Do liberals understand that a socialist society can turn into a dictatorship?

Question

As they say, the road to h**l is paved with good intentions. Liberals seem to think a "warm & fuzzy" socialist utopia, where all people have equal wealth and life is fair to everyone, can really happen.

A mild, passive socialist like Obama could be replaced by a ruthless dictator, thats how it usually happens in history.

Did the progressive supporters of the Bolshevik revolution think Stalin would later take control and murder more people than Hitler? Did the progressive Cubans who supported Castro forsee that Casto would seize everyone's liveliehoods and hold them prisoner in their own country?

By disarming society, handicapping a capitalist economy with taxes, trial lawyers and attacking corporations so you can denounce capitalism, by attacking the family, marriage, faith, patriotism & all the other negative things supported by liberals, if the USA was converted to a socialist society, WHY do liberals fail to understand that a dictator would emerge and turn the USA into a Stalinist nightmare?

Answer 1

Any form of government can but I agree socialism can do it the quickest becuase of the vast amount of dependence on the state. What we have now is socialism in the United States almost. Our government is so 'generous' to go as far as redistribute our wealth to large corporations and foreign countries too.

This is an interesting and true quote on democracy: (note we live in a republic which is supposed to prevent this...but are turning into a socialist democracy)

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship." - Alexander Tyler

So it can happen anywhere. Someone asked Benjamin Franklin what the best form of government was and he said "A republic, if you can keep it"

I agree.

Answer 2

I don't follow your argument. Capitalism, in Italy, Germany, and Spain, produced fascist regimes. State-capitalism and state-socialism can each lead to dictatorship; why, then, turn against socialism instead of turning against statism?

And, anyway, Obama isn't a socialist, he's another corporate-welfare state-capitalist. If he wasn't, he wouldn't be where he is.