Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders wants you to know that he’s a socialist, but a new kind of socialist — not like those commies who murdered people en masse in Mao’s China and the Soviet Union. No, that was totally different. Bernie Sanders socialism is just like Norway’s socialism, where everyone is happy and there are triple rainbows over Oslo every Friday. Just like that.
Ignore the fact that Norway’s left-wing politicians don’t describe the country as socialist. Ignore the fact that Denmark made a point to clarify that the nordic model is based on free market capitalism, and that Scandinavia has actually moved to the right over the past few decades. Also, you must, must, must ignore that Sanders famously honeymooned in the Soviet Union, and described the breadlines there and in South America as a “good thing.”
There is only one kind of socialism — the kind that strips away economic liberties, and requires an authoritarian government to exist. Without the strong arm of the state, people rebel against socialism. As it turns out, people don’t like starving to death, or having their friends and relatives stolen away for carrying “counter-revolutionary” ideas. Socialism is terrible, and most people recognize that when they actually have to live with it.
So, here it is: a rare moment of honest from the Sanders campaign.
