(05-14-2020, 05:08 PM)mikesez Wrote:

(05-14-2020, 03:00 PM)TJBender Wrote: 1. The best way I've seen the line drawn between socialism and communism is this: "Is a military presence required to maintain socialism? Then it's called communism." Obviously there are a lot of smaller qualifiers in there, but the basic gist of it holds up. If your "socialist" government would be removed from office without a strong military presence keeping it there, then it's not really socialism at all. You can get deeper into the rabbit hole from there, and it's a deep one to crawl down.

2 (and 3). I really think Sanders just doesn't care about the difference. He decided long ago that "democratic socialist" sounded better and went with that.

4. Or this. President AOC seems almost inevitable at some point, much like how Obama was essentially anointed to the role. That's as much because of her celebrity status as it is her being one of only a few people in the Democratic Party that actually have a vision about where they want it to go. If Sanders does want to see a socialist nation, then nudging AOC and her group further on down that line would make sense, now that his own political career has reached its end. AOC turns 35 in 2024. Just saying, if I knew she was coming on down the line and I needed a patsy who wouldn't cost me downline votes while losing with grace, Biden would be on my short list.

We need a military to sustain the system we have today in FL and in the US.  There would be big problems if suddenly our leaders said, "We will never call the military or the police to calm stuff down".

Ok, let me rephrase for those who need it spelled out explicitly:

If your socialist government is in place only because a military machine is required to keep it there by way of intimidating citizens into never engaging in any legitimate activity that threatens to remove it (like voting or speaking openly against it), then your government is no longer socialist. In a socialist government, there is still choice, and the military exists primarily for dealing with foreign threats. In a communist government (leaning on my own education here, haven't watched Last42min's video yet), the key function of the military is to serve as a tool of intimidation used to ensure that the ruling party never leaves power.

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