“Our Bill of Rights guarantees the American people a number of important, constitutionally protected political rights,” proclaimed Vermont senator and 2020 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders last week.

“Now,” he went on to say, “we must take the step forward and guarantee every man, woman and child in our country basic economic rights – the right to quality health care, the right to as much education as one needs to succeed in our society, the right to a good job that pays a living wage, the right to affordable housing, the right to a secure retirement and the right to live in a clean environment.”

“Economic rights,” Bernie says, “are human rights. That is what I mean by democratic socialism.”

Former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper later rebuked Sanders, attesting that it’s “when government has teamed up with the private sector and nonprofits that we have seen our greatest successes.” As I argued in my last column, Hick – who I expect will shift to the Senate race against incumbent Cory Gardner – seems to be opposing “democratic socialism” more for politics than actual policy motivations.

But at least Hick grasps the underlying point: Socialism is antithetical to the United States under our Constitution, even as we’ve implemented some socialistic ideas over the past 100 years.  And, therefore, Americans are rightly resistant to the idea. It strikes against the very core of who we are as a people.

Every Colorado Democrat – incumbent or candidate; federal, state or local – should go on the record about their overall economic philosophy. Because Bernie and NY Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are not the only ones proclaiming the virtues of socialist salvation. We have elected officials in our own backyard embracing this extreme ideology.

“I consider myself a democratic socialist,” Candi CdeBaca, the new city councilwoman for Denver’s District 9, told KDVR. She then tried to carve a distinction between socialism and communism.

“Communism is when the government owns everything; socialism is when people have control of the distribution of ownership,” she said. “People have more power.”

But the line between socialism and communism these days can be very thin. “Democratic socialists” feverishly wrap their brand of radical politics in the flag of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “economic rights” and “more power to the people” all they want, but they’re really being disingenuous.

For example, at a candidates’ forum in April, Candi said: “We know [capitalism] doesn’t work, and we have to move into something new, and I believe in community ownership of land, labor, resources and distribution of those resources.  And whatever that morphs into is I think what will serve community the best, and I’m excited to usher it in by any means necessary.”

Question: How does “community ownership of land, labor [and] resources and distribution of those resources,” and doing so “by any means necessary,” ensure that “people have more power?”

The answer is, it doesn’t.  “Community ownership” sounds nice, but it requires confiscating private property through government force (that’s the “by any means necessary” part).  Private property is fundamental to a free society.

Indeed, Bernie and Candi love to talk about how democratic “democratic socialism” is.  Because when a group of wolves get together and vote to eat the sheep, it’s better than just a lone wolf making the decision, you see.

Now take Bernie’s speech. His so-called “Economic Bill of Rights” is ripped right from Josef Stalin’s 1936 Soviet Constitution. As my friend, novelist Keith Nobles, put it, “Would you agree that organizing the economy on the same principles as the 1930’s Soviet Union is communism?”

But let’s grant Bernie and Candi the socialist/communist distinction for a moment.  Even then, it’s still antithetical to the very idea of the Bill of Rights that Bernie praises – protections from government, not gifts from government – and to what rights actually are. (That is, the freedom to think, act and choose). A free society is not one where someone has the “right” to the land, labor and resources of others.

Let alone the fact that “socialism” has been tried before – and it’s resulted in failure and tyranny every time.

So, here’s my challenge to Colorado Democrats. Tell us where you stand. Do you call yourself a capitalist or a democratic socialist? Please explain your answer.

Jimmy Sengenberger is the host of Business for Breakfast on KDMT Denver’s Money Talk 1690 AM and The Jimmy Sengenberger Show on News/Talk 710 KNUS.  He is the President and CEO of the Denver-based Millennial Policy Center.