It is impossible to champion Hamas and care about Palestinians in Israel's Gaza Strip. To support Hamas is to approve of monsters who behead children, shoot civilians in the back, rape women and parade them like trophies.

Those who support Hamas must approve of terrorists telling peaceful Palestinians to stay put and die when Israel retaliates. They support another barbaric genocide of the world's remaining Jews.

The Denver Democratic Socialists of America released a statement Saturday saying it "unequivocally stands" with Palestine in its "fight for liberation from the apartheid regime of Israel."

It takes a special kind of amoral ignorance to call Israel an apartheid regime and conflate all Palestinians with a barbaric terrorist cell. Palestinians travel, live, work and trade in Israel. Most are peaceful people living their lives. Israel has held off on retaliation against Hamas to give Palestinians time to flee, hoping to mitigate civilian casualties — the likes of which Hamas feeds on.

Conflating the world's only Jewish state with an apartheid regime is antisemitic and racist, which is not the Democratic Party.

Incredibly, too many Colorado Democrats have for years tried to normalize socialism. Much to their credit, a few of the state's leading Democrats pushed back this week against their party's socialist element after Saturday's pro-Hamas statement. It's not a party wide outcry, but it's a start.

"I reject it (the socialists' statement) in the strongest possible terms," said Rep. Javier Mabrey, D-Denver, as quoted in a Gazette news article.

"As an organization (Denver socialists) that works towards a society free of exploitation and oppression, this statement does not reflect its values," said Rep. Lorena Garcia, D-Adams County.

Perhaps Garcia does not understand socialist values.

Well-informed American socialists — inspired by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Vladimir Lenin — do not work toward "a society free of exploitation and oppression." Throughout history, socialism has led to authoritarian ownership of production and countless human rights atrocities. Think China.

In their book "Socialism has Failed. Period," economists Robert Lawson and Benjamin Powell document how socialism always leads to economic stagnation followed by "widespread starvation with millions of accompanying deaths."

Given this history, it is no shock to hear Denver socialists join other radicals in celebrating the largest slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.

Authoritarians see humanity in groups — an ideology of identity politics. The United States, a constitutional republic, has evolved to value individuals without regard for race, religion, creed, gender, nationality, etc. It does so like few other societies.

The United Socialist Party of Venezuela has caused such economic devastation that people starve to death. The horrors of genuine socialist control have busloads of Venezuelans risking death to arrive in Colorado by busloads.

Colorado's Democratic Party has given us a long list of good leaders who have respected life, condemned violence and war and understood the difference between moderate center-left policies and socialism.

While we applaud Garcia and Mabrey for distancing themselves from Colorado socialists, we expect a lot more from the party that gave us Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Lafayette, Rep. Jason Crow, D-Aurora, former Democratic Gov. Dick Lamm and too many others to list.

Today's Democrats can normalize fringe elements of its base — people like the Denver socialists — and retrogress to days when it gave us the Ku Klux Klan. Or it can be the party that values all-day preschool, law and order, reasonable social safety nets, anti-discrimination laws and other policies intended to improve humanity.

To avoid a brand implosion, and do the right thing, Colorado Democrats should aggressively reject the Denver "Democratic" socialists and any other factions that celebrate genocide. Today is not too soon.

The Gazette Editorial Board

REPRINTED FROM THE COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE

Photo credit: Ahmed Abu Hameeda at Unsplash