Socialism is defined as “a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.”
Mob rule is “control of a political situation by those outside the conventional or lawful realm, typically involving violence and intimidation.” Basically, the most significant difference between those related forms of tyranny is whether the force applied to separate an individual citizen from the fruits of his or her labor is applied by government forces or private citizens.
What then, is Democratic socialism? According to the Democratic Socialists of America,
Democratic socialists believe that both the economy and society should be run democratically—to meet public needs, not to make profits for a few. To achieve a more just society, many structures of our government and economy must be radically transformed through greater economic and social democracy so that ordinary Americans can participate in the many decisions that affect our lives.
In other words, Democratic socialists want to use the power of government to redistribute private wealth in order to buy votes, using the familiar and more palatable euphemisms such as “progressivism” and “the rich paying their fair share” to justify what is tantamount to legalized theft. Bernie Sanders might be the most famous American politician who describes himself as a Democratic socialist but runs as an Independent, while Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a rising star in the Democratic Party and another self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist.
Like Bernie Sanders, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez tries to seduce voters with the promise of “free” benefits and uses a clever tactic: virtually every sentence in her interview with Trevor Noah on The Daily Show begins with the phrase “I think…” to imply that she’s been spending lots of time in quiet contemplation, thinking of brand new ways to raise taxes.
And what exactly is Ms. Ocasio-Cortez thinking? She has advocated the pursuit of these following legislative objectives:
- Free Medicare for all.
- Free college tuition.
- A “Green” New Deal. (a.k.a. “Carbon tax.”)
- A federal $15 per hour minimum wage.
- Equality of outcome.
When pressed on how the government would pay for all these new entitlements, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez naturally suggested that existing taxes must be raised, not to punish the rich but to ensure that everyone pays their “fair share”, and defense spending must be cut. She suggested that $2 trillion dollars could be raised by the tax increase, and more money obtained by adding a new carbon tax and eliminating tax loopholes, possibly increasing total tax revenue by as much as $4 trillion dollars total.
The problem is that economic feasibility studies have determined “Medicare for all” would cost the government $32.6 trillion dollars over the same timeframe, adding almost $30 trillion dollars to our national deficit even before free college tuition is added.
It’s a moot point, really. The numbers clearly indicate that we can’t afford universal Medicare. So why do politicians like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez continue to promote a plan they must know is not economically feasible?
We have several real-world examples of socialism in action that can help us determine whether or not it is a viable form of government. Look at Venezuela and Cuba. Heck, for that matter, just look at what socialist policies have done to California.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnN4xcXEPg8
Why on earth would Democrat politicians champion a form of government that invariably results in a humanitarian disaster, not shared economic prosperity? Venezuela has the world’s largest known supply of oil reserves, and yet children are literally starving to death. It’s appalling, and completely unnecessary. Mr. Sanders and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez obviously would prefer to cite Denmark as their example of a socialist utopia, but the population of Venezuela is over 32 million people, while Denmark has only about 5.8 million citizens — almost as many people live in metropolitan Atlanta alone. It simply isn’t a fair comparison.
This political strategy of buying votes using Other People’s Money through the redistribution of wealth is immoral and obscene. Democrat politicians love to demonize their ideological opposition as right-wing extremists and to call them Nazis, so it is helpful to remember that the word “Nazi” was an acronym that stood for the National Socialist German Worker’s Party. Adolph Hitler was the charismatic leader of a socialist movement.
In other words, Democratic socialism is mob rule.
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