Commentary: Socialists Don’t Really Believe in Socialism

by Rich Logis   Can we dispel, once and for all, the idea that socialists, “democratic” or otherwise, actually believe in the socialism they peddle? “Socialists” love money, guns, walls, fossil fuels, Amazon, meat, private jets and cars, luxury apartments, and paying low taxes just like everyone else. What sets “socialists” apart is a certain desire for control. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) owns multiple houses, has a seven-figure net worth, and collects a salary of $14,500 a month. Do you really think a guy like that truly believes the “free stuff” balderdash he’s regurgitated for decades? He admires Fidel Castro because he wants to be like him, and he’s enamored with bread lines because Sanders knows that government dependency is a helluva drug. I’m reminded of this every day when I look at the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics rationing ticket from my wife’s childhood in Poland. Newsflash: neither Lenin nor Stalin believed in socialism, either. They believed in power. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) wasted no time getting a fancy pad in a tony Washington, D.C. neighborhood. Rumor has it the building’s energy sources are electricity and oil. Aaahhh, first-world living in Washington, D.C., where average monthly rents are higher only in 10 other cities across the globe.…

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Commentary: The Totalitarian Impulse of the Democrats’ ‘New’ Socialism Is Showing in Venezuela

by Anna Paulina   The “new” socialism that is rapidly gaining adherents within the Democrat Party bears a striking resemblance to the totalitarian ideology that just drove oil-rich Venezuela to the point of mass starvation. They might not even realize it themselves, but beneath the facade of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “democratic socialism” and Senator Bernie Sanders’ “Bernie bros” movement lies the same authoritarian spirit that animates every socialist experiment. American socialists and their liberal supporters tend to become extremely defensive when their ideology is compared to that of Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro, insisting they only wish to implement the variety of socialism that prevails in countries such as Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, despite those countries constantly telling Americans they are absolutely not socialist. Now that affairs in Venezuela have reached the breaking point and President Trump has put his foot down to call for the dictator Maduro’s departure, the Democrats’ socialist brigades are shifting gears and trying to downplay the brutality of that regime. Sanders, the godfather of contemporary “democratic-socialism” in the U.S., is refusing to say that the reign of Maduro and his increasingly violent band of Chavistas must end, but still ran afoul of his comrades by calling on the Venezuelan strongman to allow…

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Bredesen Budgets Like Bernie Sanders Does, New Ad Says

political ad

Democratic Senate candidate Phil Bredesen had a “rare rendezvous with the truth” in Chattanooga Tuesday, according to the Tennessee Republican Party, saying about the federal deficit, “Democrats — my own party — have never been great on the subject.” To mark the occasion, the GOP released a new ad showing how Democrats budget — just like U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) does. The ad is available to watch here.   The ad mentions how Democrats’ plans to provide Medicare to everyone would cost $32.6 trillion over 10 years, citing a study by the Mercatus Center of George Mason University and reported on Fox News. “If Phil Bredesen is elected and Senate Democrats regain control, they would choose current ranking member and socialist Bernie Sanders to lead the Budget Committee,” said Gillum Ferguson, the Tennessee Republican Party press secretary. The ad will run digitally statewide. “Bredesen’s claims to care about the federal debt are downright laughable since he would vote to put socialist Bernie Sanders — whose healthcare proposal would cost $32 trillion — as chairman of the Senate Budget Committee,” said Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Scott Golden. “As governor, Bredesen irresponsibly raided hundreds of millions of dollars from the state highway fund and rainy…

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Commentary: It Isn’t Just Trump vs. Bernie in Florida Governor’s Race

Ron Desantis, Andrew Gillum, Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders

by George Rasley, CHQ Editor   Tuesday’s Florida Primary Election rocked the Florida political establishment of both parties and set up what will likely be the most expensive and certainly the most important gubernatorial election of 2018. On the Republican side Rep. Ron DeSantis (FL-6) one of the most visible conservative members of the U.S. House of Representatives rode his national media profile to a wipeout of Florida political icon, Republican Ron DeSantisCommissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam. Putnam, once the youngest member of Congress and one of the Sunshine State’s most popular politicians, was long assumed to be on his way to the Governorship, the Senate and perhaps even the presidency. On Tuesday those expectations came crashing down – crushed in a wave of populist support for Congressman DeSantis, who has been one of President Trump’s staunchest defenders on TV and who proudly campaigned with Donald Trump’s endorsement. While DeSantis and Putnam differed little on real substance – both are solidly conservative Republicans – it was DeSantis’ campaign against the Tallahassee political establishment that defeated Putnam, who had, perhaps unfairly, become seen as the candidate of a notoriously corrupt state capitol. On the Democratic side another iconic Florida political name…

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Joe Carter Explainer: What You Should Know About Democratic Socialism

by Joe Carter   While many left-leaning American politicians tend to avoid the labels “liberal” or “progressive,” two popular Democrats—Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and New York congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—proudly self-identify as a “democratic socialists.” Here’s what you should know about democratic socialism. What is democratic socialism? In Democratic Socialism: A Global Survey, Donald F. Busky explains the term this way: Democratic socialism is the wing of the socialist movement that combines a belief in a socially owned economy with that of political democracy. Sometimes simply called socialism, more often than not, the adjective democratic is added by democratic socialists to distinguish themselves from Communists who also call themselves socialists . . . democratic socialists wish to emphasize by their name that they disagree strongly with the Marxist-Leninist brand of socialism. What type of socialist is Bernie Sanders? Sanders refers to himself as a democratic socialist, but a more fitting term would be “New Deal socialist.” Although Sanders frequently points to Nordic countries when explaining how socialism can work, his desire is to expand and continue the American style of socialism advocated by Franklin Delano Roosevelt (whether FDR should be considered a socialist is debatable, but Sanders seems to think he was—at least…

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