Democratic Socialism

Vincent J. Curtis

29 Apr 2019

Bernie Sanders, one of the two leading candidates for the Democrat party nomination for the 2020 presidential election, describes himself as a “democratic socialist.”  But is it possible for a socialist to truly believe in democracy?

The evidence and the reasoning point at no.  Sanders can’t truly believe in both because socialism takes priority.

With Sanders, socialism is a one-way street.  Once socialism is chosen by democratic means, democratic means cannot be used to reverse the decision.  Socialism is justified on a moral basis, on the basis that it is a just system as capitalism is not.  Once a morally just system is adopted, how can it be reasonable to change to an unjust system?  The people would have to be deluded to choose a system that was unjust to them, and it would be unfathomable for them to wish to revert to the unjust system after they had chosen Utopia.  Hence, a democratic decision to abolish socialism must be illegitimate in the eyes of a socialist.  Democracy in that regard cannot be right.

One can also see it in the name, “democratic socialist.”  The genus is socialism while the differentia is democratic.  Democracy is permitted within the context of socialism, only so long as socialism is not questioned.

Look at what his happening in Venezuela.  Sanders – the man of the people – is standing by the Maduro regime in the face of a popular revolution because Maduro is a socialist who supports the regimes in Cuba and Nicaragua.

The moral aspect of socialism renders the modifier democratic fundamentally meaningless.

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