{"id":11810,"date":"2019-05-06T17:10:25","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T00:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=11810"},"modified":"2019-05-06T17:10:34","modified_gmt":"2019-05-07T00:10:34","slug":"how-socialist-is-bernie-sanders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/how-socialist-is-bernie-sanders\/","title":{"rendered":"How Socialist Is Bernie Sanders?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Please read this piece by my colleague Paul Roderick Gregory published\u00a0by\u00a0Hoover\u00a0Institution<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The candidacy of Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination raises the real prospect of an avowed socialist as President of the United States. Notably, Sanders reveals little about what socialism means to him, other than giving many things away free. He disarms critics by asserting that he is not a \u201csocialist\u201d but a \u201cDemocratic Socialist,\u201d without defining what that means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanders, however, is not the only self-declared \u201cDemocratic Socialist\u201d around. The largest American socialist party, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), unlike Sanders, openly declares its intent to abolish capitalism as we know it. A staff writer for a DSA house publication could not be clearer<\/a>: \u201cIn the long run, democratic socialists want to end capitalism\u2026we want to end our society\u2019s subservience to the market.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does Sanders agree? That is the question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Socialism burst on the American political scene with Sanders\u2019 strong bid for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. Not a one-time fluke, Sanders currently ranks at the top of the crowded 2020 Democratic field. The 2018 elections of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) and Rashida Tlaib to the House added momentum to the socialist chic sweeping the country.  In the past few years, candidates identifying themselves as socialist have won more than 50 state and municipal offices, the latest being the election<\/a> of five candidates to the Chicago city council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanders has spent a long political career obfuscating his true political beliefs. The media rarely pushes back on his standard\u00a0platitude<\/a>s, such as \u201cwe must create an economy that works for all, not just the very wealthy.\u201d His two-minute\u00a0video<\/a>, promising to explain his brand of socialism, leaves the viewer clueless, probably deliberately. Sanders\u00a0insists<\/a>\u00a0that he is not a \u201csocialist\u201d but a \u201cDemocratic Socialist,\u201d as if the difference is self-explanatory. When pressed further about his Democratic Socialism, he resorts to filibustering about the Scandinavian-like paradise of free medicine and education, guaranteed jobs, livable wages, and other free things he intends to introduce when elected. He does not bother to note that the Nordic states\u00a0rank<\/a>\u00a0among the most free-enterprise economies of the globe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Please read this piece by my colleague Paul Roderick Gregory published\u00a0by\u00a0Hoover\u00a0Institution The candidacy of Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination raises the real prospect of an avowed socialist as President of the United States. Notably, Sanders reveals little about what socialism means to him, other than giving many things away free. He disarms critics by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1215,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-34u","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11648,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/progressives-pulling-a-bait-and-switch-with-medicare-for-all\/","url_meta":{"origin":11810,"position":0},"title":"Progressives pulling a bait-and-switch with ‘Medicare for All’","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 5, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Please read this piece by my colleague Paul Roderick Gregory in The Hill Politicians are known to misrepresent themselves to get elected, but Sen.\u00a0Bernie Sanders\u00a0(I-Vt.) is supposed to be an exception. It is said that he has remained true to his socialist convictions through thick and thin. Surely, such a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bernie Sanders"","block_context":{"text":"Bernie Sanders","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/bernie-sanders\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11968,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/victor-davis-hanson-why-are-so-many-young-people-calling-themselves-socialists\/","url_meta":{"origin":11810,"position":1},"title":"Victor Davis Hanson: Why are so many young people calling themselves socialists?","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 30, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Fox News \u201cSocialist!\u201d\u00a0is no longer a McCarthyite slur. Rather, the fresh celebrity \u201cSquad\u201d of newly elected identity-politics congresswomen \u2013\u00a0Ilhan Omar,\u00a0D-Minn.; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.; and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.; \u2013 \u00a0often either claim to be socialists or embrace socialist ideas. A recent Harris poll showed\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11384,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/americans-wont-vote-for-socialism-once-they-know-what-it-is\/","url_meta":{"origin":11810,"position":2},"title":"Americans won’t vote for socialism once they know what it is","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is a piece by one of my colleagues. Paul Roderick Gregory \/\/ The Hill A series of\u00a0polls\u00a0have shown that pluralities of Democrats and millennials prefer socialism to capitalism. These surveys also make clear that respondents do not know what socialism is. Also Sen.\u00a0Bernie Sanders\u00a0(I-Vt.) has shown that Democratic primary\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Socialism"","block_context":{"text":"Socialism","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/socialism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12355,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/biden-has-become-an-albatross-for-the-democrats\/","url_meta":{"origin":11810,"position":3},"title":"Biden Has Become an Albatross for the Democrats","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 7, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Joe Biden\u00a0is the apparent Democratic presidential nominee. After all, he had a seemingly insurmountable lead in delegates going into the rescheduled August convention in the postponed Democratic primary race. Biden was winning the nomination largely because he was not the socialist Bernie Sanders, who\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12301,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/corona-meltdowns\/","url_meta":{"origin":11810,"position":4},"title":"Corona Meltdowns","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 8, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness As the coronavirus outbreak begins to reach its zenith, it remains unclear whether the measures taken to stem its tide will prove sufficient, insufficient, or an overreaction. What is certain, however, is that a number of individuals and entities have behaved shamefully and demonstrated\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11207,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-scandal-on-the-other-foot\/","url_meta":{"origin":11810,"position":5},"title":"The Scandal on the Other Foot","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness Consider the following alternate reality. Imagine that it is now summer 2024. A 78-year-old lame-duck President Trump is winding down his second term, basking in positive polls. His dutiful vice president in waiting, Mike Pence, is at last getting his chance to run for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Pence"","block_context":{"text":"Pence","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/pence\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11810"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11810"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11813,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11810\/revisions\/11813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}