One of the great mysteries of the world is the infatuation that some people have for socialism. It has never worked. In fact, if you had set out to invent an economic system doomed to failure, you would probably come up with socialism. After all, it is based on the notion that it is natural for people to share equally with each other, even with those who refuse to do their share of the labor.

Competition is natural to human beings. You see it in ballparks, on school playgrounds, at the Olympics and in the workplace. Humans compete for money, prestige, position, mates, even for prom dates. But Karl Marx, a pinhead who rarely bathed, decided that on his mere say-so, he could reverse thousands of years of human nature. And just in case he couldn’t, he also came up with communism, an inevitable adjunct that supplies a few individuals with the dictatorial power to enforce socialism on the masses.

You may have noticed that whenever the eventual failure of socialism is pointed out, be it in the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela or even in its less despotic forms, as in Greece, Puerto Rico and Italy, its moronic adherents — Bernie Sanders, for example — insist that socialism itself is perfect, but that it hasn’t yet been done properly. All that’s required to make it work the way it’s supposed to is to have the right person at the helm, someone like, well, themselves.

The problem is that along with competing for money, awards and those all-important prom dates, there is another, less benign competition that is constantly taking place. That’s the one involving the despotically inclined who seek to be the bully who gets to boss the rest of us around. Some of those over-achievers have included Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Castro, Chavez, Che Guevara, Kim Jong-un and the Ayatollah Khamenei.

A favorite strategy of those on the Left in the U.S. is to label those of us who oppose them as homophobes, Islamophobes and racists. It’s childish because it presupposes that it is a character flaw to regard sodomy as, at the very least, distasteful; to distrust those who are shooting, stabbing, burning and beheading non-Muslims in the name of their loathsome religion; and to hold in low regard those who don’t object to living off the labor of others, yet feel entitled to riot every time one of their local gangbangers is shot during the commission of a crime.

As one of my readers recently wrote: “There’s a method to leftist madness. Call people racists and they’ll no longer be heard. Once accused of racism, after all, they’re not just contemptible, they’re beyond the pale.”

That’s true, but it’s our fault if we react like Pavlov’s dogs. Racism is a sin, but so long as you can distinguish between a Clarence Thomas and an Al Sharpton, you’re not a racist. Racists see only skin color; they do not take character into account, as Martin Luther King advised.

Adolf Hitler, to use a handy example, refused to make a distinction between Albert Einstein and a Jewish thief. He would have gassed them both. So if we or our politicians are going to cave in to childish insults, the fault doesn’t lie solely with the liberals; the lion’s share should be reserved for ourselves and our representatives. Obviously, too many of us have forgotten our childhood folklore and need reminding that names will never hurt us.

I don’t know about everybody else, but I’m getting sick and tired of hearing from those blaming Reince Priebus and the GOP hierarchy for Donald Trump’s nomination. The big wigs were pulling for Jeb Bush. How odd that so many people have been struck dumb with amnesia.

It is true that Trump only received about 40% of the primary votes cast, but that was a lot more than anyone else, and was in fact a pretty good showing when you realize that the other 4,000 contenders only garnered 60% between them.

It is also well past time for people to stop suggesting that Trump drop out and let Mike Pence run against Hillary. If Pence had wanted to be president, he had his chance, and we would have had 4,001 vying for the nomination.

The reason I have only contempt for those Republicans who can’t bring themselves to support Trump isn’t because I regard them as traitors to the party. I don’t care about the party. After all, the only reason I ever vote for a Republican is because they aren’t Democrats. It’s not as if I, who live in California, will live long enough to ever help elect a conservative.

The reason I despise the anti-Trump contingent of the GOP is because their personal pique so obviously trumps their concern for America. We have two people competing for the White House. One is an egotistical blowhard. The other has proven herself to be a menace when it comes to national security, a compulsive liar and someone who has shown time and again that her entire life has been motivated by an insatiable craving for money and power.

Having said that, the best reason to vote for one over the other is because whereas Mr. Trump has vowed to appoint conservative justices to the Supreme Court, it’s a given that Mrs. Clinton would appoint someone in line with Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor to replace Antonin Scalia. And that would only be the start. Over the next four or eight years, she would be able to determine the political makeup of the Court for generations.

In case you haven’t noticed, it’s the Court that determines the issues closest to the hearts of patriots. Whether the issue is abortions, same-sex marriages, transgender bathrooms, religious liberty, gun rights, affirmative action, photo IDs, executive over-reach or free speech, it’s the Supreme Court, not Congress, that ultimately has the final word.

John Kerry seriously suggested that it would be just swell if the media didn’t keep reporting on terrorist acts around the world. He felt the less that people heard about it, the better. Or we could simply follow Kerry’s lead and remain so ignorant of the facts that we would make a deal to give Iran $150 billion and a clear pathway to a nuclear arsenal and then clap our hands and shout, “What a good boy I am!”

Although I like to credit others when I come across a line I admire, this one was attributed to Anonymous. It sounds so much like me that I found myself wondering if I might actually be Mr. Anonymous, but so far as I know, I’m not. Anyway, the line goes: “Never miss an opportunity to make others happy, even if you have to leave them alone to do it.”