Seeking to shake the narrative that he’s far too liberal to be elected president, Sen. Bernard Sanders on Thursday mounted a fierce defense of socialism and denied that his political platform is a radical one, instead casting his proposals as the next logical steps toward building the kind of country envisioned by past leaders such as FDR and Martin Luther King Jr.
In an hourlong speech at Georgetown University, the Vermont independent and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate took on critics who say his brand of “democratic socialism” — a term he is now fully embracing — is destructive to the nation and incompatible with the values of a free society.
But some political analysts say Mr. Sanders is engaged in a futile effort and that a majority of American voters simply never will support a candidate who proudly admits to being a socialist, even if some of his or her specific policy prescriptions — such as tuition-free college or universal health care — are popular with segments of the population.
For Mr. Sanders, who still trails Democratic Party presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton by a significant margin in all polls, Thursday’s address offered a key opportunity to clearly define himself.
“The next time you hear me attacked as a socialist, like tomorrow, remember this — I don’t believe the government should take over the grocery store down the street or own the means of production, but I do believe that the middle class and the working families of this country who produce the wealth of this country deserve a decent standard of living and that their incomes should go up, not down,” Mr. Sanders said to a raucous crowd comprised mostly of college students.
Specifically, Mr. Sanders said that, to him, being a democratic socialist means fighting for debt-free college, universal health care, income inequality, paid family leave, ending tax breaks for the wealthy and for oil-and-gas companies, raising taxes on the rich while lowering them for the middle class and ensuring that the U.S. economy as a whole functions in a way that lifts people out of poverty.
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In making that case, Mr. Sanders cast himself as a successor to past leaders such as FDR and King, both of whom, the senator said, articulated the same kinds of socialist values his presidential campaign is pushing today.
“Let me take this opportunity to define for you, simply and straightforwardly, what democratic socialism means to me,” he said. “It means building on what Franklin Delano Roosevelt said when he fought for guaranteed economic rights for all Americans, and it builds on what Martin Luther King Jr. said in 1968 when he said, and I quote, ’This country has socialism for the rich and rugged individualism for the poor.’ My view of democratic socialism builds on … many other countries around the world who have done a far better job than we have in protecting the needs of their working families, their elderly citizens, their children, their sick and their poor.”
Specialists say Mr. Sanders’ unabashed socialism has helped turn him into a wildly popular figure among liberals eager for an alternative to Mrs. Clinton. Ultimately, however, the Vermont senator is doomed in a general election, should he even make it that far, said Matthew Dallek, assistant professor of political management at George Washington University.
“It’s a source of strength for him in the Democratic primary because it says … he is not the typical establishment, pragmatic deal-cutter like Hillary Clinton,” Mr. Dallek said. “In terms of winning the presidency, I don’t think it’s helpful and it’s hard to see someone who calls himself or herself a socialist sitting in the Oval Office anytime soon.”
Mr. Sanders’ prospects for winning the Democratic nomination appear slim at best. The most recent Real Clear Politics average of all major political polls put Mr. Sanders at 32 percent compared to more than 55 percent for Mrs. Clinton.
Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley came in a distant third at 3.6 percent, the survey shows.
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• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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