Fox & Friends tried to scare people about Democrats in 2020 America with a guest who talked about how her great grandfather lost everything in communist China decades ago.
The discussion began with cohost Pete Hegseth saying Democrats are "rushing further to the left and embracing Democratic socialism or outright socialism."
In case anyone missed the point of the discussion, Hegseth’s first question to guest Helen Raleigh was why socialiasm “wrecks so many lives.”
Raleigh got right to the point. In somewhat imprecise English she said socialism is "all different shades of darkness, they means they ruin people's lives, they means you're losing your freedom, they means government goes to take your property away forcefully for redistribution purpose. All the history in China, Cuba, all the other countries implemented socialism shows it brings nothing but a misery to ordinary people."
Raleigh said that China "forcefully took the land away from my great grandfather and the land owners like him and for the redistribution purpose. So my great grandfather, he lost everything.”
Hegseth amplified the propaganda: "That government didn't see your grandfather as an individual with a soul, they saw him as a tool of the government. Isn't that the big difference between American style capitalism? Freedom says you're an individual with a choice" and "socialism says the government has a plan for your life, and that could include running you over."
“Right,” Raleigh agreed. "They treated him as an evil individual."
"People like my great grandfather somehow responsible for other people's miserable life, which is so unfair," Raleigh continued. She called democratic socialism a "bait and switch scam, it offer nothing new" and "It will end as misery."
"What a great way to put it," Hegseth enthused. He thanked her for “this fantastic segment."
Raleigh sounded like she was describing communism more than democratic socialism.
A Daily Kos article listing 75 ways socialism has improved the U.S. includes plenty of socialist programs and institutions that Hegseth would probably endorse or at least not demonize. They include public street lights, fire departments, garbage collection, the military, the CIA and public libraries, e.g.
Unfortunately for Hegseth and Raleigh, socialism is gaining in popularity.
Watch Hegseth and Raleigh grasp at decades-old straws from a country halfway around the world below, from the July 9, 2019 Fox & Friends.
CORRECTION: This post originally had the wrong author's name.