As the midterm election cycle has unfolded, the White House and Republican leaders have struggled to defend the party’s record over the last couple of years. To avoid crushing defeats, the party has instead tried to scare the heck out of the American electorate, insisting that Democratic victories will usher in a dystopian era of socialism, communism or perhaps some combination of the two.

For example, when Donald Trump sat down with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham last month, and the host asked the president to summarize in one sentence why Republican voters “need to show up in the midterms,” he responded with a single word.

“Communism,” Trump replied.

The obvious problem with such a position is that it’s slanderous nonsense. Whether one agrees with Democrats or not, the idea that they’re embracing communism is obviously bonkers. But just as notable was the fact that the president doesn’t appear to have any idea what communism is. (To hear him tell it, it’s like socialism, but with oomph.)

Making matters worse, Team Trump doesn’t appear to know what socialism is, either.

At a Thursday press conference on an unrelated issue, a reporter asked JD Vance a question I’ve long wanted to pose Republican leaders: “How do you define socialism, personally?”

The vice president replied, “Oh, man, you know, I guess, it’s honestly, it’s a hard term to define these days. … I don’t know what the term means anymore. I think in reality, what it actually means in the American context is that you want to replace American workers with foreign workers, and you want boys to play in girls’ sports.”

The use of the phrase “in reality” was an especially nice touch, because, in the actual reality, that’s not even close to what “socialism” means.

I don’t seriously expect Vance to be able to start reciting Karl Marx from memory, or wax poetic on the implications of state control over the means of production, but if Republicans are going to make warnings about socialism and communism the basis for the party’s entire election season message, it’s not unreasonable to think these guys should have some understanding of what the words mean.

In recent decades, assorted GOP voices have smeared practically every Democratic domestic policy proposal as “socialism,” to the point that it became tiresome and trite. Indeed, for generations, Republicans effectively used “big government” and “socialism” interchangeably.

But Vance has dumbed things down even further, in ways that suggest “socialism” now means “whatever conservatives happen to be upset about on any given day.”

The post JD Vance tried to define ‘socialism.’ It did not go well. appeared first on MS NOW.

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