"America Has a Long and Storied Socialist Tradition. DSA Is Reviving It."

[DFW]

90. While I like John on a personal basis

And I respect his rhetorical prowess as nothing short of formidable, I also talked with him quite a bit about the upcoming campaign in 2015, and he seemed to think Sanders was the new messiah and could utter no wrong.

I have seen and lived next door to regimes that have called themselves "socialist" in one form or another. There was the "Socialist Unity Party" of the former East Germany, which later changed their name to "Party of Democratic Socialism." These were the people who unapologetically shot people at the Berlin Wall. Lovely characters. I visited East Germany while they were in power. Soldiers patrolling the cities doing the old Nazi goose stepping. Very quaint.

Then there were the milder forms of socialism as practiced under France's two socialist presidents, Mitterand and Hollande. They both drove France's economy downward, instituted terror raids on middle class small businesses with a goal of "don't come back without having found some grounds to fine them."

This IS what happens when Socialists gain power. It heads in the direction of absolute power, and it DOES corrupt absolutely, just as it does under a Trump regime. I put forth no theories, just personal observations. The angrier the rhetoric, whether Trump or Corbyn or Honecker, the worse I think people will regret their leader--those that open their eyes, anyway.

I'm all ears to new ideas, but not empty rhetoric. Everywhere I have been where the ruling party has endorsed some kind of "socialism," it has turned out badly for the governed (those governing did just fine of course--everyone has read "Animal Farm" and knows the script). Unions are a force for good when they function as intended: George Meaney, not Jimmy Hoffa. But in practice, socialism never ends up as democratic, and I think it is exaggerated optimism to think this will change.