Before wondering what would happen, it should be imagined how it could happen.
Communism has virtually disappeared from the face of earth to this day. Even though China is still officially communist, it is just a way for the state to maintain its power, as its economy is largely privatized. It has the third military expenditures in the world if you count the EU as a whole, and Russia lags far behind. None would venture attacking the U.S.A, which has almost half the world’s military budget. So first thing, communism could never be introduced to the U.S.A from the outside.
However, in the case of Russia or China, communism was imposed from the inside. You could also think about the French Revolution. Those three examples should be kept in mind to imagine something equivalent to a US communist scenario, although it would certainly not be called that way if it was to happen. The word has a too bad connotation anyway, and communist systems have failed in all fields. But the reasons that had brought them to power have all but vanished, and the search for new solutions could therefore very well resurface under other forms. Even in America.
The U.S.A have had a very particular political development, as a beacon of laissez-faire capitalism, which indeed has worked wonders for them so far. Their situation was actually unique. There were vast land and resources to exploit always further, and a continuous flow of labor force that poured in during the nation’s formation. In what was called the “West” (actually the whole hinterland), anyone who could get hold of property and defend it would become its legitimate owner. This is why Americans are naturally attached to the right to own weapons, and historically very mistrustful of government intervention.
As many other nations before them, their success has led them to believe they are exceptional, and that there is “no other alternative”. Their victories in both World Wars, their superpower status and the collapse of the Soviet Empire have pushed this self confidence to the extreme. But the British, French, German, Russian and Japanese empires all thought that they were unique and invulnerable, and that they were God’s chosen country. Such delusions proved vain, as everyone knows what happened to each and all of them in the end.
The U.S.A has become the world’s leading economy and military power for one century already. Their prosperity has been largely based on consumerism. Americans have little experience of poverty in comparison to the history of other nations, and are used to high standards. The bottom line is that the American political culture is 1) very hostile to government intervention and public service 2) very tolerant of social injustice. There is a strong ideology to defend the system as it is, and to prevent any change, especially towards more equality and government intervention. Since the Reagan presidency, the gap between rich and poor has been widening constantly, and the 2008 crisis gave just a little foretaste of the dangers hovering over the system.
As in all Western capitalist economies, the US economy is strongly reliant on the middle class, as they are the pillar of consumerism. Currently, the globalization policy has led all recent governments to de-localize industries, and fragilizing the middle class always more. The USA remain unchallenged in Internet based services, entertainment and armament. Still, the trade balance with the EU or China remains negative despite all that. The financial sector is out of control, always creating dangerous bubbles breaking regularly. Banks are strong enough to claim themselves “too big to fail”, certain to be bailed out with taxpayer money in order to prevent economic collapse. Both government and households are held hostages by the system in a vicious spiral of debt. The federal debt alone has by now surpassed national GDP, and China has become the country’s first creditor. This is flight forward.
Yet, Americans are unprepared to face what Argentina or Greece experienced. What if 1929 happened again? It should be remembered that neither the French or the Russian revolution, nor the American War of Independence itself, had been predicted nor thought possible. When there is a system crash, just anything can happen. The most likely scenario for the U.S.A would actually be a Second Civil War. Not between two parts of the country this time, but nationwide, like for the Russian and Spanish civil wars. The 1% would be targeted and Wall Street attacked. They would most likely drop their mask and try to use the army to stay in control. And they would face the most heavily armed civilians in the world.
The immediate outcome of such a conflict would depend on which side the US Army switches : in favor of the 1%, or of the impoverished masses. None of the sides could expect any military support from abroad. It would inevitably result in the establishment of a dictatorship, at least temporarily. In case of victory of the right wing, you should expect a fascist leaning type government, protecting private property by all means, more similar to Franco’s Spain, or 1970’s Chile or Argentina than to Nazi Germany. Americans are far too individualistic and diverse to adapt to a genuinely totalitarian system. In case of victory of the left, there would probably be property seizure, massive trials and possibly executions. It would likely be the end of tax heavens, as these would be invaded, and the offshore accounts containing all the taxpayer’s diverted money would be requisitioned.
Such a dystopian situation would be however unlikely to last in the middle run. After the French Revolution, things went back to relative normality within 30 years, although some major reforms remained in place. As for the examples of Russia and China, when communist revolutions erupted, both were hardly industrialized countries with a peasant majority, and neither had experience of democracy. American consumerism would be most incompatible with a planned type of economy as it was implemented by communist regimes. American tradition of political freedom would not tolerate dictatorship very long. But such a crisis would be unprecedented in the nation’s history, and hurt its image both at home abroad. There would be a before and an after.
Within one or two decades, a likely outcome would be the adoption of a more sustainable form of capitalism than the one which has prevailed until now, implying more government control on the economy and more social balance, as it already happened with the New Deal, and for some time in Europe after WW2. To this point, the U.S.A can still afford ostrich policy, and any challenge to laissez-faire capitalism meets feisty backfire from large segments of the population, from very rich to very poor. But once breaking point is reached, such rhetoric will no longer hold, and fundamental reforms will happen somehow. What is certain is that it will come from the American people itself, like the War of Independence.
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