Promises on the 2020 Democratic primary stage of “Medicare for all” and corporate breakups are raising fears in party circles that the push toward socialism will lead to a huge voter backlash, especially as President Trump attacks it with increasing vigor, Sen. Rand Paul told us.
The Kentucky Republican, whose new book, The Case Against Socialism, debuts Oct. 15, said that Democratic leaders are increasingly worried about pitches being made by “Democratic socialists” in Congress and on the campaign trail.
“If you look at all the presidential Democratic candidates, they are falling over themselves to get farther to the left. But farther to the left is emulating [Sen.] Bernie Sanders and AOC [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] and emulating people who are proud of the label ‘Democratic Socialist.’ We’ve never had a time like this,” said Paul.
“That’s what they are moving towards, a socialist platform. And I think they will be sorry. And I’ve talked to [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer about this and I think he in some ways is probably worried about their platform become the platform of the Democratic socialist because I think they realize that America is not there,” he added.
And even if Sanders loses the Democratic nomination, as Paul predicted, it is likely that surging Sen. Elizabeth Warren will move forward with his policies, many of which she’s endorsed.
Paul’s new book is a well-researched history of socialism adopted by many of the world’s worst, from Adolf Hitler to Hugo Chavez. It is also a dismissal of characterizations by Sanders and other liberal advocates that the Nordic nations Americans envy are socialist.
? NEW from @RandPaul: “Experience is the best teacher — But that’s not how I want my kids to learn about socialism.” #ampFW via @FoxBusiness https://t.co/iNf6xnJh4q
— FreedomWorks (@FreedomWorks) October 6, 2019
“It has to be re-stated again and again. Every generation has to be informed of the debate of liberty over socialism,” said Paul.
Now more than ever. Despite Trump’s State of the Union Address that the nation will never adopt socialism, big blocks of Americans, especially youths, believe it the best form of government.
In the book, written with his wife Kelley Ashby Paul, the senator cited several surveys that found Americans don’t know the definition of socialism, that it controls the means of production, distribution, and exchange of goods.
Worse, he said, many turn a blind eye to the current disasters in socialistic nations, including Venezuela, especially when they hear Sanders and others offer positive spin.
“They sort of excuse socialism and say, ‘Oh, well, these are just accidents of history that we ended up with these genocides or these totalitarian regimes.’ But it keeps happening over and over again and how we have another generation saying, ‘Well, I guess if it’s Democratic socialism, and a majority votes for it, it’s going to be a lot different and better and we won’t have the terrible things that happened in the past,’” said the senator.
In the book published by Broadside Books, part of HarperCollins, Paul also takes several swipes at the media and its failure to explain the costs and impacts of the socialistic programs proposed by Sanders, Warren, and others fighting it out in the Democratic primaries.
“Since Trump’s election, I have seen an increase in media bias,” he wrote.
And often, he added, he has been the victim, such as when he was described as meeting with a “Russian spy” when shown talking to the former Russian ambassador.
Or when the Washington Post fact-checker gave him “four Pinocchios for saying that I respected Eisenhower’s warning that small wars could lead to big wars.” Paul wrote, “I have never quite understood how one could be caught ‘lying’ about his own opinion.”
