Free Republic

Bernie comes with baggage, and the American public rejected him. Looking at how his campaign is awash in money, however, indicates socialism is not going away. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders likes to say his political ideology never changed. In his case, consistency is not a positive.Over the course of decades in public life, Sanders has made multiple statements praising and apologizing for socialism all over the world. Here are a sampling, as well as explanations for why he’s dangerously wrong.1. Bread Lines Are Great “It’s funny sometimes American journalists talk about how bad a country is because people are...

This week, fading presidential aspirant Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) boasted of receiving half of a low-income supporter's total wealth to carry on her fight for the nomination. The "half" consisted of $3 out of a net worth of $6. To many it seemed a callous act to take so much from someone who had so little. Warren didn't see it that way. "In a way, it's like buying a lottery ticket," she contended. "If I'm elected I'm going to cancel her college debt. That's thousands of dollars in return for her $3 donation." "It's also a model for the kind...

Leftists love the concept of “reeducating” the public, the idea that we, the great unwashed, are too simpleminded to understand both complex issues of policy and what is best for ourselves in our own lives. (See this Bernie Sanders campaign employee advocating Gulags and reeducation camps for conservatives.) They have the answers, we’re just too stupid to allow them to impose those solutions. It’s the cornerstone of the progressive political philosophy – our moral and intellectual betters need to be empowered to shape our lives so they can make the world a better place. Hitler believed this, as did Stalin,...

Last week, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex) proposed a four-page Personalized Care Act that would replace the 955-page Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). The gist of this legislation would be to put individuals in charge of their own health care choices. Unlike Obamacare, individuals would be permitted to choose coverage more suitable to their needs instead of being forced to buy coverage for procedures they don't need. Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass) blasted Cruz's proposal. Sanders called it "entirely antithetical to the concept of the common good. Individuals will selfishly buy only the coverage they...

When communism collapsed across Eastern Europe in 1989, the process was swift and surprisingly peaceful. Decades of terror and tyranny came to a sudden end with hardly a shot fired: governments stepped down, borders opened, walls fell. One country, however, proved to be the exception. Thirty years ago this week, citizens of Romania were being killed by the hundreds as they took to the streets to demand liberty from their brutal communist regime. Unrest that had begun December 16 in the southwestern city of TimiÅŸoara soon spread throughout Romania, fueled by the news that protesters were being gunned down by...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) dismissed complaints that the "medicare for all" plan she supports would eliminate freedom to choose one's own doctor. "The so-called freedom the Republicans are trying to force on everyone is actually an unwanted burden for most people," she contended. "Few people know enough to choose wisely. Eliminating the need to choose as the universal medicare for all that Sen Sanders proposes and I support delivers a much more valuable freedom from responsibility. Letting government experts determine who should receive what treatment and from which doctor will lead to better results than relying on ignorant and hapless...

Give your opinion on socialism. Socialism appears to be on the rise in our country, especially among the young, and we want to understand the extent of that support. That’s why you have been selected by Hillsdale College to represent your state in a National Survey on Socialism. With your response, you will help Hillsdale College more clearly understand the views of mainstream Americans—views that we will make available to policymakers and opinion leaders. Every month, Hillsdale College is reaching millions of Americans with educational outreach. Your response to this National Survey on Socialism is essential in helping us form...

New York – -(AmmoLand.com)- The Radical New Progressive Left abhors guns as much from an aesthetic standpoint as from a political, social, and ethical one. Thus, they never fail to use a particularly tragic albeit rare instance of misuse of a firearm by the criminal and the occasional lunatic to denounce firearms ownership and possession generally, vociferously, and this is reflected in the question they ask and the manner in which they ask it: How can society protect itself from the “scourge” of guns? You will note that their professed concern is that of society, of the Collective, the Hive,...

Democratic presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt) praised the Chinese government for making "more progress in addressing extreme poverty than any country in the history of civilization. While it is unfortunate that millions had to die in order to achieve these results, we shouldn't let bourgeois prejudices totally blind us to the positive aspects of their accomplishments. Sometimes harsh methods are required to do hard tasks." "If a country as backward as China was decides to sacrifice tens of millions of people now so that hundreds of millions may prosper later, can we really say that a wrong has been...

Welcome to Captive Nations Week. Never heard of it? You’re not alone. Yet this usually-forgotten, federally mandated occasion — now in its 60th year — is worth resurrecting in the 21st century. Congress created Captive Nations Week in 1959, making the third week in July a time to show Americans’ solidarity with the nations dominated by communism. The original law listed 22 captive nations, most of which had substantial communities of citizens in major American cities. After the law’s passage, these communities began to hold parades and rallies every year, from Miami to New York to Los Angeles to Chicago...

