Yes, Bernie Sanders Should Apologize For Praising Communism

Tony Branco

The fact that people are besmirching America’s proud history of fighting Communism and even calling for ‘anti-anti-communism’ should outrage us all.

The Federalist "Earlier this week, Sean Guillory of The Moscow Times wrote an article defending Sen. Bernie Sanders’s recent comments praising deceased Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. According to Guillory, anti-communism has been used in the United States as a cudgel to suppress legitimate grievances of minorities, the poor, and anyone who has ever fought for a more equitable society. Sadly, Guillory’s viewpoint distorts the true history of communism, flagrantly insults the millions who suffered under socialist regimes, and tars the honorable history of anti-communism in the United States.
"Instead of condemning Sanders’s praise of one of the most brutal dictators in the Western Hemisphere’s history, Guillory says Sanders should’ve never apologized: “no matter how much Sanders genuflects in the ritual denunciation of communist authoritarianism… he will continue to be treated as if his signature had been alongside Stalin’s on NKVD execution orders.”
"Guillory is attacking a strawman. No one is acting as if Sanders is as guilty as Joseph Stalin. That doesn’t exculpate him from making excuses for Castro
"Just imagine if the shoe were on the other foot. What if Sen. Ted Cruz had spoken positively of Augusto Pinochet’s liberalization of the Chilean economy, while downplaying or ignoring the thousands of deaths he caused? What if President Trump had praised Adolf Hitler for his great work on the autobahn? What if Sen. Marco Rubio sang the praises of Francisco Franco?
"Any politician who praised a fascist dictator would get dragged over the coals, with good reason. Yet Sanders got away with a relative slap on the wrist.

Communism: Still Killing People . . .

 Elad Vaida is a writer in Washington, D.C., whose work has appeared in The National Interest, American Greatness, The Daily Signal, and The New Lyceum. He is a graduate of Harvard University’s program in Middle Eastern Studies.