The Scariest Two-Word Combination in the English Language

Democratic Socialism. This should scare anyone in the free world. Let's get through a few metaphors about this two-word combination. "Democratic" in this case is a cloak to cover the dagger that is "Socialism".  Cloak-and-dagger is indeed what describes an insertion of ideology to destroy the free market system that is the foundation of capitalism. Democratic Socialism is dressing up the socialist wolf with sheep's democratic clothing. It is the virulent agent that will chip away at the health and well being of a country that for the last 250 years was able to withstand all sorts of infectious attacks from within and without. It is an ideological and serial philanderer that over decade after decade made many futile attempts since October 25, 1917 at the then capital city of Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) to  seduce society and governments and failed repeatedly but kept trying anyway. Today, its so-called "successes" can be summed up between the old USSR and Cuba and Venezuela and several others in between. And there's a list filled with horrific aftermaths of failed seductions. We'll get back to this later.

The slogans of Democratic Socialism were and are still the same siren songs that in Greek Mythology lured unwary sailors into heading their ships into the rocky shores of destruction.

Harsh metaphors? Perhaps but let's take a quick but discerning look into  what socialism had done in places from Europe, Asia and South America. The photos below show how incomprehensible it must have been that during the pre-collapse era in the late eighties into the final end of the old communist USSR in 1990, citizens of a military superpower lined up for hours everyday at grocery stores nation-wide and scenes even later showed a throng of people lining up at a McDonald's fast food restaurant.

Less than a year ago I wrote on July 21, 2025, "The Mamdanization of America". As much as I had hoped against it happening, the recent primary election in New York just marked the Mamdani effect when three socialist candidates the NY City mayor endorsed won, unseating even a popular incumbent Congressman.

One of the mayor's campaign promises was a "pledge to ultimately open five city-owned grocery stores—one in each of New York City’s five boroughs. His Administration is still examining locations for stores in Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island, and is encouraging property owners to recommend sites to the city online." Further, these will be a “network of city-owned grocery stores focused on keeping prices low, not making a profit". A totally insane rebuke of the economic system that exists today but how quickly people forget about the old Soviet Union.

Last November 16, 2025, I wrote, "New York City Voted, Was it Murder or Suicide?" where I quoted Ayn Rand:

“There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism—by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide.”

― Ayn Rand

Are the results of the latest NYC primary election the proverbial canary in the coal mine?

Not quite a national phenomenon yet but the fact that it is gaining traction, albeit slowly, presents a potential to influence the next generation.  A generation, say,  to develop within the next twenty five years which points to the year 2050.  Sounds familiar?  Four years ago, I wrote, "2050: The Ebb of the Tragic Trajectory of a Once Powerful Nation". 

I wrote then in discussing the two challenges that confront the nation then and today, "One is about conserving the ideals and belief systems of what brought this country its decisive success for over two centuries.  The other half is about liberally forging and fundamentally changing the country into something else.  Worse is the slow but almost penetrating allure of socialism". I warned about it in 2021, long before Mamdani was even a politician, nor was socialism even considered a worthy subject in U.S. politics.

One thing that is for certain though is the feel good effect of a promise.  The one doing the promise feels good about it and the prospective recipient of the promises is buoyed up by the thought. But let us not forget that it will take others to fulfill the promises and they may not be too happy with the whole idea.

I also wrote, "Anyone Can Promise You a Rainbow" on  01/22/2015, of the incumbent president then and his pledge to continue with his agenda.

The President lives in an island universe where the wealth of the people is represented by bowls of jelly beans.  There are a few big bowls and many smaller and even tinier bowls of jelly beans across the island universe.  The President wants some of the jelly beans from the bigger bowls to be moved to the smaller and tinier bowls even if only for one reason: That those with the big bowls can afford to give away some of their jelly beans.  Without adding a single jelly bean – the President does not create wealth – he wants to redistribute the jelly beans because that is best for the island universe.  Actually the main reason is this: Owners of the bowls of jelly beans, big and small, can cast only one vote each. The displeased owners of the big bowls are smaller in number while those with the smaller bowls are large. As any politician knows, one only has to get the approval of the many (the recipient of the redistributed jelly beans) and it is all right to get the ire of a few.

The above is the epitome of  the socialist politician's mantra of "Tax the rich". The socialist will promise a rainbow that seems to begin bright at one end; but it always terminates in despair at the other.

Read the quote below when Fidel Castro campaigned to oust the then Cuban president Batista.  

Fidel Castro's slogan against Batista was "History will absolve me."  Irony of ironies is that Cuba's government and economy today can only be described as a sad portrait of poverty in the midst of relative prosperity in the Caribbean and a stark contrast to the bright rendering of capitalism just ninety miles away across the straits of Florida, USA. 

History did not absolve him; instead, he made Cuba the poster child of the failure of communism. What was unforgivable was Castro's failure to realize that the country that exported communism to Cuba already failed in 1990 USSR.

The  Bolsheviks and Castro's revolutionaries fought against the monarchy of Tsarist Russia and Batista's oligarchy, respectively; only to replace those with  more repressive regimes, if not even more so, with unwavering brutality against the people in the name of reform.  Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge ravaged Cambodia's society for almost four years between 1975 and 1979. It was all aimed at creating an agrarian socialist society.  Cambodia is still struggling in the aftermath of a genocide perpetrated against close to two million people who died under Pol Pot's rule. But let us not forget that Stalin and Mao caused an even more devastating swath of persecution and death. Stalin's regime may have been responsible for the deaths of close to 9 million people while "Mao Zedong's policies, particularly during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, are estimated to have caused the deaths of approximately 45 million people".

All abject failures despite socialism's many attempts with new dresses, costumes and facelifts in different places around the world afterwards.  Just to name a few, let's mention a few countries with socialism's ruinous fingerprints: from Hungary to Yugoslavia to Czechoslovakia to East Germany to El Salvador to Argentina to Venezuela and Cuba's attempt to export the brand of social repression in the name of socialism even to places in Africa. 

How often do we hear the same chants today against oligarchy and the rich.  This prompted me to explain the phenomenon and aftermath of being allowed to continue in, "Mountains to Molehills", July 2018.  It was my way of explaining why there is a need for billionaires in a successful  free market system.

https://abreloth.blogspot.com/2018/07/mountains-to-molehills.html

America and the whole world must brace for what may come by understanding what the scariest two-word combination will ultimately mean.