Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders is too far left for Sweden's ruling Social Democrats, official s

[Zolorp]

Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders is too far left for Sweden's ruling Social Democrats, official says

Johan Hassel, the international secretary for Sweden's ruling Social Democrats, visited Iowa before the caucuses, and he wasn't impressed with American's standard bearer for democratic socialism, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). "We were at a Sanders event, and it was like being at a Left Party meeting," he told Sweden's Svenska Dagbladet newspaper, according to one translation. "It was a mixture of very young people and old Marxists, who think they were right all along. There were no ordinary people there, simply."

Hassel was most "impressed" with Pete Buttigieg, though he also liked Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Eric Kleefeld, assiduous student of foreign politics, provides some context on Sweden's Social Democrats:

Link to tweet

Why would a Swedish Social Democrat favor Buttigieg over Sanders? Well, democratic socialism is different than Sweden's social democracy — the "Nordic model" Sanders touts — "and, unfortunately, Sanders has contributed to this confusion," writes MIT political economist Daron Acemoglu. Democratic socialism seeks to fix the iniquities of the market economy by handing control of the means of production to a company's workers or "an administrative structure operated by the state," he explains. "European social democracy is a system for regulating the market economy, not for supplanting it."

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https://theweek.com/speedreads/896948/democratic-socialist-bernie-sanders-far-left-swedens-ruling-social-democrats-official-says

Great read!

[IronLionZion]

1. They don't like the term socialism

because neither Sweden's social democrats nor Bernie are seizing the means of production. It's regulated capitalist markets with strong social programs.

Rasmussen's model, Vox's Matthew Yglesias wrote at the time, "is not especially different, as a substantive matter, from what Sanders is saying." Sanders wants "higher taxes, a lot more social welfare spending," and single-payer health care, he adds. "But in Rasmussen's view, this doesn't amount to socialism at all." Which may explain why, in Wednesday's debate, Warren affirmed she is a capitalist and Buttigieg held up Denmark as the paragon of the American Dream.

[NurseJackie]

2. Fascinating.

This isn't the first time I'm hearing something like this. But it's good to have an authoritative voice speaking up on the matter. I get so tired of the lies the Bernie's philosophy is "just like" Nordic or Scandinavian socialism. It's interesting to see that even the Nords and Swedes take issue with his extremism.

[Blues Heron]

3. He only took issue with the people he saw there

none were ordinary enough for him apparently whatever that means

"We were at a Sanders event, and it was like being at a Left Party meeting," he told Sweden's Svenska Dagbladet newspaper, according to one translation. "It was a mixture of very young people and old Marxists, who think they were right all along. There were no ordinary people there, simply."

[NurseJackie]

4. We can learn a lot about a candidate by his (or her) supporters.

It's not always flattering.

[Blues Heron]

5. he didn't like how they looked

not exactly deep analysis. Fail.

[DanTex]

6. He's talking about the term "democratic socialism", not the policies.

Because everything Bernie advocates is pretty much implemented in Sweden. It's just that typically the term for this is "social democracy" rather than "democratic socialism."