The end for Bernie Sanders and the Democrats

The Editorial Board of the Washington Examiner says goodbye to Bernie Sanders.

Before ending his second run for president on Wednesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders was a beacon of false hope to those who lack any memory of socialism’s immense human cost.

He helped people believe, for a time, that there is a simple answer to all of life’s problems and that it resides in a powerful central government.

...the laboratory of history has tested socialism and found it wanting in almost every respect.

...Everywhere, it promised equality and delivered brutality. It promised to end slavery but instead universalized it. It promised to end colonialism but established puppet regimes on nearly every continent. It promised plenty and delivered scarcity. (By the way, senator, bread lines are the result of scarcity, not of fairness.) Socialism promised, as George Orwell eloquently put it, “better wages and shorter hours and nobody bossing you about.” Yet its legacy will forever be the many genocides and murderous misgovernance that would be impossible without a fanatical commitment to central planning.

This, incidentally, is why socialist governments must always censor information, even the internet, to the extent possible. The survival of socialism depends on keeping people mostly in the dark, unaware of the truth.

This is also the case with the “democratic socialism” Sanders preaches, which turns out to be something of a misnomer. It is no coincidence that every tin-pot communist dictatorship called itself a “democratic republic.” This makes more sense when you realize that dictatorship and democracy are perfectly compatible under socialism. To the socialist, “democracy” does not signify a popular right to vote or the right to choose a system of government or economy. In fact, socialism cannot ever allow such choices. Rather, for the socialist, the Greek-derived word “democratic” refers to the “empowerment” of “the people” through other means, such as forcible expropriation of others’ property and businesses and liberation from traditional institutions that supposedly oppress the people — you know, the family, culture, national identity, and religion. Only everything people hold dear.

In short, “democratic socialism” is not “democratic” the way normal people understand the word. "Democratic socialists" want to empower you, good and hard; no, you don’t get any say in the matter, and, when they are done, you will be so empowered and liberated that there probably won’t be any need or chance for more elections. For further details, ask a Venezuelan.

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