Democrats a Little Embarrassed That Declared Socialist Bernie Sanders Has So Much Support -- Given Their Denials of Being Socialist

Politico, of all people, dips a toe tentatively in a bath of truth.

The socialist surge

The rise of Bernie Sanders is proving awkward for the Democratic Party.

By BEN SCHRECKINGER and JONATHAN TOPAZ

Democratic primaries have always featured liberal insurgent candidates, but perhaps none quite so liberal or insurgent as the socialist senator from Vermont. Sanders' comments are a reminder of just how far the second-place Democratic presidential candidate stands from the American mainstream on some issues, and the looming reckoning Democrats face with their party's leftward drift.

Kind of amazing Politico actually notes the Democrats have drifted far to the left. The media usually likes claiming the GOP has become more rightist while the Democrats have become even more centrist, in fact, almost too centrist (and almost too Just Like You).

[Ralph] Nader's kinship with Sanders is yet another sign that the Democratic Party's goal posts have moved left. The percentage of Democrats who identify as socially and economically liberal has increased 17 points since 2001, according to a recent Gallup poll. And the party’s restive liberal base -- led in recent years by progressive icon Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren --as pushed the party establishment on social issues like same-sex marriage and populist economic ones like equal pay and paid sick leave.

Republicans, at least, are betting that broad swaths of the electorate have been left behind.

"Look, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and the other Democrats in D.C., they’re for socialism. They just -- they’re not as honest as Bernie is," said Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Hugh Hewitt's radio show last week...

It’s usually Democrats who play this game -- as they did with Republican challengers to Mitt Romney in 2012, or with fringe characters like Todd Aiken. Now, it's Republicans seeking to use the Sanders surge to portray Democrats as radical and out of touch.

And that’s making many Democrats nervous, said Joe Trippi, who ran Vermonter Howard Dean’s campaign in 2004.

If so many Democrats are in fact socialists, what business does the media have swearing that they're not socialists?

Here's one guy who proudly says they're socialists -- MSNBC loudmouth Lawrence O'Donnell, who says that Bernie Sanders speaks the "essential truth that we're all socialists now."

He has no right to speak for us, but I will mark him down as speaking for Democrats-- yes, the Democrats are all socialists, and this is not a "now" sort of thing. They have simply lied about it since 1918.

posted by Ace at 01:33 PM

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