The differences are something like this:
Communism advocates class warfare, and public ownership of all property.
Technically, communism advocates no classes and communal use of all property as nothing is actually owned.
People are paid according to their abilities and needs.
People are not paid according to either.
They are taken from according to their ability and given according to their need. The concept of that being "pay" never enters into the equation.
This has, of course, never been actually practiced as the countries advocating for Communism merely used it as an excuse to seize power in a totalitarian manner. There has never been a truly Communist society, and likely there never will be.
There has never been a truly anything society by that standard.
Which of course leads to the whole problem of people claiming or being assigned labels.
Socialism is more along the lines of everyone gets an equal share and the government controls major industries which are necessary for the society to function. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.
Theoretically of course.
And with great variation in actual application.
So we're right back to just what labels people claim or have applied to them.
Social Democrats are similar to Socialism, but advocate for greater democracy and personal liberty than socialists do.
You mean they say they do.
Whether they actually produce it, or indeed if their rhetoric matches those other claims, are significantly different things.
Bernie is not likely a National Socialist as the main themes of National Socialism are race warfare, a variant on Fascism, and Nationalism.
Bernie is very much a variant on Fascism and a rabid Nationalist.
All that is missing is the race warfare, but then that can easily be parsed away as only the "German" version of National Socialism, and not the more "generic" version of National Socialism.
It's also fairly stridently anti-union, anti-Communist and abhors homosexuality in favor of enforced traditional gender roles.
Like all Marxist derivatives it was quite pro-union at the start, until of course it didn't need the competition and rolled the unions into government bureaus.
And like all Marxist derivatives it hated all other Marxist derivatives.
As for abhorring homosexuality, that is both standard for Marxism as well as a political tool within the NSDAP, where many of the leaders were quite openly homosexual until it became time to purge them.
As for "traditional" gender roles, that also becomes suspect with the NSDAP disdain for marriage as opposed to simply breeding.
Hitler billed it as a mix of the best of left and right wing philosophies and use the name National Socialism because Socialism was well respected at the time in Europe, and in it's early stages the Nazi party were viewed as uncultured thugs. He used the name Socialism to achieve respect, but his actual philosophy has nothing to do with socialism so much as racism. Bernie is too far left to be a Nazi.
So you mean he billed it as a "third" or "middle" way, just like Bernie. Okay.
And he used "socialism" the way Bernie uses "democratic" for PR reasons. Okay.
As for actual philosophy, of the 25 platform points of the NSDAP:
1920 NSDAP Platform
The 25 Points
1. We demand the union of all Germans in a Great Germany on the basis of the principle of self-determination of all peoples.
2. We demand that the German people have rights equal to those of other nations; and that the Peace Treaties of Versailles and St. Germain shall be abrogated.
3. We demand land and territory (colonies) for the maintenance of our people and the settlement of our surplus population.
4. Only those who are our fellow countrymen can become citizens. Only those who have German blood, regardless of creed, can be our countrymen. Hence no Jew can be a countryman.
5. Those who are not citizens must live in Germany as foreigners and must be subject to the law of aliens.
6. The right to choose the government and determine the laws of the State shall belong only to citizens. We therefore demand that no public office, of whatever nature, whether in the central government, the province, or the municipality, shall be held by anyone who is not a citizen.
We wage war against the corrupt parliamentary administration whereby men are appointed to posts by favor of the party without regard to character and fitness.
7. We demand that the State shall above all undertake to ensure that every citizen shall have the possibility of living decently and earning a livelihood. If it should not be possible to feed the whole population, then aliens (non-citizens) must be expelled from the Reich.
8. Any further immigration of non-Germans must be prevented. We demand that all non-Germans who have entered Germany since August 2, 1914, shall be compelled to leave the Reich immediately.
9. All citizens must possess equal rights and duties.
10. The first duty of every citizen must be to work mentally or physically. No individual shall do any work that offends against the interest of the community to the benefit of all.
Therefore we demand:
11. That all unearned income, and all income that does not arise from work, be abolished.
12. Since every war imposes on the people fearful sacrifices in blood and treasure, all personal profit arising from the war must be regarded as treason to the people. We therefore demand the total confiscation of all war profits.
