HILL: Be an American socialist rather than seem like one

FILE - In this Feb. 10, 2020 file photo, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., accompanied by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., left, takes the stage at campaign stop at the Whittemore Center Arena at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, N.H. Choosing a presidential candidate based primarily on loathing the alternative is not the strongest of electoral strategies. That's why leaders of the progressive movement say many Americans who were enthralled by Bernie Sanders and his slogan of “Not Me. Us,” won’t be as likely to settle for Joe Biden. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

There is hardly anyone in America who is a true dyed-in-the-wool socialist. They may talk as if they believe America would be better off if it became socialist but very few actually act out their lives on a daily basis as if they were socialists. 

Even Bernie Sanders does not live like a socialist. He owns three pretty nice homes, two in Vermont and one in Washington, DC and is reported to be worth at least $2 million. Why hasn’t he, of all people, given all his wealth to people more in need and lived in an abandoned bus somewhere if he truly believed in the tenets of pure socialism? 

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None of the socialist apologists I have ever met live in communes or public housing administered by the state. Many of the super wealthiest among them live in gated communities and have three, four, maybe five homes which they can visit on their private jets. Younger “socialists-in-name-only” (SINO) live in nice apartments until they can afford the down payment to buy their first starter home which they hope, with a lot of historic evidence to support their dream, will lead to selling that house at a higher price in a few years so they can afford a bigger, nicer house in a neighborhood with great public schools and safe streets. 

They take every possible deduction on their income taxes ― just like their capitalist parents do. They don’t have to, of course ― a true socialist would reject deducting anything from their taxes and would willingly pay the taxes assigned to them by their supposedly “enlightened” elected leaders who know so much better what to do with their money than they do. 

True socialists would abhor living in any sort of luxury. It would be anathema to their code of ethics to live such a bourgeoise existence when so many proletarian people live in poverty around them. Karl Marx, the author of Das Kapital and the patron saint for all things socialist ― and worse, communist ― in world history, didn’t bathe for months, caroused at bars all night and crashed at his mother’s home before even she had enough and kicked him out of the house for good. 

At least Marx was honest about his life. He wanted to live as he so chose and have someone else ― his mama ― pay for his food and shelter while he produced nothing of commercial worth. 

People who “love socialism” want everyone else to be forced to accept it and pay for it ― but not themselves. The moment it becomes apparent that they will have to pay over half their income in taxes and 25% value-added tax (VAT) on every purchase which many Europeans have to pay to support their socialist states, they will end their love affair with socialism. 

When young adults stop talking about “equality” and “equity” for everyone else, and sell their expensive homes and cars; take their children out of private schools and put them in local public schools nearby; go to community health centers instead of their chosen doctor and specialist physicians and move to shacks and tents powered by solar and wind power, then everyone will know they are serious about America becoming a socialist nation. 

The very definition of being an American means people want the chance to improve their lives through free enterprise and low taxes. Millions of people from all over the world have applied for US citizenship to escape the soul-draining aspects of socialism ― or worse, dictators and communism ― and they want to get out of their home countries as fast as possible. 

North Carolina’s motto is “To be rather than to seem”. If a person wants America to become a socialist nation, they should at least have the decency to live like one first.