With Bernie Sanders leading the Democratic presidential nomination race according to polls (and the first primary), there\u2019s a set of questions voters should be asking:<\/p>\n
If Sanders is a genuine Democratic Socialist of America style socialist, then we should recognize that incrementalism is part of the official DSA strategy. Otherwise, Sanders is knowingly misleading voters, mostly the young voters with a positive view of socialism.\u00a0If either of these first two options is true, Sanders deserves some disdain for cynically manipulating voters.<\/p>\n
If Paul Krugman is correct, however, then Sanders is simply confused and doesn\u2019t understand socialism. I find that pretty difficult to believe. Sanders knowingly honeymooned in the Soviet Union and embraced the socialist dictatorships of Cuba and Venezuela. Plus, if Sanders doesn\u2019t know what socialism is, why should he be president?<\/p>\n
Falsely claiming to be a socialist, as\u00a0I\u2019ve written before on Socialists without Socialism<\/a>, annoys Jacobin<\/strong><\/em> writers and faithful members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Politicians, pundits, educators, and others should use the term socialist properly, the Jacobins and DSA members rightly argue. As NPR explained in 2018, Democratic Socialists of America are anti-capitalists<\/a>. They are revolutionaries. And\u2026 they so endorse Bernie Sanders as a group.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not generalizing.\u00a0Read what an actual DSA activists and writer states:<\/p>\n Democratic socialism, explained by a democratic socialist<\/a> By Meagan Day Aug 1, 2018, 12:50pm EDT<\/p>\n I\u2019m a staff writer at the socialist magazine Jacobin and a member of DSA, and here\u2019s the truth: In the long run, democratic socialists want to end capitalism.<\/strong> And we want to do that by pursuing a reform agenda today in an effort to revive a politics focused on class hierarchy and inequality in the United States. The eventual goal is to transform the world to promote everyone\u2019s needs rather than to produce massive profits for a small handful of citizens.<\/p>\n Pooling society\u2019s resources to meet people\u2019s basic needs is a tenet of social democracy, one that\u2019s been advocated domestically by much of the labor movement and many of its political supporters among New Deal and post-New Deal liberals. This is a vision we share. But we also want more than FDR did. A robust welfare state in an economy that\u2019s still organized around capitalists\u2019 profits can mitigate the worst inequalities for a while, but it\u2019s at best a temporary truce between bosses and workers \u2014 and one that the former will look to scrap as soon as they can.<\/p>\n [\u2026]<\/p>\n Of course, even socializing a whole industry like medicine wouldn\u2019t automatically lead to the socializing of others. But through the process of the campaign, democratic socialists want to build into the popular consciousness an awareness that the market is not capable of meeting society\u2019s needs<\/strong>. This sets us up for other fights, whether something defensive such as stopping school privatization or something proactive such as nationalizing energy companies.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n There above reveals the incrementalism that many traditional Marxists embrace. Recall that Karl Marx himself suggested socialism and communism were evolutionary stages of human society, not the result of revolution. We slowly evolve \u2014 there\u2019s a \u201cscientific\u201d analysis of history that leads Marxists to believe socialism follows capitalism.<\/p>\n Bernie Sanders surely knows Marx and materialism. I believe Sanders is smart, and is honest when he describes himself as a socialist. He likely believes his proposals are incremental steps towards anti-capitalism or post-capitalism.<\/p>\n Paul Krugman takes the generous view of Sanders\u2019 socialism \u2014 it\u2019s all just an act of sorts. I\u2019m sorry, but if Sanders is merely \u201cbranding\u201d himself, that\u2019s horribly cynical. It\u2019s more charitable to believe Sanders is telling the truth: he is a socialist and knows what the term means.<\/p>\n Krugman writes:<\/p>\n Paul Krugman: Bernie isn’t a Socialist; He Plays One on TV<\/a><\/p>\n The thing is, Bernie Sanders isn\u2019t actually a socialist in any normal sense of the term<\/strong>. He doesn\u2019t want to nationalize our major industries and replace markets with central planning; he has expressed admiration, not for Venezuela, but for Denmark. He\u2019s basically what Europeans would call a social democrat \u2014 and social democracies like Denmark are, in fact, quite nice places to live, with societies that are, if anything, freer than our own.<\/p>\n So why does Sanders call himself a socialist? I\u2019d say that it\u2019s mainly about personal branding<\/strong>, with a dash of glee at shocking the bourgeoisie. And this self-indulgence did no harm as long as he was just a senator from a very liberal state.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n If you are not a socialist, don\u2019t call yourself a socialist. That\u2019s something most of us call \u201clying.\u201d That\u2019s not branding. That\u2019s something more manipulative and more troubling.<\/p>\n Once elected, what would Sanders do? Well, probably not much because even most Democrats in the House and Senate aren\u2019t going to embrace anti-capitalist proposals. Or, maybe Sanders would manage incremental change and fulfill the DSA hopes for him.<\/p>\n
\nIt\u2019s not just New Deal liberalism.<\/p>\n