Decisions made by Bernie Sanders’s better half — his wife, Jane — have run a small Vermont private school Burlington College into the ground. Her seven-year tenure as president lasted from 2004 to 2011, ending with a golden parachute: a $200,000 severance package. In 2010, she directed the institution in its $10 million purchase of 33 acres along the bank of Lake Champlain from the Roman Catholic Diocese. Fast forward to 2014, 25 acres have been re-sold for $7 million or a $3 million dollar loss to real estate developer Eric Farrell. This was a real boon to him, a failed hail Mary effort to keep the school’s doors open. Those doors will close for good on May 27th, ironically just shy of Memorial Day, Monday. As past is prelude, the millennial teachable moment for the 2016 presidential election? Ruling progressive/socialists like Jane, Bernie — and Hillary — always personally live large. However, their Obama style big government policies always leave ruin in their wake.

What was her grandiose, utopian plan? An empty pledge to double the student enrollment. How is that unrealized promise any different than her socialist hubby’s of “free” public college? Her pipe dream was to be a paradise: a beautiful new campus funded on borrowed money. What now remains? About 30 educators and staff out of work — and a lender making angry noises about potential fraud in the application filed by Mrs. Sanders. (“Jane, you got some splainin’ to do!”) Likewise is Bernie’s absurd advocacy of a 90% tax rate and expanded government dependence programs that will add 18 trillion to the nation’s already mammoth, and climbing, 19 trillion dollar debt. (Recall that 9 trillion of that has been added by Mr. Obama alone.) Yet, make no mistake, Burlington College’s fate is a litmus test of Sanders’ style failed leadership. Like wife, like husband, trust that that apple doesn’t fall far from its tree!

As proof, anyone at the now bankrupt Burlington College can attest, the economics of socialism are inherently unsustainable. Britain’s prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, famously said the real problem with socialist governments is that “they always run out of other people’s money.” Well, precisely. Socialists redistribute (think Obamacare). They steal from (capitalist) “Peter” to bribe (voter) “Paul” — and government they mismanage controls all! In a nutshell, that’s the fascist Obama presidency. Specifically, consider coddled Michelle Obama’s attitude of entitlement as her husband stoops to “lead” us. Therefore, it is no surprise to any clear thinking person that job creators have been driven out of America (read: widespread corporate inversion). These hard leftist locusts rule and consume resources until there is no money left to beg, borrow or steal. Then, these characters perpetually claim hollow victories (fairness! equality!) and move on. All that is required is Mr. Obama’s political optics. His formula: a few disconnected, cursory remarks, maybe a fly-in photo-op (read: Flint’s water crisis) then onto those all-important waiting golf links. The end result is almost 8 chaotic years of anti-Americanism from every direction. Indeed, our society has been mangled — twisted backwards, upside down and inside out. Hence Black Lives Matter. So much for the hope in that change.

Examples of progressive failures abound. Think of Maryland’s “singing cowboy,” former governor Martin O'Malley’s “millionaire’s tax.” (His “flush tax” and “rain tax” are also real gems.) Of course there is the economic downturn perpetuated by continuous overspending with America’s Chinese credit card, and tax-and-spend policies of the aforementioned Obama administration. Yet, let’s cast the net even wider. Think of Venezuela’s toilet paper shortage and two-day work week. Does Jane Sanders’s failed leadership, “the crushing weight” of debt incurred during her presidency, portend her husband’s?

Jane was Burlington College’s fourth president, but rest assured Bernie won’t be America’s 45th. That honor is likely reserved for his opposite counterpart, a blustering populist and plain-speaking pro-American capitalist who defies all political odds, and has galvanized the electorate. Someone who actually knows how keep the lights on, the doors open — and pay the bills.