How Democrats Should Approach the S-Word
Whether or not Bernie Sanders secures the Democratic nomination, his candidacy has created a political challenge of no small consequence to the Democratic Party. The fact that Sanders is a democratic socialist has opened up a line of attack for Donald Trump: red-baiting. And Trump has made clear that he will not attack only Sanders and other democratic socialists such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The president and his allies will attack all Democrats, which means that all Democrats will find themselves wrestling with the question of how to address the S-word in 2020. Fortunately, that’s not nearly as daunting a prospect as the some political seers would have us believe.
The emergence of democratic socialism as a force within the Democratic Party should be understood not merely as a so spooked Democratic strategists, consultants, and pundits that, well before Joe Biden’s recent surge, they were speaking openly about thwarting Sanders. Among centrist Democrats, the belief is strong that the party can elbow aside Sanders, take the subject of socialism off the table, attract moderates from the old Republican Party, beat Trump, and form a new center where everything will be the same as it ever was.
