Bernie Sanders sounds rather grandfatherly when he holds his hand up and carefully identifies himself as a “Democratic Socialist” during the Democrat debates. And because this is the United States, and we have freedom of speech, he can call himself anything he wants to.
But if he wants to be any kind of socialist, he has to own the word — entirely. And that word means, essentially, government ownership of everything.
Under socialism, since consumers have no means at their disposal for indicating their preferences for different types of goods and have to consume what has been produced as a result of central decision, the first casualty of the socialist system is the consumer’s sovereignty.
But there is more. Right after the sovereignty of the consumer is flushed down the toilet in the socialistic system, replaced by government ownership, what follows next into the flusher is the consumer himself or herself.
Some 100 million people have been murdered under socialistic governments. But socialists.
Do names like Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-il and Pol Pot. sound familiar to you? If not, wake up and smell the dead.
Now, Bernie Sanders scoffs at the idea that Democratic Socialism isn’t communism, but if it isn’t I’d like to know what it actually is. Ask the people in Cuba whether they love socialism. Ask the billion people in China how much they love socialism.
One of the things socialists like about socialism is that if it doesn’t work out, they can always say, “well, it wasn’t really socialism.” Well, Bernie is a self-confessed Democratic Socialist, and if that doesn’t mean he’s a Socialist, it means his head is soft. That’s what my grandmother would say.