There can be little doubt that if Bernie Sanders wins the Democratic nomination, Republican character assassins will do everything in their power to describe Sanders' identification with modern European Democratic-Socialism as proof that he is a raving Bolshevik who harbors a secret desire to enslave all rich people.

Apparently, the thought of this happening absolutely terrifies the 'professional centrists' within the Democratic Party.  How soon they forget that, while Barack Obama never made an economic proposal that could  be considered 'socialist' by any rational human being, this did not stop the Republicans from repeatedly accusing him of being a Socialist, anyway.

But, as Obama demonstrated, simply tossing a term like that around isn't enough to win an election for you.  The vast majority of the nation's Swing Voters have no clue as to what the word 'Socialism' means.  They will need to have it explained to them.

Of course the Republicans will be happy to explain it to them, depicting it as something that gravely threatens the well-being of middle-class Americans.  And the Republicans understand that the key to moving the swing voters is expressing some emotion when they describe the Democrats and their policy proposals as something middle-class Americans ought to fear.

Expect frequent expressions of phony outrage as they try to make voters fear those scary Democrats.  Of course, if these spurious depictions of socialism as a great threat go unanswered, it could very well persuade large numbers of swing voters to vote Republican.  

But Bernie Sanders understands that these Republican misrepresentations of the truth will give him and his followers an opportunity to explain what Democratic Socialism---the kind Bernie identifies with---is really all about.

Senator Sanders understands that his primary mission over the next year is to educate the electorate (and most especially the media) regarding the truth of what he stands for and what he is advocating for America.

He must not only defend his proposals from Republican misrepresentations, but must also take advantage of these opportunities to define back, displaying some emotion when he is reviewing the vile duplicity of the Republican attacks.

That really is the key to getting the swing voters to identify with your campaign---using emotion to define your opponent.  They may not understand the points you are making on economic policy, but they tend to perceive you as 'authentic' when you express some emotion, a feature of human nature that Republican politicians always try to take full advantage of.

This ability to convey some emotion is one of the big reasons why Bernie Sanders is such an effective candidate, why he is connecting with people from the podium.  For economic progressives, you couldn't ask for a better candidate.    

Indeed, the educational mission that the Sanders campaign will be pushing forward throughout his campaign is, in itself, sufficient reason for all economic progressives in the Democratic Party to rally behind his candidacy, no matter what the outcome.  Now is the time; the best opportunity we have had in quite a while to enlighten the American public.

It is an approach to taking on the Republicans that the Centrists in the Democratic Party do not understand because their fundamental political instinct is to run away from the demonizing tags that the Republicans been able to associate with Democratic policies in the past, instead of fighting to correct them.

With the Bernie Sanders campaign, an opportunity exists for economic liberals to finally educate the electorate re: what democratic socialism really is: not a threat but actually good people doing good things for the American people.

The Republican Nemesis