Promoting socialism is like giving candy to little kids (and just as dangerous for the kids)

Lenin posterYesterday, John Hinderaker asked “Can the Democrats Mainstream Socialism?”  After all, Bernie is proudly stating that he is a Democratic Socialist (which we hope is different from a National Socialist, although he seems just as intent upon controlling all citizens within his realm).  It’s not just Bernie, though.  Hinderaker looks  at Democrat party pushes for socialism, coupled with scary numbers about Americans’ receptivity to this doctrine.

What any logical, intelligent, educated person will do, is point to the fact that socialism, since it first reared its head during the French Revolution, and then later as Marx refined it, has been a failure everywhere it’s been tried.  As best, it’s bankrupted nations, as it’s doing with Europe; at worst, it’s resulted in blood-soaked domestic tyrannies that often sought to spread their loathsome tentacles throughout other lands, a death-ravaged tale that traverses the world from the former USSR, to Italy, to Germany, to China, to North Korea, to Vietnam, to Cuba, etc., etc., etc.

I was bemoaning to a friend the fact that Americans seem incapable of learning from history.  Of course, a lot of young Americans who are products of modern American education don’t know history or, if they do know history, it’s a version that would make Marx proud.  I’ve already suffered through one child getting an AP US History education and am now valiantly combating the dreck that’s being visited on my second child.

But even people who ought to know better — the ones who still managed to catch the rag-tag end of a decent education before the 1980s or so — are drawn like moths to a flame when they hear the word “free.”  “Free education!” “Free healthcare!” “Free retirement care!”  They can’t seem to stop themselves.  They hear the sound and every rational thought flees their brain.

I realized today what this phenomenon reminds me of.  It reminds me of this scenario:

Mother:  Okay, Sweetie.  Now that you’re five and Daddy and I are letting you play in front of the house with your friends, you need to remember what Daddy and I have always told you:  Never take candy from a stranger.

Little Girl:  Okay, Mama.

Mother:  This is really important.  Some strangers are bad people, and they might try to hurt you or take you away from us by giving you or promising to give you candy.  So what did I just say, Sweetie?

Little Girl:  That I should never take candy from bad people.

Mother:  That’s almost right.  What I said was never take candy from anyone you don’t know.  You can only take candy from someone in your family, or one of your friends at school or in their neighborhood, or from the parents of those friends, or from a teacher you know at your school.  Otherwise, never take candy from a stranger!

Little Girl:  Okay, Mama, I pwomise. I won’t ever take candy fwom a stwanger.

Later that same day:

Sinister Stranger In A White Van:  Hey, little girl!  Do you want some nice candy?  I’ve got chocolate.

Little Girl:  Chocolate?

Sinister Stranger:  Yeah, chocolate.  And lollipops.  And ice cream.

Little Girl:  Are you a stwanger?  My Mama told me never to take candy fwom a stwanger?

Sinister Stranger:  No, I’m not a stranger.  I’m a friend, because I want to give you candy.  Only friends give people candy.

Little Girl:  Oh.  Okay.  Can I have my candy now?

Sinister Stranger:  Well, I can give you a piece right now.  But I’ve got lots and lots of candy in my van.  If you get into my van, you can have all the candy that you want.

Little Girl:  Here I come.

By the way, in the real world, tragically, once that little girl gets into the stranger’s van, she’d better be found within the next hour or she will most likely be killed.  In the world of politics, once the voters yield to that smiling politician’s promise of “free stuff,” their economy will never be seen alive again, followed quickly by their national security, and personal freedom.