We've heard this argument from a lot of people. Bernie Sanders is a socialist. Venezuela is socialist. Therefore, if we elect Bernie Sanders, America's economy will become just like what we currently see in Venezuela.
First, we should explain the difference between socialism and democratic socialism. Democratic socialism is the name we now apply to the set of economic policies first espoused by American president Frederick Delano Roosevelt.
Under actual socialism, profits and corporations would be illegal, and if you poke around, you can find socialists on the Internet complaining bitterly about the fact that Sanders is a liberal rather than a leftist because he wants to reform capitalism rather than end it.
But the distinction between democratic socialism and socialism is lost on radical ideologues such as conservatives or libertarians. So let's accept this insane definition of socialism and see what conclusions it leads to, shall we?
World War 2 and the Cold War
If we accept the conservative/libertarian claim that Bernie Sanders is a socialist, then FDR was a socialist. Furthermore, America was socialist from FDR until Reagan, and most European countries are socialist.
Therefore, if we accept the conservolibertarian definition of "socialism," we must conclude that World War 2 was a global conflict with fascism on one side and socialists on the other side. The socialists were the good guys, apparently.
If we accept the new modern definition of socialism (which some members of the "liberal" mainstream media also use), then we must recast the Cold War as a global conflict between competing factions of socialists, with much of the world aligning itself either with the American socialists or the Soviet socialists.
It's the Economy, Stupid
So how does this argument from conservatives, libertarians, and the mainstream media hold up under scrutiny when we examine historical data?
Well, according to their definition of socialism, America was a socialist nation from before World War 2 to the election of Reagan. According to their argument, America had a terrible economy from World War 2 to Reagan. In fact, America's postwar economy was just as bad as the current economy of Venezuela.
Further, the economies of Europe are all just as bad as Venezuela, and have been just as bad as Venezuela for all or most of the Cold War. Because "socialism" is guaranteed to turn any economy into Venezuela.
I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree with conservatives, libertarians, and the mainstream media about the American postwar economy and the current economy of Europe, but then I'm dealing with facts instead of feelings.
Reductio Ad Absurdum
The argument "Bernie is a socialist, and if we elect him, America's economy will end up like Venezuela" is a ludicrous argument. I'm not going to bother unpacking that argument and show all the pieces of it that are wrong because others have already done that better than I probably could. I just want to show that if we accept this argument at face value, we would be forced to accept conclusions that are absurd.