Unwelcome déjà vu: How ‘democratic socialism’ followed me to America
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Not all déjà vus entice the mind with the same allure. I discovered this unfortunate truth when I first witnessed U.S. politicians declare their support for “democratic socialism,” an archaic term of Soviet design that was used to repress millions of my fellow Russians for countless decades.

Indeed, when the battered wheels of our heavy aircraft first skimmed the runway of the Bush Intercontinental Airport years ago, I did not expect the virus of socialist oppression to greet me so shamelessly at the terminal.

The real genius of the American far-left, I have come to learn, consists entirely of its talent to pilfer the horrid mistakes of the Soviet past, and resell them as visions of a progressive future.

“All that socialism means to me, to be very frank with you, is democracy with a small ‘d’,” Bernie Sanders wrote in a 1986 issue of the Vermont Affairs. “I believe in democracy, and by democracy I mean that, to as great an extent as possible, human beings have the right to control their own lives. And that means that you cannot separate the political structure from the economic structure.”

Notably, Sanders’ vision of building democratic socialism in America has remained consistent over the years and somehow continues to represent a progressive, forward-thinking ideal of today’s Western intelligentsia.

The truth, however, is that democratic socialism is not an invention of a modern progressive movement. Socialism, after all, has always been fueled by a core democratic principle of majoritarianism and cannot survive without it.

The Soviet constitution of 1977, for example, mentions the word democracy seven times, and even claims that USSR is a society of “true democracy” where the 99 percent do, in fact, hold the power for the working class. The constitution also mentions phrases such as “socialist democracy,” clearly demonstrating that the term was not invented by Sanders or the Scandinavians.

There is also a sizable degree of confusion surrounding the meaning of the word “democracy.” Many Americans mistakenly consider the United States to be a democratic nation, despite the fact that the Constitution is filled with anti-democratic safeguards designed to suppress the impulse of radical majoritarianism.

Anyone vaguely familiar with the riveting prose of the Federalist Papers understands the precise sort of suspicion toward democracy that was voiced by the framers of the Constitution. What if the majority decided to suppress the minority and secure their grip on political power? What if a lone demagogue captivated the voters with empty promises of idiotic bliss in exchange for their liberty?

To protect from these and many other potential threats, the framers specifically designed a republican, not a democratic, form of Constitutional government. Sadly, this truth is frequently forgotten by the very citizens of this unique political experiment.

In addition to feeding on this collective amnesia, U.S. socialists frequently attempt to deflect libertarian and conservative criticism by cherry-picking which brand of socialism they like best. This rather convenient deflection takes two forms.

First, comparisons to the mankind’s largest socialist experiment are deemed extreme since Soviet Russia “perverted” true Marxism. Second, politicians such as Sanders point to the small, frequently European nations as the epitomes of socialist development worldwide.

The issue with the first deflection is that it is historically inaccurate. The Soviets were always loyal to communism and taught almost every relevant work that was ever written by Marx, with the exception of an arguably Russophobic “Secret diplomatic history of the eighteenth century.” Even Vladimir Lenin scoffed at critics who accused him of repression, denouncing their failure to comprehend “the most elementary principles of Marxism.”

The flaw in the second argument should be clear to anyone who successfully completed high school economics. Basing your nationwide policy on a European country that has fewer people than New York City is not only disproportionate but dishonest. After all, countries such as Denmark and Sweden are members of a larger economic confederacy that allows for internal social experimentation similarly to federalism in America.

After spending over half of my life living under a democratic socialist state and seeing my family members die due to statist policies, the last thing I want is for America to become infected with the same political condition that forced me to move to this country in the first place.

While America’s founding and political history remains exceptional, “the land of the free” is not exempt from the vices of human nature that have mercilessly betrayed other promising societies. As a brand new citizen of our constitutional republic, I urge my fellow countrymen to recognize this historical reality and defeat the forces of totalitarian oppression that have irreversibly corrupted and enslaved my former Russian compatriots.

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Source: Red Alert Politics