Well Rogue, you edited my post to seven words. I never said Communist horrors existed. I stated any form of socialism is a stepping stone to Communism.
How pathetic of you to suggest otherwise.
You're very right that 'socialism' can be a stepping stone to Communism, we're seeing that in Venezuela. But I see a big mistake here by labeling any candidate a 'socialist' and that's because people aren't able to separate 'socialism' from 'democratic socialism', and they conflate them even though they are not the same. The word 'socialist' is continually used in attempts to demonize AOC but she's a democratic socialist, these two different things. 'Socialist' remains a dirty, and often misunderstood, term in the realm of US politics.
Socialism: 'In general, socialists believe the government should provide a range of basic services to the public, such as health care and education, for free or at a significant discount.' Socialism can be defined as "a system of social organization in which private property and the distribution of income are subject to social control."
In other words, it's a state-controlled economy in which the state controls the means of production (factories, offices, resources, and firms). There are also forms of socialism in which the means of production are controlled and owned by workers. This is the case in Venezuela where 900 officially registered “communes” have become the focus of a far-reaching government effort to remake Venezuela into a socialist society. Supporters of the commune effort believes it will transform Venezuela’s economic, social and political relations into something more wholesome and authentically democratic.
Democratic Socialism: Democratic socialists believe strongly in democracy and democratic principles. They are by no means proponents of authoritarian government systems many Americans associate socialism with. Democratic socialists, such as AOC and Bernie Sanders, don't feel socialism should be forced on people, but they are fundamentally anti-capitalist and believe the government should urge privately owned businesses toward granting workers as much control as possible.
In Venezuela in 1999 the year Hugo Chávez took office, Venezuelan voters overwhelmingly backed his push to rewrite the constitution. Chávez was so pleased with the new version that he ordered millions of pocket-size editions to be handed out across the country. He liked to whip out a copy in the middle of his speeches and political sermons, like a preacher with a Bible. Its cover was blue, but it became the Little Red Book of Chávez’s socialist “revolution.” Which is one reason Venezuelans were surprised — and aghast — when President Nicolás Maduro, who succeeded Chávez after his death in 2013, said in 2017 that he wants to rewrite it.
This is the point when Venezuela became a communist totalitarian regime.
Instead of getting voter approval to overhaul the constitution, Maduro gave the order Monday by decree. The constituent assembly’s delegates awere drawn heavily from community and social groups loyal to his government. The basic goal was to channel the government’s oil wealth into a system of locally elected “communal councils” that would assume some of the powers currently held by mayors, governors and the National Assembly. Yes, you can see where that was going. It was a power grab to steal everything from Venezuela including all their oil.
Let me add a footnote to all of this. There is a 'bromance' of sorts between a democratically elected populist - with communistic regimes. The first glue that binds them all is their shared ideological antipathy toward liberalism. Populism and communism tend to emphasize “positive freedoms,” namely social and economic justice, often at the expense of “negative freedoms,” namely civil liberties and political rights.