The father of Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg was a Marxist professor who really, really liked the Communist Manifesto.

He dedicated much of his career to the work of Italian Communist Party founder Antonio Gramsci, an associate of Vladimir Lenin’s, The Washington Examiner reported.

If you talk about this, you will be told you’re trying to destroy poor Pete, but it’s an important discussion to have if people are seriously considering this man as president.

DADDY WAS A BOLSHEVIK

The 71-year old Joseph Buttigieg died in January after teaching European literature and literary theory at the University of Notre Dame from 1980 until his death.

He was clearly a Marxist — a communist — although he didn’t like some of Marx and Engel’s more pontifical theories.

Buttigieg was an adviser to the journal Rethinking Marxism. The journal was dedicated to expanding Marxian theory [communism]. He was a member of the editorial collective of Boundary 2, another leftist journal.

He spoke at many Rethinking Marxism conferences and other gatherings of prominent Marxists. The elder Buttigieg was a world-renowned Marxist scholar.

Oh goody.

BUTTIGIEG FOCUSED ON INJECTING COMMUNISM INTO THE CULTURE

Paul Kengor, a professor at Grove City College and an expert in communism and progressivism, said Buttigieg was among a group of leftist professors who focused on injecting Marxism into the wider culture.

“They’re part of a wider international community of Marxist theorists and academicians with a particular devotion to the writings of the late Italian Marxist theorist Antonio Gramsci, who died over 80 years ago. Gramsci was all about applying Marxist theory to culture and cultural institutions — what is often referred to as a ‘long march through the institutions,’ such as film, media, and especially education,” Kengor told the Washington Examiner.

His son shared a very close relationship with his father and they talked a lot. Gramsci, who Joseph Buttigieg admired and whose doctrines he espoused, was no better than Vladimir Lenin.

A self-described progressive, Buttigieg the younger has called to abolish the Electoral College system, supports a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, and thinks that climate change is a national security threat.

In another MSNBC interview in February, Buttigieg said that socialism “is a word in American politics that has basically lost all meaning” and “has been used as a kill switch to stop an idea from being talked about.”

Buttigieg the younger says he’s a capitalist but it needs to change, whatever that means.

Pete’s communications adviser didn’t want to talk about how his father influenced his political beliefs or his thoughts on Marxist thinkers, the article states.

Watch Paul Kengor discuss communists and Democrats: