For a century, the socialist movement has been content to advance their ideology through the cover of darkness and deceit — reforming education, infiltrating Hollywood and the news media, and stretching their tentacles throughout state and federal government agencies.

As Norman Thomas famously stated:

The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism.  But, under the name of 'liberalism,' they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.

Today, socialists seem confident enough in their reach to come out from the cover of darkness to proudly proclaim the virtuousness of their ideology.  Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, and a whole host of other far-left loons are touting the virtues of "free stuff" to the mass of ill informed rubes.

The benefit (for us) of them moving into the light is that it begins to expose the endgame.  Socialism is a great system, for a few.  The socialist sales pitch is that everyone will be granted a myriad of free things, provided for by his benevolent government masters.  Free health care, free education, free housing, free transportation, and a universal basic income.

Sandy O's Green New Deal offers to provide "economic security for all who are unable or unwilling to work."

Where do I sign?  Or, more particularly, whom do I need to vote for, to have all my needs taken care of, so that I might lead a productive life of leisure?  Of course, as most thinking people know, there are two classes of person who have all their needs covered: children and slaves.

Recent events have begun to expose the winners and losers of our utopian socialist future.  The winners are the cultural-political elite and leadership ranks of the social activists.  The losers are the rubes, who think they're part of the elite class.

Socialism, apart from being an economic theory, is about the consolidation of power: those who have it and those who don't.  The college bribery scandal, the bum rush of our southern border, and the Jussie Smollett affair, if nothing else, expose a set of rules for those who work within the system, and another for those who lord over it.  A free society is premised on the rule of law and a societal agreement by the people to abide by said rule of law.

Socialism is premised on connections: the political elite in Washington, lobbying firms, union leadership, and the social-cultural elite in Hollywood, in newsrooms, on college campuses, and within the leadership ranks of the myriad intersectional activist groups established to advance specific grievances.  In this vein, the few in leadership will benefit from the consolidation of power, as they will have the ear of those who wield the sword.  The myriad activist groups will benefit, as they'll be the ones called upon to wield the sword.

This brings us to the rubes.  The rubes (or stooges) are the much larger segment of the populace who are being convinced that socialism will be the great leveler — that the current system is systemically unfair to those looking to advance, and that by voting into power those who seek to grant them an "equal share" of the redistributed pie, they will be able to live their lives as the elites do.

Historically, the elites remain elites, as long as they toe the party line.  The rubes will remain the rubes, only with less power and demonstrably less personal liberty than they had when they were free.

Our challenge, then, is to explain to the rubes (daily) that they're better off free, within a system that provides them an opportunity to advance, than a system that guarantees their bondage.

As Emiliano Zapata famously stated: "I'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees."