Does not matter. When the paint brush starts working that the label for him.
I find it somewhat interesting that defenders of Bernie do not want his early in life actions to besmirch his name now. Not like you would not use the equivalent to paint who you not like on the other side.
Sorry its a fair paint brush to use, and he has plenty in his past to fuel it.
Remember that I’m just telling you guys what Republicans(and to a lesser extent, Clinton allies) are going to be pulling out. I think the reason these attacks will be more effective than you think are:
Sanders calls himself a socialist. If he was running as a moderate Democrat, this would be Clinton-type stuff. But people will be inclined to interpret these things more negatively given Sanders’ self-labelling.
Once the public gets a load of what Sanders’ proposed tax rates are, they’ll already be inclined to think of him as damn near Stalin. While Sanders is defending himself from “Hammer and Sickle” attacks, he also has to defend his tax plan, which for the middle class, mostly just substitutes taxes for health insurance premiums. He’s going to need a lot of skill as a politician to navigate these waters.
Nice retreat from “Sanders…thinks our historic adversaries were right” to “Republicans are going to claim that Sanders thinks our historic adversaries were right.” You went from an uncited and incorrect position to a prediction about the future that is likely correct, and you probably didn’t even notice!
In adaher’s defence, he’s a right wing activist who probably hasn’t given quite enough thought into what that means.
Run as a nationalist-going to the USSR is kid’s stuff compared to the way Wall Street and the plutocracy has been shafting the working people of this country. Don’t just say they are greedy or corrupt-say that the 1%ers are traitors whose primary loyalty is to Mammon not the flag.
Sanders is pretty realist on foreign policy-he is no Ralph Nader who thinks the US should withdraw its military from all over the world but on the other hand he is extremely sceptical of regime change in the Middle East.
Changing the subject is often criticized on the Dope, but it’s brilliant political strategy. Clinton did it in his run. “Forget about my personal life, let’s talk about the issues.” It worked well, as it should have given the times.
Conservatives itching to use 80 year old Red Scare tactics on Bernie Sanders. Should work well on people voting from their death beds!
Very clever – you’re suggesting that Sanders respond with an argument that “The American people are communists too; they just don’t know it.”
Powerful stuff.
“Mr. Trump. Tear. Down. That. Wall.”
Substituting the word “socialist,” he’s pretty much saying that already.
That wasn’t youthful naivete, that was a grown man protesting sending good men to kill and die for a bright shining lie.
“Socialist” used to have some meaning, the prof in the corduroy jacket, with leather patches on the elbows smoking a pipe and boring the shit out of undergrads. Now, its just anybody to the left of Calvin Coolidge.
One of the big arguments against those programs was that no degree of social welfare programs would ever be enough. Eventually, the opponents said, the proponents of government entitlements would work to draw more and more of the economy into their wheelhouse. People had crazy conspiracies that leaders would arise seeking to do away with certain private enterprises, like medical insurance, and that they would work to funnel more and more of the economy through government coffers.
No, they were told, we are only going to mandate that a small portion of everyone’s income and wealth be confiscated, to take care of the most needy and helpless in our society, and only when government stewardship is clearly the best way to do so. They were reminded that those with common sense would prevail, that unending expansion of government power and productivity mitigating taxation would always be opposed by thinking people. And they were right. Here we are.
Unless you have actual sources to support this nonsense you appear to be engaged in a rather inappropriate bit of nonsense.
Knock it off.
[ /Moderating ]
Anyone have any actual evidence that the word “socialist” has negative connotations for most Americans* today*? I have seen (but can’t find) a source saying that it has more positive associations than “capitalist” for Americans under 30.
He’s already given an answer of sorts. When asked if he wanted the USA to resemble Norway or Denmark, he replied, “What’s wrong with that?”. And he’s right.
Or, alternatively: anyone able to offer a single real-life example of an actual person who said anything like “I initially thought Bernie Sanders made a lot of sense and considered voting for him, but I could never vote for anyone who calls himself a socialist”?
Based on an actual personal aversion to the term “socialist”, that is, not on pragmatic considerations of perceived electability.
What did we even need a revolution for? We would have been better off just staying with England like Canada did.