Despite everything the party insiders and their lackeys in the media are doing to try to stop him, Bernie Sanders keeps polling well and getting votes.  That has the Democrat powers-that-be in a panic.  Their fear is that Sanders will win the nomination and that the presence of an avowed socialist at the top of the ticket will cause a Democrat wipe-out in November. 

Trevor Thomas has an excellent piece at American Thinker on the Democrats' Bernie problem.  Party insiders, he argues, "should not be surprised that the electorate they've so 'educated' prefers a legitimate socialist as their presidential nominee."

This is an idea worth exploring.  The Democrat Party's decades-long march to the political left has indoctrinated its voters into being socialists in all but the name.  Consequently, it is no surprise that those voters are now ready to vote for a politician who proudly proclaims he is a socialist.

The Democrats have spent decades indoctrinating their voters into a blind faith in socialized medicine.  Although the Left has been careful not to come right out and use the word "socialism" (the current code name is "Medicare for all," wink, wink), it is perfectly obvious that the takeover of medicine by the government is socialized medicine.  But isn't it also obvious that selling your voters on socialized medicine amounts to selling them on socialism in general?  Once voters buy the idea that government ought to take over medical care, why stop there?  Government should take over banks, corporations, energy production, newspapers, and ultimately every part of the economy, shouldn't it?

But the party insiders fear that Bernie is blowing their cover — and that their voters are aiding and abetting him!  The Democrats believe they can sell American voters on socialized medicine as long as they don't call it socialized medicine; they believe that for the time being, the Democrats need to steer clear of the word "socialism" if they are to continue as the dominant political party in America.

Thomas sums up his article with this passage: 

Their [the Democrats'] decades-long march to the political left — almost always in opposition to the truth — along with preaching a mountain of so-called "rights" in order to bribe Americans into voting for democrats, has also forced us to debate what is marriage, infanticide, how many genders exist, and who is a male and who is a female.  Thus, such leftists should not be surprised that the electorate they've so "educated" prefers a legitimate socialist as their presidential nominee.

Well and truly written.

Read the passage again, and you may notice something interesting.  Although he closes with "socialist," his list that precedes his conclusion does not contain any mention of socialist economic nostrums.  He mentions "truth," "rights," "marriage," "infanticide," "how many genders exist," and "who is male and who is female."  Government taking control of businesses and the economy is missing from the closing statement.

There is no question that Thomas is correct: while the Democrats have been steadily moving America toward socialism, they have been up to much more than simply overthrowing America's economic system.  They have been again and again in opposition to the truth.  They have waged a successful war on the American idea of rights; that campaign has left many Americans deeply confused about this most important of the Founders' ideas.  They have moved powerfully against our commonsense understanding of marriage, of how many sexes there are, of who is a male and who is a female.  They have tried to normalize infanticide.  In a general sense, they have been making war on truth, justice, and the American way.  Overthrowing America's fabulously successful economic system is not enough for them.

Everything was going so well for the Progressive project, and now along comes Bernie Sanders, who threatens to upset the applecart and set back their efforts by who knows how long.

Robert Curry serves on the Board of Directors of the Claremont Institute.  He is the author of Reclaiming Common Sense: Finding Truth in a Post-Truth World and Common Sense Nation: Unlocking the Forgotten Power of the American Idea.  Both are from Encounter Books.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr.