The difference between a communist and a socialist is that communists want a violent overthrow of governments while socialists want a gradual overthrow. In our antiauthoritarian society governments are already in a state of advanced disintegration and so the term, communist is no longer applicable. Today, a socialist is the correct term to be used to describe these leftist radicals.
Barack Obama entered the political arena in the first decade of the 21th century when, with the help of the media, he successfully passed himself off as a liberal. This was a time when the threat of communism was being erased from the minds of the American public and rapidly becoming a word from the past. From a sociopolitical diagnostic standpoint, he was correctly identified at that time as a pseudo-liberal/communist. Today, with the antiauthoritarian transformation of society in full swing and the continuing breakdown of nations worldwide, socialist would be the apt term to describe people like him and others such as Hillary Clinton.
The gradual disintegration of the authoritarian social order and the continuing shift to the far left in the political mainstream are the reasons that a socialist named Bernie Sanders can come out of the closet and be championed by a far-left minded public as a legitimate political candidate.
But what is changing is not the character structure of the old time, freedom peddling politicians – the product – but the increasing demand – the market – of the helpless masses, young and old, who believe that they will be taken care of by this new/old order.
Charles Konia, M.D. 