A socialist? Fine by me, Sanders supporters say

[n2doc]

by Naureen Khan

ARLINGTON, Va. — The venue was a progressive policy forum in a packed conference room in Northern Virginia, far different from the kind of rallies drawing thousands of supporters that have helped propel Bernie Sanders’s upstart campaign for president.

But Sanders, the Democratic challenger to front-runner Hillary Clinton, was nevertheless on a tear. In the kind of fiery, policy-heavy speech that he has given for decades, Sanders laid out an agenda that gives the government a central role in promoting economic and social equality: a $15 an hour minimum wage, four years of tuition-free public college, higher taxes on the ultra-wealthy and on Wall Street transactions and a single-payer Medicare-for-all health system.

But is it socialism? Bernie Sanders, who since the beginning of this political career has called himself a “democratic socialist,” hasn’t disavowed or shied away from the term even under the hot glare of the presidential campaign spotlight.

“Do they think I’m afraid of the word?” he said in an interview with The Nation, praising the democratic socialist countries of Scandinavia. “I’m not afraid of the word.”

Neither, it seems, do Sanders supporters who have contributed to his recent surge in national polls and allowed him to become a thorn in the side of the Clinton campaign.

more

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/7/14/a-socialist-fine-by-me-sanders-supporters-say.html

[cilla4progress]

1. Such a relief.

Finally. I've been calling myself a socialist for 45 years - since college - in Burlington, Vermont!!

Go Bernie!

[merrily]

2. FDR, Truman and LBJ governed as Democratic Socialists.

More and more, I think their motivation was to stave off a potential revolution. Nonetheless, the New Deal, the Fair Deal and the Great Society were Democratic Socialism writ large.

See also: http://www.democraticunderground.com/12806844 ("What the hell is an "avowed" Democratic Socialist anyway?&quot

Until I did that OP and got those great replies, I did not realize that I've probably been a Democratic Socialist all my life.

(LOL, why did posting that feel like I was posting "I am Spartacus?&quot

47% of Americans polled said they'd have no problem voting for a socialist. Not a Democratic Socialist, mind you, but a socialist--and that's not only Democrats, but all Americans.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12779114

And a majority of Americans polled on issues go Bernie's way (the populist way), sometimes by a majority of over 70%--and that's not only Democrats, but all Americans.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12777036

[RufusTFirefly]

3. "Avowed" is like "card-carrying" or even "known"

It's a cheap-shot adjective designed to make anything it modifies sound vaguely suspicious and/or subversive.

Signed,

RufusTFirefly
(Good friend of a known thespian)

[SoapBox]

7. Yup.

[DirkGently]

4. Democratic Socialism is the way adult countries do things.

Unregulated capitalism is not part of the Constitution, or the Bible, as a disturbingly large proportion of the population has been led to believe.

[Enthusiast]

5. Excellent points.

A disturbingly large proportion of the population need to be educated.

[DirkGently]

6. We're a weirdly primitive country

in a lot of ways. The fact that anyone -- least of all Democrats living in the 21st Century -- have trouble wrapping their heads around the fact that no other successful, advanced democracy in the world proposes that things like a social safety net, infrastructure investment, or free universal education and healthcare, etc. are some kind of Stalinist blasphemy is just weird, and a bit sad.

But I also think a few decades of watching financial companies and megacorps bite significant chunks out of everyone's standard of living is turning that around, albeit slowly.

[Le Taz Hot]

8. Which is why McCaskill's charge of "socialst!" was so off-target.

These people honestly don't have a clue as to what is happening out here. NONE of these accusations have stuck. NONE of them. You just cannot wipe out 40+ years of social activism with meaningless labels like that. You just can't.

[MisterP]

9. it's like the South American righties who're stilly bawling about "Communism"

in 1993 some countries put tanks on the streets saying a "Soviet-backed coup" was imminent--now the funny thing about that "Soviet" part was that it's 1993 ...

it's also usual for debased, empty duopoly parties led by death-squad funders to blame all problems on lefty dissidents inside the party; it's the one sure sign of a dead and rattling rhetoric