Sanders: 'Cheap shot' for Bloomberg to attack 'democratic socialism' as 'communism'

[RandySF]

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) blasted Michael Bloomberg on the debate stage Wednesday night after the former New York City mayor likened democratic socialism to communism.

Sanders called the remark a "cheap shot" before asking the billionaire candidate where he holds the majority of his assets.

"We're not going to throw out capitalism. We tried that. Other countries tried that," Bloomberg told Sanders. "It was called communism, and it just didn't work."



https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/483783-sanders-cheap-shot-for-bloomberg-to-attack-democratic-socialism-as

[BeyondGeography]

1. Get used to it, Bernie

If you’re the nominee there will be a whole Republican convention dedicated to labeling you a communist. And it will work.

[HerbChestnut]

2. Yeah, we expect that type of crap coming from Republicans.

Not people running for the Democratic nomination.

[BeyondGeography]

4. Bloomberg is an unnecessary candidate and he showed it tonight

[tiredtoo]

5. Maybe, maybe not but,

Whoever is the candidate will be called a socialist and maybe communist. WHOEVER the keyword here.

[BeyondGeography]

9. America will not send an anti-capitalist to the White House

If there’s one thing I understand about this crazy country it’s that.

[tiredtoo]

11. define anti-capitalist please. NT

[Zolorp]

14. Yeah, but Bernie was the only candidate who was actually on a ballot under a Communist Party label.

[tiredtoo]

18. i am not aware of that. source? NT

[Zolorp]

23. Here are two from an incredibly liberal source

https://www.thedailybeast.com/bernies-past-with-the-far-far-far-left

https://www.thedailybeast.com/when-iran-took-americans-hostage-bernie-backed-irans-defenders

[True Blue American]

30. May I add something to this?

I was able to listen to one of the hostages when he spoke at a Paratrooper Convention in Boston. We were able to ask him questions.

Then a few years ago I found my neighbor’s brother was one, too.

Ronald Reagan had him flown all over the Country at tax payers expense to give Reagan credit.

It was clear at the time when Carter was trying to get them out Bush 41 made a trip to Iran, made an agreement they hold the hostages until Reagan was nominated. They did just that. Cost Carter the-election.

That is all I am going to say, just think about that.

[Boulevardier]

45. I hear the ghost of Joe McCarthy. And Sanders didn't run under the CP label.

The SWP is a Trotskyite party. Trotsky broke with the Stalinist Communist Party before Bernie was even born. Trotsky got an ice pick to the head for his efforts thanks to the real Commies. (You can visit Trotsky's house in the Mexico City suburb of Coyoacan. See his broken glasses from the attack. And Frida Kahlo's house is nearby, too.)

[Zolorp]

47. The presidential candidate he ran as an elector for praised the Soviet Union as a preferable system

He also backed the Iranians over the hostages during that crisis.

And the SWP literature used to tout themselves as COMMUNIST.

[Boulevardier]

48. When was that? Forty-three freaking years ago?

SWP was unabashedly Marxist. They were not the Communist Party.

I don't know what he said about Iran--I'm sure you've dredged that up already--but a lot of us had sympathy for the revolution that overthrew the US-backed Shah and his hated secret police. And not so much sympathy for the US government that tried to impose him on Iran.

[Zolorp]

49. OFFS, so one march in 1963 as his civil rights record makes him an MLK ally,...

yet being affiliated with a Communist party from 1977 through the fall of the Berlin wall is old news?

OFFS!



The SWP called themselves Communist. Look it up. They were originally part of the Communist League of America which later became the Communist Party USA.

If you think this country will elect a former Communist president, you have no sense of American history or how middle America thinks.

[Zolorp]

12. Only because he was on the Vermont ballot in 1980 under a Communist Party label.

[BeyondGeography]

15. Yup

Minor detail.

[JudyM]

20. Seemed like he did a quick and clear job dispensing with it by talking about socialism for the

powerful as our current model, and he wants to flip that so that benefits go instead to the working class.

[UniteFightBack]

35. McSally is already running ads tying Kelly to Sanders they are too liberal for America.

I feel a sense of doom.

[BeyondGeography]

37. This is easy, obvious stuff for Republicans

I’m surprised at the level of denial by many Sanders supporters about how effective it will be.