13. We demand the nationalization of all trusts.
14. We demand profit-sharing in large industries.
15. We demand a generous increase in old-age pensions.
16. We demand the creation and maintenance of a sound middle-class, the immediate communalization of large stores which will be rented cheaply to small tradespeople, and the strongest consideration must be given to ensure that small traders shall deliver the supplies needed by the State, the provinces and municipalities.
17. We demand an agrarian reform in accordance with our national requirements, and the enactment of a law to expropriate the owners without compensation of any land needed for the common purpose. The abolition of ground rents, and the prohibition of all speculation in land.
18. We demand that ruthless war be waged against those who work to the injury of the common welfare. Traitors, usurers, profiteers, etc., are to be punished with death, regardless of creed or race.
19. We demand that Roman law, which serves a materialist ordering of the world, be replaced by German common law.
20. In order to make it possible for every capable and industrious German to obtain higher education, and thus the opportunity to reach into positions of leadership, the State must assume the responsibility of organizing thoroughly the entire cultural system of the people. The curricula of all educational establishments shall be adapted to practical life. The conception of the State Idea (science of citizenship) must be taught in the schools from the very beginning. We demand that specially talented children of poor parents, whatever their station or occupation, be educated at the expense of the State.
21. The State has the duty to help raise the standard of national health by providing maternity welfare centers, by prohibiting juvenile labor, by increasing physical fitness through the introduction of compulsory games and gymnastics, and by the greatest possible encouragement of associations concerned with the physical education of the young.
22. We demand the abolition of the regular army and the creation of a national (folk) army.
23. We demand that there be a legal campaign against those who propagate deliberate political lies and disseminate them through the press. In order to make possible the creation of a German press, we demand:
(a) All editors and their assistants on newspapers published in the German language shall be German citizens.
(b) Non-German newspapers shall only be published with the express permission of the State. They must not be published in the German language.
(c) All financial interests in or in any way affecting German newspapers shall be forbidden to non-Germans by law, and we demand that the punishment for transgressing this law be the immediate suppression of the newspaper and the expulsion of the non-Germans from the Reich.
Newspapers transgressing against the common welfare shall be suppressed. We demand legal action against those tendencies in art and literature that have a disruptive influence upon the life of our folk, and that any organizations that offend against the foregoing demands shall be dissolved.
24. We demand freedom for all religious faiths in the state, insofar as they do not endanger its existence or offend the moral and ethical sense of the Germanic race.
The party as such represents the point of view of a positive Christianity without binding itself to any one particular confession. It fights against the Jewish materialist spirit within and without, and is convinced that a lasting recovery of our folk can only come about from within on the principle:
COMMON GOOD BEFORE INDIVIDUAL GOOD
25. In order to carry out this program we demand: the creation of a strong central authority in the State, the unconditional authority by the political central parliament of the whole State and all its organizations.
The formation of professional committees and of committees representing the several estates of the realm, to ensure that the laws promulgated by the central authority shall be carried out by the federal states.
The leaders of the party undertake to promote the execution of the foregoing points at all costs, if necessary at the sacrifice of their own lives.
15-1/2 (9-22, 25, half of 23) qualify as being absolutely socialist
2-1/2 (7, 8, half of 24) can be added back with minor editing and accounting for weasel words in as just nationalist
2 (5, 6) more if Bernie decides to promote a separate system of laws for immigrants and guest workers (or whatever he wants to call them)
3 (1-3) are irrelevant as just territorial demands
Leaving a grand total of . . .
1 + 1/2 + 1/2 (4, half of 23 and 24) as being purely racist
Bernie is quite comfortably both left enough and nationalist enough to be a by-the-platform NSDAP-er. He only has a problem with being too Jewish, which could still be overlooked with special circumstances.
Fair enough. My point, which was obscured by the fact that I posted in the wee hours and therefore didn't state it well, was that one can be a centrist and still be an Alinskyite.
I understand the posting at wee hours issue. I've done it too many times myself.
But I'll still assert being an Alinskyite is different from merely using his tactics, and the distinction must be noted.
