I have to admit that I can’t really follow the economic arguments that Bernie’s socialist policies would bankrupt the United States and destroy its quality of life. Financials are tough to follow. But I actually have a simpler question that I would like to ask Senator Sanders that speaks not to his economics but to his politics. I know that Bernie lately has a lot of (poorly-informed) Americans turned on by socialism, but I have a question about a prior, very revealing thing Senator Sanders did in the not-so-distant past. I’m a bit troubled by his desire to visit and stay for an extended time in the Soviet Union in 1988 -- for his honeymoon, no less! I took my new wife to New Mexico for our honeymoon and her family thought that was strange. Although, I must admit that Bernie apparently started a trend, as it appears that fellow New Yorker, Bill DeBlasio, was a fellow honeymoon traveler to communist climes, having marched his bride off to sumptuous Cuba after their nuptials. It seems neither of them were overly enthralled with their new spouses, whisking them off to such 5-star culinary and lodging destinations.

Bernie’s choice reminds me historically of the halcyon days of international communist fraternalism in the 1930s when misguided Americans in the hundreds marched off to join the “Abraham Lincoln” brigades in Spain to fight alongside the communists there. What troubles me, though, is that those deluded idealists of the 1930s were totally clueless as to the track record of the communist Soviet Union with regard to the state-sponsored deaths of millions of its own citizens in the Great Famine and KGB (NKVD)-led purges. But Bernie, you knew of the millions murdered and of the Gulags and yet you still chose to spend your honeymoon in the real world equivalent of Mordor! If he did it today, I could chalk it up to Alzheimer’s, but in 1988? We sleepwalked in 2008 and 2012 through the revelations concerning Barack’s anti-American tendencies. Are we going to repeat our national mistake?

For the nice guy, democratic socialist that Bernie seems to be, this decision has me really wondering about him. Oh, by the way, about the democratic socialist thing, a final word of advice for Bernie – I’d drop the “Democrat” part and just go with Socialist. Remember -- Kim Jong Un’s (underfed) workers’ paradise in North Korea? It’s formally called The Democratic People's Republic of Korea. And then there’s good old East Germany, the Soviet satellite with the most ruthless secret police. It was actually formally termed The German Democratic Republic. So, all of you extremely well-read Americans flocking to Senator Sanders -- tread carefully here. A people do get the government that they deserve! My advice to Bernie in fact is what the hell, it is 2016 in America, so I’d just come out of the closet completely and use “Communist” not “Socialist.” If Americans elected Barack twice and were okay with Rev. Wright, Bill Ayers and Valerie Jarrett, I think they’ll be more than fine with “Communist.” After all, a people ignorant of history will have great fun repeating it!

Oh and to all fellow traveler Democrats this coming summer -- have fun in The People’s Democratic Republic of Philadelphia.