“We must make our election between economy and Liberty, or profusion and servitude.” —Thomas Jefferson (1816)

It is no coincidence that on the day after Donald Trump delivered an address on socialism to Americans of Venezuelan descent, socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders announced another presidential bid.

Sanders, who, along with his Millennial protégé Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is the leader of the Left’s socialism deniers movement, promoted the lie that “the American dream is more apt to be realized in South America, in places such as Ecuador, Venezuela and Argentina.” He added, “Who’s the banana republic now?”

The answer to that question — drum roll please: Venezuela!

In his remarks, President Trump offered this assessment:

Not long ago, Venezuela was the wealthiest nation, by far, in South America. But years of socialist rule have brought this once-thriving nation to the brink of ruin. … In other words, the socialists have done in Venezuela all of the same things that socialists, communists, totalitarians have done everywhere that they’ve had a chance to rule. The results have been catastrophic.

Almost 90% of Venezuelans now live in poverty. … Crippling shortages of food and medicine plague the country. Socialism has so completely ravaged this great country that even the world’s largest reserves of oil are no longer enough to keep the lights on. … The twilight hour of socialism has arrived in our hemisphere and, frankly, in many, many places around the world. The days of socialism and communism are numbered not only in Venezuela, but in Nicaragua and in Cuba as well.

Socialism promises prosperity, but it delivers poverty. Socialism promises unity, but it delivers hatred and it delivers division. Socialism promises a better future, but it always returns to the darkest chapters of the past. … Socialism is a sad and discredited ideology rooted in the total ignorance of history and human nature, which is why socialism, eventually, must always give rise to tyranny, which it does.

And to those who would try to impose socialism on the United States, we again deliver a very simple message: America will never be a socialist country. We are born free and we will stay free, now and forever.“

Indeed, as Trump reiterated in his State of the Union earlier this month, "Here, in the United States, we are alarmed by new calls to adopt socialism in our country. We are born free, and we will stay free. Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country.”

Meanwhile, Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez remain united behind Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. Always endeavoring to incrementally erode American Liberty, they have repackaged the failed old socialist deals as fresh new and improved socialist deals, and their youthful “constituency of dunces” are all in.