Bernie, isn't the only one, but he's a good example. Personally, I prefer Elizabeth Warren. Love AOC too.
I am a Democratic Capitalist. I suspect a good portion of you regulars on this site are too. And so is Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and a good number of Democratic House members and Senators. However, they and we are going to be tarred as “Socialists” and compared with Venezuela in the upcoming presidential/congressional race, and part of that is the loose use of the term democratic socialist that some dems are—incorrectly— applying to themselves.
Before you cock your head to one side and say, “Whaaa?” let me elucidate because now is a good time to discuss the political terms of art because words matter, now more than ever.
I really, really, really wish those on the center left would stop using the term democratic socialists as a moniker for 2 main reasons: It is simply an incorrect description of their position and worse, it provides the right-wing another way to confuse their ignoramus base and obfuscate their ideological failures. And as the first two Dem debates and the disgusting AOC burning ad during the third debate show, the traditional media moderators and right-wing shills are going to push that nonsense if they can.
Bernie, AOC, Elizabeth Warren and their ilk are classic social democrats. They are not socialists, democratic or otherwise. Marx was a socialist. Social democrats are capitalists. Understanding and knowing the difference is very, very important. Socialists have no love for democracy and while they may use it to gain power, they, like all autocratic, true-believer ideologies will do their damnedest to weaken democratic institutions like free elections, the independent judiciary and legislatures or parliaments that embrace a viable opposition. Socialists believe in state control of the economy, ostensibly for the benefit of the working class. They don’t believe in the accumulation and free use of capital in the economy. Think Venezuela. Or now, according to Thursday night’s disgusting ad, Pol Pot and the Maoist lunatics of the Khmer Rouge, if you can believe that.
Social democrats, on the other hand, are capitalists and democrats. They do not try to weaken or destroy the democratic institutions that brought them to power and they do not intend to destroy capitalism but rather to curb its excesses and harness its power for social good. They tend to place stringent rules on banks and the formation of capital to lessen its corrupting influence in politics, and on industry’s power to set wages and safety rules as they see fit. Think FDR and the New Deal. And Bernie. And Elizabeth Warren. And AOC.
Socialists and Social Dems are mortal enemies. Socialists think SDs prop up capitalism by making it palatable, and SDs want nothing to do with anti-democratic socialist demagogues.
You don’t have to like the moniker Democratic Capitalist or use it, but I posit that it is the equivalent of Social Democrat. And I like it because it takes the boogyman word out of the name altogether. But Social Democrat is still fine and it aligns with a tradition I’m proud of.
If it seems like I’m picking nits, think again. The anti-AOC hate ad Elizabeth Heng run during last week’s democratic debate is proof that the right wing is going to smear us with the socialist label, hatefully and unfairly. We should give them no leverage to do so. Names matter. Most right wingers are ignorant or fuzzy headed about the distinctions and helping the right-wing noise machine by being loose with our language is a bad idea.
