IN CAPITALISM, THE RICH BECOME POWERFUL. IN SOCIALISM, THE POWERFUL BECOME RICH.

Shot: “We expect revolutionaries to be indifferent to money. Yet in reality the Left thinks about nothing but money…the ambition of all true Communists should be to become billionaire revolutionaries.”

—Richard Fernandez at the Belmont Club in May.

Chaser: “It is a common misconception that socialism is about helping poor people. Actually, what socialism does is create poor people, and keep them poor. And that’s not by accident. Under capitalism, rich people become powerful. But under socialism, powerful people become rich. When you look at a socialist country like Venezuela, you find that the rulers are fabulously wealthy even as the ordinary citizenry deals with empty supermarket shelves and electricity rationing.”

—Glenn Reynolds, USA Today in May.

Hangover: “‘Not bad, comrade’! Bernie Sanders’ socialist cred just took a BIG hit…The Burlington resident last week plopped down nearly $600,000 on a lakefront camp in North Hero. Sanders’ new crib has four bedrooms and 500 feet of Lake Champlain beachfront on the east side of the island — facing Vermont, not New York. The Bern will keep his home in Burlington and use the new camp seasonally.”

I’m sure if the writer had been able to concentrate a bit more, he would have chosen a word other than “camp” to describe real estate being put to use by a man whose totalitarian worldview blends nationalism and socialism, but to each his own – at least for the time being.