Little by little....

      “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.”....Norman Thomas, maybe, maybe not.

     There is some controversy as to whether Socialist Party Presidential candidate Norman Thomas ever said the above, but whether he did or didn't, the fact remains it is a true statement, no matter who said it first, or at all.

     Apparently Donald Trump stated last night, (I didn't hear it as I had a prior commitment to stare at my foot) that the United States would never be a socialist nation, and cited Venezuela's current problems as justification for his statement.

      Some of my liberal friends were quick to point out they didn't want Venezuela's kind of socialism but instead Sweden's kind of socialism, which apparently is working out better than Venezuela's kind, at least for the time being.

       I won't argue that there aren't varying degrees of socialism. And probably some extremes are worse than others. But all forms of compulsary socialism involve forcibly taking property or labor from some people and giving to other people.

       Sorry Mr.Trump. That ship sailed long ago.