[Boulevardier]

46. McSally is in serious trouble, and I don't think red-baiting is going to help her.

Martha McSally Trails By 7

[tiredtoo]

8. Define Heartland please. nt

[YOHABLO]

13. You define it.

[tiredtoo]

19. i did not use the phrase in a derogatory manner.

[YOHABLO]

24. metaphorical

[lapucelle]

33. Attacks on people don't count if their demographic descriptor involves a metaphor?

[True Blue American]

31. The middle of the Country.

Some call it flyover. The people who vote.

[dware]

17. Wow!

Way to smear those living in the Heartland.

[DanTex]

6. Yeah, that was a Godwin-like fail by Bloomberg.

[Cal Carpenter]

7. It was a cheap shot. Stale old red baiting.

There are people who can vote who were born more than 10 years after the Berlin wall came down. They roll their eyes at that shit.

It's not 1985 anymore.

Eta I grew up in the 80s when the commies were supposedly gonna nuke me and I roll my eyes at that shit too lol

[True Blue American]

32. Red baiting?

When it is fact?

[Tom Rinaldo]

39. No, not a fact. Not even close. Ronald Reagan was a union leader and fan of FDR

when Reagan was young. Does that mean Gerald Ford would have been accurate to call Reagan a liberal Democrat when those two were contesting for the Republican presidential nomination? Whatever arcane point anyone is trying to make from 1980 is four decades old. Elizabeth Warren was a Republican in the early 1990's. Would you assert that someone calling her a Republican now was just citing "Facts"?

[True Blue American]

42. Yeah!

Right up until he became wealthy because of GE Theater, got elected ,then turned on Unions with a vengeance I lived through. That and watched it happen! Have you forgotten Reagan destroyed the Controllers Union!

Union members knew then it was the beginning of the demise of Unions! I watched it happen! You are defending Reagan?

What Reagan thought when he was dependent on the Union and what he did as President is daylight and dark. Why do you think Reagan become a Republican?

[Zolorp]

10. Since Sanders was an elector for a Communist, he has no room to complain.

[TheBlackAdder]

16. That pissed me off. The US is a hybrid economy. Comparing socialism to communism shows ignorance.

[Generic Brad]

21. Get ready for more of that

If Bernie is our nominee this will be hurled at him by all Republicans 24/7. They have no plans to take the high road or campaign fairly.

[TheBlackAdder]

22. No matter who gets nominated in the Democratic Party, they'll be branded a socialist anyway!

.


As with the past 70+ years. . .


All Democrats better get on their game and start the messaging about what socialism is.

People who don't are just contributing to the Republican messaging by ignoring the threat.

.

[dem4decades]

27. Except one guy labeled himself that.

[JustAnotherGen]

28. +1 eom

[RandySF]

40. Good luk explaining that this fall.

[TheBlackAdder]

43. Well, then that would be the failure of all Democrats, as this topic pops up every election.

.

We need to convey how bullshit that talking point is, but it's rarely tackled.

Just wait until Trump brings that shit up and someone like Warren spanks him for it.

.

[NurseJackie]

25. Stand by, Bernie. You ain't seen nuthin' yet.

[dem4decades]

29. Yep. They'll say he wants to take your healthcare, raise your taxes and destroy your IRA.

Good luck getting voters in ther middle with that.

[Jose Garcia]

34. This is what happens when you gave a history of praising communists

[Happy Hoosier]

36. Bernie had best get a better answer.

It might have been a cheap shot, but if he gets the nomination, he’s going to hear it a lot.

[DanTex]

38. He's absolutely right, and Bloomberg knows that he's right.

Bloomberg has done business in countries like Germany, Netherlands, France, etc. where the policies that Bernie is advocating are in effect. Bloomberg was specifically talking about labor representation on corporate boards, which is also part of Warren's platform. This isn't communism, it's a pro-labor policy that is common throughout the world.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

41. Perhaps

He's right Democratic Socialism is not Communism but sadly many think otherwise.

[Laelth]

44. I am VERY glad that Bernie said this.

It's extremely helpful for the party, as a whole, for Bernie to say he doesn't want to throw out capitalism. I was relieved.

While I agree that Warren "won" this debate, I think that Bernie came in second. This comment was significant. I also found myself applauding Bernie's comments more often than any of our other candidates.

For what that's worth.



-Laelth