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Sen. Bernie Sanders describes himself as a “democratic socialist,” with a political philosophy similar to those of countries like Denmark and Sweden, where this form of socialism has been a proven system of workable government for many years. It’s not communism, folks, and it has nothing in common with the totalitarian dictatorships of the Soviet Union or Maoist China.

That’s what makes the latest attack by far right Sen. Rand Paul especially dishonest and creepy, because he not only compares Sanders explicitly to Mao and Pol Pot, he says electing Sanders will lead to “mass genocide.” Political attacks don’t get much more extreme than this, and this sort of rhetoric cheapens and demeans the gravity of the word “genocide.”

“It amazes me and it actually kind of scares me,” Paul said. “I’ve been spending more time going after Bernie and socialism because I don’t want America to succumb to the notion that there’s anything good about socialism. I think it’s not an accident of history that most of the times when socialism has been tried that attendant with that has been mass genocide of people or any of those who object to it. Stalin killed tens of millions of people. Mao killed tens of millions of people. Pol Pot killed tens of millions of people. When you have a command economy, when everything is dictated from one authority, that’s socialism, but it doesn’t come easily to those who resist it.”