks would be relevant to the course, ranging from Joseph Stalin and the Soviet system and Mao Zedong and the cultural revolution to Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolution right up to Nicholas Maduro, the current president of Venezuela and the Chavismo movement named after former president Hugo Chavez.

Why something that specific?

“Because 100 million people lost their lives worldwide,” Toma said.

“These same ideas are being brought up now, over and over and over again,” he continued. “And they have to be taught.”

The speaker said it’s one thing if people “want to repeat those mistakes.”

“But people need to know,” he said.

Some of that, Toma said, is based on his own experience. His family fled Romania when he was a child.

“It’s not just my background,” he said. “It’s the background of many other people including currently in China, in North Korea, Vietnam, places like that that still have communism, that still have to deal with it,” he continued. “Not to mention the amount of damage and, again, the millions or hundreds of millions that have lost their lives, or more.”

But his legislation addresses only what he says are the evils of communism and nothing about other despotic regimes that have a different economic system.

“If they want to teach about totalitarianism, by all means, teach that as well,” Toma said.

“But communism is a very specific system that is structured and is the same basically everywhere,” he said. “And, as such, it needs to be taught.”

And Toma made it clear that, as far as he’s concerned, there is nothing good that has ever come out of a communist regime. For example, he dismissed arguments that some things are better in Cuba, which has a higher literacy rate than the United States and health care that now is more accessible than it was under the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista whom Castro overthrew in 1959.

The proof, Toma said, is that people continue to flee the island nation. Nor was it his experience in Romania that health care was somehow more accessible.

“I remember how the system worked in Romania,” Toma said.

“If you weren’t able to pay and bribe your way into getting care, you never got it,” he said. “And that’s the reality. Millions died.”

So are there any people who are better off now, even under a communist regime, than they were before, possibly including China?

“I’m not familiar with all the specifics of Chinese history,” Toma responded. “If there is anything better in China, it’s the fact that they actually incorporated many of the ideas from our free market system and the fact that they’ve been able to, based on the amount of that we’ve sent them, and the opportunities we’ve provided to them, really raised the level of existence for many of the citizens that are there.”

Still, Toma said, nothing in his legislation bars teachers from telling students about what might be positive aspects of communism. But the speaker made it clear he would view any such lesson with a great deal of skepticism.

“I’m not a big fan of revisionist history,” he said.

“I think we should be very clear on what actually happened,” Toma continued. “And if there is something good? Hey, let’s have that debate.”