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Taxation is theft. Socialism is slavery. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

Bernie Sanders has spent his career publicly announcing and executing plans to steal large portions of cash from hardworking Americans in order to redistribute their money at his will to whomever he deems worthy of his sympathies. He calls this theft "high taxes."

Even more infuriatingly for me personally, he has paraded in front of the media endorsing the Communism / socialism that enslaved me and my family. He has made light of a most unethical, inhumane and enslaving government.

I was born in the USSR. Since demonic leaders like Sanders glorify the slavery that is socialism, let me refresh your information about the USSR through first-hand experience.

We waited in line for food, clothes, and whatever else the government was willing to sell to us on the backs of their trucks. You couldn’t choose what to buy, when, or how. You would take whatever was available and then trade later if you didn’t need it.

Food was rationed. Food was distributed in portions. Portions were computed based on ration coupons. You got the portion that the government chose to give you. We had to carefully guard the few ration coupons that were distributed to us by the government. Without those ration coupons, Without those ration coupons, we didn’t qualify for food.

We had to live in apartments distributed to families by the government. The apartments were rationed based on size of family. You didn’t get to choose your living quarters.

We could not speak against the government. It was jailable.

All people were afraid of one another, because the government would reward you if you snitched on your neighbor. In a desolate world, any reward seems magnificent, no matter the cost of incarceration of your neighbor. So we all had rugs hanging on our walls - to diminish the sounds of our voices. God forbid a neighbor would overhear you saying something they can report. It was unthinkable.

And speaking of - worship of any god was not allowed. Remember that line in the Bible when Jesus says, “I was dead, and now look, I am alive forever.” Well, my first grade Soviet text book opened up with a page that read, “Lenin lived. Lenin lives. Lenin will live forever.” That was your godly substitute. You had to worship accordingly.

Every month, my family was taken away from the city where we lived by government busses to a government farm to harvest potatoes. Because taking your money and your choices were not the only highlights of Communism. The government also participated in forced labor. Potato farming duties were ordered. You refuse, you go to jail.

Stores had empty shelves. This was my last memory - empty shelves. My father took me into an empty store to look at the empty shelves right before we left for America. He wanted me to look and to remember. He promised me that American will be different. I didn’t even know what that meant back then. Can you believe that?! Having been born and living through Communism, the ideas of plentiful or choice were inconceivable to me.

Sanders praised all of this. To him, socialism was great. So great, that he wants to bring it to America.

Bernie’s campaign slogan should be, “why should some be rich, when we can all be poor?” That was the USSR. That is what Sanders wants to curse upon the USA. And there are those who support him, tucking all of this away under the mis-termed label of “liberal.” Trust me, nothing about socialism is liberating.

Capitalism is liberating. Capitalism makes American great. Capitalism is what keeps people free and productive and innovative. It is the direct ideological opposite of socialism, which is a system of slavery, poverty and unproductiveness. That is why I love America and American capitalism - it liberated me and my family, who were held captive by the chains of socialism. Never again.

Sanders has been bringing socialism to America incrementally. Vermont senator race, various bills and proposals of working-class enslavement, socialized healthcare, the presidential race, and now public works. He wants these ideas to be mainstream.

Supply and demand? Pish-posh! That’s for the working class. Supply and supply, now that’s Bernienomics! But such a system is unprofitable, and where does the government get the money for such social works projects? Well … you. Those who work in the supply and demand world will be the ones who pay for Bernie’s utopian workforce. But is it your responsibility as an American worker to support your family, and also every family that the government decides you should support? No, that’s socialism.

Everything we get, outside of the free gifts of nature, must in some way be paid for. Every dollar that Bernie wants to give away comes from someone else - from a hardworking American. To create an unnecessary government work project means to take money away from someone who earned it. Henry Hazlitt has long ago explained the socialist evils of public works. Maybe it’s time to refresh our recollection of economics.

Look, socialism is despicable. Those who support publicly mandated theft, forced redistributions, and government enslavement of human beings are my ideological enemies. They are enemies of human rights. But their existence is important in differentiating values. Having people like Sanders supporting these unethical systems allow us to be more protective and more appreciative of the freedoms that we have. Every time his name is in the news, we should be motivated to fight against his ideologies and in favor of American capitalism.

America is supposed to be the enemy of socialism, not its ally.

Don’t let Sanders threaten your salary with more larcenous takings. Vote for people who believe that taxation is theft. Stand in the way of Sanders and other socialist goons. Protect the economic freedoms that make America great. Protect your hard-earned money from theft.