Forget history, and forget the standard dictionary definitions. JD Vance has his own idea of what socialism really is . . . well, sort of.

At a press conference this week concerning the government’s campaign against alleged fraud in the country’s H-1B visa program, he was asked by a reporter: “How do you define socialism personally and why do you think socialist candidates are popping up everywhere across the country?”

That seems like a fair and very relevant question as we approach the November 3rd midterm elections, and particularly in view of the Republican administration’s repeated assertions that liberals are promoting socialism and/or communism.

Now, the long-accepted definition of socialism — and as set out in the Merriam-Webster dictionary — is as follows:

1: any of various egalitarian economic and political theories or movements advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods

2a: a system of society or of group living in which there is no private property

b: a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state

3: a stage of society in Marxist theory that is transitional between capitalism and communism and is distinguished by unequal distribution of of goods and pay according to work done

But Vance had a bit of difficulty with that, because the Democrats and other liberal Americans he has described as “socialists” haven’t been advocating anything close to it. So what he came up with was this bit of word salad:

“Oh man, you know, I guess it’s honestly it’s a hard term to define these days because very often socialism, you know, classically you would think socialism is about prioritizing workers, and yet in reality I guarantee that most of the self-described socialists running across the United States of America are going to howl about this announcement today, which is prioritizing American workers over foreign workers.

“So, I don’t know what the term means anymore. I think in reality what it actually means in the American context is that you want to replace American workers with foreign workers and you want boys to play in girls’ sports. That’s what unites the socialists that I see running across the United States of America today.”

And there you have it, from the lips of the man who is a single heartbeat removed from the presidency of the United States . . . who can’t cobble together a coherent sentence without a script . . . and who conflates socialism with gender identity.

I honestly don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
10/9/26