Republican Ad attempts to portray and compare Democratic Socialism with Death Squads

the right-wing death squads in central and south America.

It's the kiss of death because too many people don't know what it means (and we don't have true socialism in the U.S. anyhow). Trying to explain it just makes it worse.

Best you get used to it, because otherwise you are going to look weak.

...as the stuff of ranting cranks rather than having any real meaning.

That Warren or Sanders might win.

communist than socialist?

Try to make a distinction about communism vs. socialism, and they'll just quote the name of the USSR: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

The trick is to not dicker and argue. Instead, go straight at them about how they call everything they don't like "socialism". Any law, government program, or policy that helps ordinary people get a little more economic security is attacked as "socialism!" Anything that restricts a corporations right to squeeze its customers and screw its workers is "socialism!" Anything that doesn't treat maximizing profit as the highest virtue and a divine right is "socialism!"

When Medicare was in the works but not enacted yet, Ronald Reagan first dipped his toe into politics by warning of "socialism!" Well, Medicare is some 55 years old. Gee, can't you tell how it made us into a bunch of commies?

They always screech. They always fearmonger! They always paint the slightest reform as first step of Red Revolution!

They're so consistent with their excess that smart ad firms used to parody it.

to these people.

There was a screed by Sean Hannity a few weeks back in which he said something about how Denmark is a free market economy and not socialist, and that the socialists here in the states don't want to be like Denmark but like Venezuelan and the soviet union etc.. Or at least it was something along those lines. I thought that was amusing because whenever anyone discusses programs similar to what we might see in a Nordic country, these people are the first ones to call it socialism. They really have no idea where they want to go or what they want to say. Maybe it's more accurate to say they know where they want to go, but they can't figure out how to say it without looking really bad.

Bernie addressed some of this in the debate when asked about Venezuela but it is terrible branding.

Canada and Nordic countries are not slaughtering their people under the jackbooted heels of universal healthcare and sensible gun laws.

Disingenuously trying to connect her political philosophy to that of a communist regime. Meanwhile, they've actually taken a page out of a fascist regime's playbook and brought concentration camps back to America.

There's not even a mote in the eye of AOC to compare to the log in theirs.

TlalocW

the word "socialism."

The northern European countries Bernie loves aren't socialist countries -- they're capitalist countries with strong regulations and safety nets. Their leaders are Social Democrats, not Democratic Socialists.

The word socialist is always going to be associated with the Nazis and the Soviet Socialist Republic, among others. We don't need to claim that word for our own.