I remember when Bernie Sanders was first elected to Congress in 1990 explicitly as a socialist, Tom Bethell wondered in The American Spectator how we would tell the difference between Sanders and the Democrats, with whom he decided to caucus.
Now that Sanders is planning to run for the Senate as a Democrat, todays Wall Street Journal editorial page points us to a remark of Howard Dean in his recent interview with Tim Russert, who asked Dean if there was room in the Democratic party for a socialist.
Dean: "Hes not a socialist really. . . He is basically a liberal Democrat."
Game, set, and match to Bethell.
I get the strong impression that Howie and Bernie would welcome Stalinism lite...just no killing. At least not at first. Once they realized that such a socialist program requires quite a bit of force, they would have an epiphany and turn either to the Right or fall deeper under the spell of the totalitarian Left. Until theyve experienced real dysutopia, they will continue to speak like fools.