I’m concerned about the tone:
Earlier in his speech, [Sen. Rand] Paul explained his habit of linking [Sen. Bernie] Sanders to mass exterminations carried out by socialist regimes throughout history.
“People say: ‘Oh, you’re saying that Bernie Sanders is Pol Pot.’ No, I’m saying that he’s embracing the same philosophy of socialism that lead ultimately to the extermination of people,” Paul explained.
“Stalin killed tens of millions of people,” he continued. “They say, ‘Well, Bernie’s not gonna do that.’ Probably not.”
Here’s a little refresher on Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge, an organization, like ISIS, that owed its very existence in large part to the disruption caused by a Texan who wanted to prove he had brass balls.
The organization is remembered especially for orchestrating the Cambodian genocide, which resulted from the enforcement of its social engineering policies. Its attempts at agricultural reform led to widespread famine, while its insistence on absolute self-sufficiency, even in the supply of medicine, led to the death of thousands from treatable diseases such as malaria. Arbitrary executions and torture carried out by its cadres against perceived subversive elements, or during purges of its own ranks between 1975 and 1978, are considered to have constituted genocide.
Look, by the standard that Rand Paul set up, I don’t have to be fair or even make much sense, so I’ll just point out that demanding “absolute self-sufficiency” is a libertarian thing that Pol Pot probably borrowed from the Austrian School. You know, if you can’t figure out how to get some quinine, that’s just too goddamned bad. Now you’re dead. Ha ha!
Or maybe it’s a government policy based on some pretty extreme xenophobia, which is kind of like refusing to offer sanctuary for war refugees because they could be super secret terrorists, and that remote prospect makes your head hurt and your bladder weak.
Either way, you most definitely do not have a right to pants, or shoes, or even water. You have a right to wish you were happy, and that’s gonna have to be good enough.
And capitalism leads to rampant idiocy. See: Republican clown car.
Gee, it’s the old “National Socialism is the same as Democratic Socialism; Bernie Sanders is the Adolf Hitler” stuff. Nuance is not possible on the right, it appears, nor is clarity. It’s political dialog by throwing sand in the eyes of the voters.
Heh, you said “socialism.”
Yep they are a bunch of lost sailor’s
Your historical understanding is off.
John Pilger was there and still remembers: From Pol Pot to ISIS: the Blood Never Dried
Nixon/Kissinger thwarted the Paris Peace Talks in 1968. The formal bombing of Cambodia was in May 1970 — it was what many of us were protesting against including students at Kent State and Jackson State.
Actually, it’s Bernie sanders is Josef Stalin. Like the Dean scream it’s untrue, but it will be his Achilles Heel. In the eyes of a majority of the voters Socialist == Communist.
Actually, it will be a problem for Bernie. Not so much with the Democratic base, who have no problem with the term. In the general, if Bernie gets the nomination, it will be a difficult issue.
That’s what I said!
Perhaps it’s high time that Democrats, liberals, and lefties stop acting like cowards whenever the right manufactures and promulgates lies, disinformation, and fear.
That Rand Paul is one sharp cookie. First he goes to Howard University to explain to all those dumb blacks that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. Now he wants to debate Bernie Sanders, and his big gotcha is that Nazi was short for National Socialism. I bet he thinks Bernie doesn’t know this and will simply go slack-jawed.
And remember, folks: he’s the intellectual in that crowd.
… that capitalism has caused?
If Pol Pot or Stalin had privatized, and hired a good PR firm and a few lobbyists, nobody would remember the dead. And their business models would be studied at Harvard.
The Nazis jailed communists, socialists, and gays. They made Unions illegal. Nazis also expanded gun ownership, and allowed the largest corporations to profit alongside the government. Nazis were very religious, and even wore a fashionable belt that claims that God was with them (Gott mit uns).
Electing a Republican is like electing the Nazis.
Rand: “That may be true, you pointy-headed elitist—but they called themselves socialists, that’s all I’m saying! And all you need to know!” (wild applause)
As imbeciles, Rightwing Americans are certain that Nazism was a movement of the German left…Boss Rushbo told ’em so!
Oh, I’ve listened to them in person.
National SOCIALISM!!! It’s right there in the words!
Never mind the actual policy or anything.
Stupid people are awesome at being stupid.
It’s obnoxious, but it’s also a reminder of why it’s safe to ignore Rand Paul. More than anything, it’s a fundamentally lazy argument, just as Rand Paul is a fundamentally shallow and lazy man. Too lazy to be any kind of real threat.
I don’t like, “… Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge, an organization, like ISIS, that owed its very existence in large part to the disruption caused by a Texan who wanted to prove he had brass balls.” It seems to be blaming the secret bombing of Laos and Cambodia on LBJ. Now, LBJ deserves a lot of blame, and, yes, he escalated to war that Nixon later expanded to Cambodia (Laos was very complicated), but it was Nixon’s bombing that was more the proximate cause of the Khmer Rouge.