Progressive-Democratic Party candidate for President, and mayor of South Bend, IN, Pete Buttigieg is an illustration of the Progressive-Democrat candidates’ lack of understanding of two of those three.

Proximately, he’s upset that President Donald Trump demurs from the socialist movement of Party and its cronies of the Left and Far Left; Buttigieg actually is insisting that

the word [socialism] doesn’t have the same negative connotations it did for past generations.

This is just an Alinsky-esque attempt to change the subject by falsely defining it.  Unfortunately, though, it’s clear (just consult any current English language dictionary*; apparently his grammar school lesson on how to use a dictionary was not a safe space for Buttigieg) that socialism remains government control of the means of production—of our economy.  And that’s exactly what he and his fellow candidates from Party are proposing: high taxes on those who produce; high taxes on the mere existence of wealth and success; nationalization, not just of the industry of health coverage plans but of the very provision of health; government control over our energy production; government control over our transportation means; and on and on.

Buttigieg also said

We are a market-based economy. You can’t kill off a discussion by calling it socialism.

On the other hand, you can kill off a market-based economy with socialism.

*Here’s the current American Heritage Dictionary‘s definition:

1. Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy.

Here’s Merriam-Webster‘s definition:

1  : any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
2   a : a system of society or group living in which there is no private property
b : a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state

As Judge James Ho of the Fifth Circuit wrote in a different context,

For our system to work, however, we must share a common language. When the American people come to a consensus, there must be a way to reduce the agreement to words that we can all understand and accept—both today and in the years to come. We must have confidence that our words will be faithfully construed in the future, consistent with our common understanding.

Surely, Buttigieg and his fellows know this.