Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is taking a hammer to the brand of socialism espoused by his senatorial colleague and Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders.
The Republican candidate, who recently concluded a speaking tour at nine different college campuses in the earliest voting state of Iowa, told conservative radio personality Glenn Beck he tries to warn young voters of the perils of socialism.
“I’ve been trying to point out — I’m on a lot of college campuses, we have a big following on college campuses — there’s nothing sexy and there’s nothing cool about socialism,” Paul told Beck during an interview Monday.
Beck pointed to Sanders’ comments about “casino capitalism” during the first Democratic debate, and suggested the Vermont senator can “make a good case … about the way capitalism is immoral.”
“The problem though, is Bernie complains about crony capitalism and he kind of gets it right, but he equates it with all of capitalism and he promotes something called democratic socialism,” Paul explained.
“What that is, is the implied force that goes along with taking away your choice. Only the state tells you what you can do [and] it’s the most anti-choice economic system,” Paul said.
He continued, “If you don’t listen, they fine you. If you don’t pay the fine, they imprison you. If you will not listen, what has happened in history and people get mad at me when I say this — they exterminate you. That’s what happened under [former Soviet dictator Joseph] Stalin.”
“People say, ‘Oh no, [Sanders] wants democratic socialism.’ The problem is, a majority can be just as bad as one single authoritarian,” Paul added.
Sanders told NBC’s Matt Lauer Tuesday that Americans will be less reluctant to embrace socialism once they understand that “programs like Social Security, Medicare, [and] the National Park system … are publicly-owned programs.”
“I think once we get these issues out and talk about creating a government and programs that work for ordinary people rather than just the very wealthy, I think people will understand what we are talking about,” he said.
Paul, who’s risen to sixth place in the latest Washington Examiner presidential power rankings, arrived in Denver, Colo., Tuesday for a campaign rally ahead of the third Republican debate on Oct. 28.