Jennifer Zeng grew up admiring the Communist Party of China and adhering to its stringent rules. But her life changed forever when she embraced religion and was swept up in a government crackdown on Falun Gong. Arrested four times as a young adult and held in as a prisoner in a labor camp, she quickly woke up to the horrors of living in a socialist state. After being subject to brutal torture, Zeng managed to escape China and now tells about the evils of socialism and communism. At a time when more Americans are embracing Karl Marx’s teachings, Chris Wright...

A recent poll showing that 70% of Russians approve of former dictator Josef Stalin's role in history was warmly greeted by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) as "proof that socialism is the type of government that the people want. If he were the kind of brutal tyrant that the enemies of socialism claim he was why do the people love him so much?" "A majority of Russians now believe that the millions of people he had tortured and killed was justified," the Congresswoman also pointed out. "He was trying to save his nation from individualistic greed and transform it into a...

U.S. District Judge John Bates ruled against a Trump Administration policy that permits small businesses to join health care associations in order to gain some of the same economies of scale available to larger corporations. “The premise of this policy that these businesses ought to be able to decide what kind of coverage they want to purchase violates the Obamacare requirement that all must purchase the coverage dictated by the federal government,” Bates said. “Complaints that the mandated coverage is unnecessary and too expensive are irrelevant. It is not for private sector firms or individuals to decide what they want...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is ready to tax the rich to make her Green New Deal a reality. “People are going to have to start paying their fair share in taxes,” the recently elected New York Democrat told TV show “60 Minutes” in an interview set to air Sunday. Speaking of prior decades’ taxation rates in the country, Ocasio-Cortez added, “Once you get to the tippy tops, on your 10 millionth dollar, sometimes you see tax rates as high as 60 or 70 percent.” It shouldn’t be a surprise that the avowed “democratic socialist” went with the predictable “tax the rich”...

"In Havana, some of the same architectural gems that draw tens of thousands of American tourists crash to the ground every year. Causes range from weather and neglect to faulty renovations and theft of structural beams."

A study by Mark Perry, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and professor of economics and finance at the University of Michigan, should give pause to advocates of democratic socialism in the United States. According to the study, the more socialistic economic policies of western European countries has both retarded output and boosted the cost of living. The index of average individual consumption for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is set at 100. Inhabitants in nations falling below this mark can afford less than the average European. Inhabitants in nations exceeding this mark can afford more. The...

Buoyed by the electoral success of so many democratic socialists in the recently concluded mid-terms, New York City Mayor Bill deBlasio wondered "if now is the time to implement the socialist ideal of total government control over all property. I think people all over this city, of every background, would like to have the city government determine which building goes where, how high it will be, who gets to live in it, and what the rent will be." "The current situation which requires people to take responsibility for where they live is socially unjust," the Mayor argued. "Why should some...

Socialism is on the march! It’s just that nobody quite knows what it is. A Gallup poll in August found that 57 percent of Democrats said they view socialism positively, while only 47 percent had a favorable view of capitalism. Only 16 percent of Republicans thought well of socialism. Findings like this—along with other polls showing socialism’s support among millennials generally as well as the sudden celebrity of avowed socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez after her stunning defeat of fourth-ranked Democratic House leader Joseph Crowley in a New York primary—have invited waves of op-eds crashing across the waterfront: What is socialism? Why...

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, upset winner over ten-term Democratic incumbent Joe Crowley in New York's 14th congressional district, touted her progressive democratic-socialism as "the wave of the future. Capitalism is a fleeting phenomenon. Its fundamentally unfair distribution of wealth will be replaced by a democratic reallocation in the not too distant future." "The notion that individuals should be free to exploit their abilities and efforts for personal enrichment without being required to share the benefits with those less able or willing to work as hard is socially unjust," she argued. "Marx recognized this. That's why he designed a system calling for a...

Venezuela has begun to proactively shut-in oil production to cope with nearly replete terminal storage. This will further accelerate an output decline and bring them closer to 1 million barrels per day or even less. According to energy ministry official data communicated to Opec, Venezuela produced 1.533mn b/d of crude in May, up by 28,000 b/d from 1.505mn b/d in April. However, this May statistic was a lie. Average production cited by secondary sources published by Opec report Venezuela’s May output at 1.392mn b/d, down by 42,500 b/d from 1.434mn b/d in April. Argus estimates May production at around 1.45mn...