Can't get anymore loony: 'To me, what democratic socialism is about is to maintain the strong entrepreneurial spirit that we have in this country," says Bernie Sanders. Example, please?

Bernie Sanders' Orwellian Lie: Socialism Is Capitalism

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11/05/2015 06:17 PM ET

Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders leads a press conference on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. AP View Enlarged Image

Ideology: Socialism is a lot of things, but "entrepreneurial" ain't one of them. That Bernie Sanders can describe it as such shows the Orwellian low our political discourse has reached.

'To me, what democratic socialism is about is to maintain the strong entrepreneurial spirit that we have in this country," the Democrat presidential hopeful told the Wall Street Journal. "To continue to produce wealth, but to make sure it is more equitably distributed than is currently the case."

That describes the American left's attitude toward business: We'll tax you half to death and have the government do all sorts of things that should be left to you, but don't let that keep you from making and selling things and employing people.

It just doesn't work that way.

President Obama is the worst offender. "I actually believe in the free market," he said two summers ago as he urged that "private capital should take a bigger role in the mortgage market." That, Obama quipped, "sounds confusing to folks who call me a socialist."

Then, he wanted private lenders to rescue the skewed housing market from the hopeless "government-sponsored enterprises" Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, whose massive subsidizing of mortgages formed the roots of the 2008 financial crisis.

Similarly, government-controlled health care is a "marketplace" in Obama-speak. And when Joe the Plumber in 2008 told candidate Obama that higher taxes could prevent him from realizing his dream of buying the small business he worked for, Obama responded: "Everybody's so pinched that business is bad for everybody," but "when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."

Left-wing politicians redistributing private wealth is believing in the free market? Governmental bureaucrats, unlike entrepreneurs, don't care when money is wasted or stolen. It isn't theirs, so they treat it as Monopoly money. How can that be good for business?

Just as Obama feigns belief in the free market, Sen. Sanders tells us "democratic socialism" maintains America's strong entrepreneurial spirit.

In his anti-Stalinist novel "1984," George Orwell had the government feeding the people equally ridiculous lies: "War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength." Oh yes, and socialism is entrepreneurialism.

In Orwell's fictional society, the populace were so systematically oppressed that they believed every lie, no matter how absurd.

The fact that Obama and Sanders think we'll so easily believe "socialized medicine is a marketplace" and that "wealth redistribution helps business" is a chilling commentary on how the free can be tricked into tyranny.