Herman Cain: There's No Such Thing as "Democratic" Socialism

Bernie Sanders would have you believe that he is not like the socialists who have ruined Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and – going back a few years – all of Eastern Europe.

Oh sure, he agrees with many of their economic ideas, but don’t worry. He’s a democratic socialist, and that’s different.

But it’s not, because democratic socialism doesn’t exist. That’s because it can’t exist, because socialism can’t take hold in a truly democratic system.

In order for socialism to “work,” the state has to take control of major industries like health care, energy and manufacturing. It has to confiscate massive amounts of private wealth. It has to control the means of production and distribution. It has to control wages and prices. It has to monopolize things like higher education.

That can’t work in a democratic environment because people might run for office who think these things should be controlled by the private sector. Or they might think taxes should be cut. Or they might think the power of the federal government should be limited to what the Constitution says.

People like this might get elected, and they might do what they believe should be done. They might privatize the industries, cut the taxes, limit the government. They might make people go out and earn what they need rather than just giving it to them.

Candidates like this will be called “demagogues” by socialist overlords and their media cheerleaders, but they are only advocating for the system that made America the world’s most prosperous nation over the course of more than two decades. Many voters will find their message appealing. They might actually gain power.

And if they do, socialism is history. In fact, given the inevitable failure that socialism produces, this scenario is inevitable in any country that tries socialism and maintains democratic institutions. As soon as the voters have the opportunity to elect new leaders who will get rid of socialist laws and institutions, they will do it.

That is why socialists always establish systems in which their socialism can’t be taken down. They either put an end to free elections or they write the laws in such a way that they’re impossible to repeal even when new leadership comes to power.

Consider the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was created through a law written by Elizabeth Warren. The CFPB has unprecedented power to sue and investigate banks and private companies. During the Obama administration, it was allowed to run wild. But Warren wrote the enabling law in such a way that Congress can’t cut its funding, which comes directly from the Federal Reserve.

She also wrote it to make it almost impossible for a president to fire the director. Indeed, when Obama-appointed director Richard Cordray stepped down several months into the Trump administration, he actually tried to name his own replacement.

That didn’t work, but it took a court battle to stop it.

This is the sort of thing socialists do all the time to make sure they don’t lose power, no matter what happens in elections, assuming elections are even allowed to happen. They will burrow into the bureaucracy. They will find friendly judges to overrule duly elected officials or the people.

Socialists never give up an inch of power once they attain it, which makes “democracy” meaningless in a socialist system.

There are no democratic socialists. You are either democratic, or you’re a socialist.

Bernie Sanders is a socialist, and if he’s given power, he and his socialist allies will never give it up.

So don’t give it to him.