Bernie Sanders faced political crossfire during the debate in South Carolina on Tuesday night, some of it because he lavished praise on Communist dictators in Cuba, Russia, and Latin America. This week’s Acton Commentary, “The key to understanding Bernie Sanders,” details his history of moral equivalence between Marxist dictators and Western democracies – and explains the socialist reasoning that fuels it.

“This specious moral reasoning rings a deep, discordant bell among all those who encountered or are conversant with the Left during the Cold War,” mentary states:

Western fellow travelers justified Stalin’s show trials, Castro’s persecutions, and Mao’s Cultural Revolution as, perhaps regretful, but necessary to defend the greater good of the socialist revolution. The noxious notion that the ends justify any means is as endemic among Marxism’s defenders as it is within socialism itself.

One by one, the socialists’ idols came crashing down. Secret speeches exposed their crimes. Dissidents smuggled out undeniable evidence. Socialists found themselves caught in a moral and practical conundrum. …

To cope, democratic socialists created an interpretive hermeneutic that is key to understanding Bernie Sanders’ moral equivalence. ….

Read the mentary here.