What is democratic socialism?

Bernie Sanders, a socialist, has achieved quite a following in the race for the Democratic nomination for president. How many of his followers really know what he stands for?

There was a telling moment in the first Democratic presidential debate in which Anderson Cooper tried to pin him down. It took several tries, but Cooper finally backed him into a corner when he said, "You don't consider yourself a capitalist, though?"

Sanders' final answer to that simple question was, "No, I don't."

Sanders calls himself a democratic socialist – so what exactly is that?

A trip to the Democratic Socialist of America's website, www.dsausa.org, will help put things in perspective. However, once there, you have to wade through a lot of verbiage to get to the bottom line.

Here are the essentials:

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is the largest socialist organization in the United States and the principal U.S. affiliate of the Socialist International. (About DSA)
We are socialists because we reject an economic order based on private profit.(Constitution: Purpose)
We are activists committed to democracy as not simply one of our political values but our means of restructuring society. (About DSA)

So there you have it.

There are two basic economic systems at work in the world today: 1) The free market (private enterprise), better known as capitalism, and 2) socialism.

In the free market or capitalist system, individuals own property. Individuals also own the means of production and set the price for their goods and services.

In the socialist system, everything is owned collectively by the government. The government also owns the means of production and controls the distribution.

The important questions for your to consider are these: In which of these two economic systems are the people free? And, are you really willing to give up your freedom for free stuff?

There are two ways a capitalism system becomes a socialist or communist system:

By revolution;
It simply creeps in over time.

This famous quote by Alexander Fraser Tytler sums it up.

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship."

In reality, it is hard to find a pure capitalist or socialist system in the world today. Most capitalist systems have at least some socialist programs, and socialism often gives way to communism or a dictatorship. The average life of a democracy is about 200 years.

Our Founding Fathers wisely left the power in the hands of the people, where the government had very little control. Over the years, that has changed.

You have to hand it to Sanders. He is more honest than most of his Democratic counterparts. He wants to dismantle our capitalism system, not by a revolution, but gradually through the ballot box: thus the term "democratic socialism."

During the debate, Hillary Clinton offered these weak statements in defense of capitalism: "I don't think we should confuse what we have to do every so often in America, which is save capitalism from itself. … And it's our job to rein in the excesses of capitalism so that it doesn't run amok and doesn't cause the kind of inequities we're seeing in our economic system."

The political arm of the DSA is the congressional Progressive Caucus. Until 1999, it was part the DSA with Nancy Pelosi listed as a prominent member of the executive committee. However, once it was exposed, the caucus disappeared from dsausa.org and reappeared (minus Pelosi who was speaker of the House from 2007 to 2011) as an official arm of the House Democratic caucus. Presently, besides Sen. Sanders, there are 69 other declared progressive (socialist) Democrats, all in the House of Representatives, all in safe seats.

Don't underestimate their collective power. When Democrats last controlled the House, of the 20 standing committees, 10 of the most important were chaired by these progressives.

Make no mistake: Democracy and socialism cannot be combined. It's like trying to mix oil and water. Socialists believe that man can be perfected. Therefore, an all powerful government must be established until man no longer is capable of evil and utopia is reached.

A democracy is based on the idea that we are created equal but imperfect. Perfection is the business of God. Therefore, this country has laws, checks and balances to protect us from each other and the government.

Are you really willing to change that?

Media wishing to interview Jane Chastain, please contact [email protected].