June 19, 2026:

RANDOM NOTES &  BYTES FROM MY PITCHFORK

Zorek

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​Last Friday at the 15th Annual Family Leadership Summit Mike Johnson said there are 28 candidates in the U.S. who currently label themselves as “Democratic Socialists” that have won a “primary or are in a position to win.” Johnson described these candidates as “avowed communists,” claiming they want “no borders,” “no prisons” and want to “abolish the U.S. Senate.” “It’s dangerous stuff,” Johnson said. “They don’t want the allowance of private property. They don’t want the free market. This is what we’re facing right now.”

Democratic Socialists do not want to abolish all private ownership, but they do make a strict distinction between personal property and private property. The primary goal of democratic socialism is to end the private ownership of the "means of production" (factories, large businesses, and land used for profit) while fully protecting your right to own personal belongings.
Democratic Socialists believe in working within existing democratic systems. They advocate for winning elections, passing laws, and gradually expanding the welfare state and public ownership while maintaining multi-party democracy and civil liberties.
Communists traditionally argue that reform is impossible. They believe the capitalist system must be overthrown through a revolution, leading to a "dictatorship of the proletariat" and the eventual abolition of private property.
Democratic socialism focuses on how society's resources and production should be managed. It is open to people of all religious backgrounds and personal beliefs.
Religious socialism: Many faith traditions actively embrace these economic principles. Movements like Christian socialism and Islamic socialism, as well as historical Jewish labor movements, have long advocated for socialist ideals based on religious principles of justice, charity, and community.
Many notable religious leaders and theologians have been democratic socialists. For example, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. frequently advocated for democratic socialist policies, viewing them as the most moral way to eliminate poverty and racial inequality.

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