Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a campaign rally Monday, March 9, 2020, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Vermont Senator and “democratic socialist” Bernie Sanders won’t back down when it comes to his praise of brutal dictators, and after having defended them once before, has decided that one good turn deserves another.

While answering questions at a town hall on Fox News, Sanders was asked by host Bret Baier if he regrets praising communist dictator Fidel Castro, a moment that is believed to have hurt Sanders’ campaign. Sanders quickly said that he didn’t and explained himself.

“Do you regret at all saying what you said at that time in this race?’ Baier asked.

“No,” Sanders quickly responded. “Look, I have spent my entire life fighting for working people and fighting for democracy.”

“So if you look at a country like China, for example, is China a democracy? Of course, it’s not a democracy. It is an authoritarian country and Xi is taking it in a bad direction but what can we say about China in the last 50 years?” asked Sanders.

“Would anybody in their right mind deny that extreme poverty in China has been reduced? Can anyone deny that? Of course not,” Sanders added.

The trouble here is that you can’t praise the man without praising the method. While certain things in the country may have shifted for the good, more people knowing how to read is a small victory against the crippling poverty that many citizens in communist countries face. Access to “free” healthcare means nothing when the healthcare you have access to is hardly healthcare.

Sanders seems to want to praise dictatorial men for doing a little good while they do great evil. He’s more interested in looking at the positives of his ideological cousins and ignoring their evils, which is par for the course when it comes to socialists and communists as a whole. They become transfixed on specific aspects of communism and don’t want to get into the particulars on just how expensive it is, or what kind of dark policies will have to be enacted in order to keep a system like that afloat, at least for as long as possible.