Ugly History of DS    
    
   A man who was himself a "democratic socialist" at age 18 tells us why we should loathe such a system, and why it could happen here. 

   Marvin Olasky writes that Stalin became an atheist after reading Darwin's On the Origin of Species. (Incidentally, Darwin never did address the topic of his own paper.) 

   "I suspect (Stalin) didn't set out to murder at least 20 million people," Olasky says. "Hugo Chavez wanted to soak the rich, but I suspect he did not want to starve the poor..." 

   "Chavez and Stalin ... were initially democratic socialists," he writes, "but when they ran into obstacles ... they intensified their efforts. When Ukrainians resisted the forced collectivization of agriculture, Stalin's agents seized their crops and created a famine that claimed at least 4 million lives." 

   "When some of Stalin's comrades said the cost of socialism was too high," Olasky adds, "he doubled down by killing them too." 

   "The problem is that democratic socialism does not work," he says. "Socialism goes against entrepreneurial and familial instincts. People work harder when they and their families profit by it, and people work smarter when they can run with creative ideas rather than shuffle through bureaucracy." 

   He continues, "Karl Marx mocked democratic socialists and developed what he called 'scientific socialism.' In 1873 he called himself 'a true admirer' of Darwin and saw socialist revolution as a survival of the fittest..." 

   "In 1993," Olasky recalls, "Bill Clinton signed The Friendship Act, authorizing a Victims of Communism Memorial in Washington, DC. People added up victims in China, Russia, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, Cuba and elsewhere, citing the deaths of more than 100 million." 

   The purpose was to remember them, so "never again will nations and people allow so evil a tyranny to terrorize the world."

Continued tomorrow

     Jimmy