Bernie Sanders’ "Socialism" May Have Mainstream Appeal

[eridani]

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/30016-bernie-sanders-socialismq-may-have-mainstream-appeal

Finally, conservatives have a real socialist to go crazy about. Instead of concocting dark fairytales about how Barack Obama, a very conventional liberal Democrat, is a secret Marxist who wants to destroy the American way of life, they can shriek about Bernie Sanders, the independent Vermont senator who has never shied away from the socialist label.



Sanders is now the first person to challenge Hillary Clinton in the race to win the 2016 Democratic Party presidential nomination. Clinton, though, is not his real adversary, Sanders says. He refuses to make disparaging comments about Clinton and insists he has never run an attack ad in any campaign and will not do so against her. Sanders wants to take on the billionaires, not Hillary.

Nobody gives the 73-year-old Sanders a chance of stopping the Clinton political juggernaut, but some think he could make it veer to the left. If the Vermonter gets traction in debates and primaries with his unabashed progressive positions, Clinton might be forced to match at least some of his rhetoric. Would that be a bad thing for Democrats? Not if enough beleaguered middle class voters get a chance to consider what Sanders’ version of “socialism” entails and like what they see.

[merrily]

1. Don't be fooled. Sanders cannot make Hillary veer left.

Hillary Clinton's Wall Street Backers: We get it.

Populist rhetoric, many say, is good politics — but doesn’t portend an assault on the rich.

.....

Indeed, many of the financial-sector donors supporting her just-declared presidential campaign say they’ve been expecting all along the moment when Clinton would start calling out hedge fund managers and decrying executive pay — right down to the complaints from critics that such arguments are rich coming from someone who recently made north of $200,000 per speech and who has been close to Wall Street since her days representing it as a senator from New York.

The only surprise, even to those who are apparently the targets of the remarks, was that Clinton’s denunciation on the trail in Iowa and in a fundraising email — widely read as a nod to the wing of the Democratic Party that prefers Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren to Clinton — came so soon. Far from creating genuine waves on Wall Street, Clinton’s comments were met with a resounding “meh.”

......

In the words of Democratic strategist Chris Lehane, a veteran of Bill Clinton’s White House who now advises Tom Steyer, the billionaire environmentalist hedge-fund manager and donor: “The fact is that any Democrat running for president would talk about this. It’s as surprising as the sun rising in the east.”


........

Nonetheless, there are persistent doubts, even among past Clinton supporters such as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, about whether Clinton will go very far in reining in tax policies and compensation practices that favor the rich.


Read more http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/hillary-clintons-wall-street-backers-we-get-it-117017.html

See also

David Axelrod: Clinton's top challenge is showing voters she's authenti

By Nick Gass

4/15/15 7:06 AM EDT

David Axelrod says Hillary Clinton’s biggest challenge in her campaign will be showing voters that she is authentic and genuinely understands their concerns.

“Humility is the order of the day,” Axelrod said in an interview with The Des Moines Register. “In 2007, her campaign was this juggernaut of inevitability and it was a top-down experience. Voters don’t like to be told that their decision is predetermined. They want to be asked for their vote and more than that they want to have a genuine connection with the candidate

.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/david-axelrod-hillary-clinton-top-voter-challenge-116990.html#ixzz3ZR750Yoe

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

3. That's ok. Bernie's not in it to make Hillary 'better'.

It's win-win for us. Either he wins outright, or he spends months showing Americans that 'socialism' is not a dirty word, and helps socialists across the country in future races.

[merrily]

4. I'm supporting his win. But, you probably guessed that.

[Ed Suspicious]

2. They've cried the end of days over the socialist in the White House so many times.

Every time they do it they desensitize people to the word. It's the ultimate form of crying wolf. Now people are curious. Socialism feels a lot like what we have now. it's not so scary. The wold isn't ending under this "socialism."

[daleanime]

8. +1

[sabrina 1]

5. Sander's 'socialist' policies are the most popular in the country, across the political spectrum.

And you should never have to 'drag' a Democrat to the Left.

Democrats ARE the Left. If you have to drag someone there, they are not Left and no matter what campaign rhetoric they resort to in order to win, they never will be.

Bernie is in this this race to win it.

He has stated that he would not run in such a campaign unless he thought he had a chance.

And now he's proving the pundits wrong.

I know he can win.

[Enthusiast]

6. I am in this for Bernie to win.

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[stone space]

7. Socialists are the new (and recycled!) boogieman.

Not too long ago it was teh gays, but as the R's are finding out, that one doesn't have the traction that it once did.

Of course, those promoting socialism as a boogieman these days need to contend with the beating that capitalism has taken in public perception.

I'm guessing that D's who try to scare voters with socialism in 2015 really aren't too far behind R's who try to scare voters of teh gays in 2015.

In both cases, they are relying on boogiemen who have pretty much outlived their political utility.