Debate Makes it Official: Democrats Are Really Socialists

 

IBDEditorials.com

2016: The Democratic debate shows just how far left the party's lurched. Capitalism was on trial, and self-ID'd socialism was literally front and center. Stop the charade. Just change your name to the Democratic Socialist Party.

No. 2 candidate Bernie Sanders said that he's no capitalist, proudly describing himself as a "democratic socialist." He cited socialist Denmark as a model for America.

Front-runner Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, refused to identify herself as a capitalist. She agreed with Sanders that our capitalist system is out of control and that the country must be "saved" from it, as if it were Ebola.

She said that small- and medium-size businesses were fine, but big companies are enemies of the people. So are "millionaires and billionaires" — unless you made your millions bashing millionaires and billionaires. Then the sky's the limit. She even called the party that champions the free market the enemy.

None of the five Democrat candidates on stage forcefully said, "I am not a socialist."

CNN's Anderson Cooper asked them how their policies would differ from President Obama's. Despite stagnant economic growth, slow wage growth and skyrocketing health care premiums, they'd all march his historically leftist agenda even harder left. Here's their laundry list:

1. Free college for everyone, courtesy of Wall Street.
2. A $15 minimum wage.
3. Paid family leave, courtesy of small business.
4. Guaranteed health care as a "right."
5. Expanded Social Security benefits.
6. ObamaCare for illegal immigrants.
7. In-state tuition for illegal immigrants.
8. Legalized pot.
9. De-incarceration.
10. Expanded executive amnesty for illegals.

One thing never came up: the national debt. Under Obama, it's soared from 60% to over 100% of GDP, meaning our national IOU is bigger than our $18 trillion economy. To anybody but Democrats, that's a crisis.

But Hillary said, "We should not be paralyzed" by GOP concerns about big government: "We can afford it because we're going to make the wealthy pay for it!"

Why hold back when you have the power to tax? Tax is a word that, in contrast, came up often in the debate. There was a "tax on carbon," a "speculation tax" on Wall Street, a higher payroll tax on the rich and so on.

And of course, there were lots more government regulations proposed ... on coal, oil, Wall Street, guns. There was talk of reinstating Glass-Steagall. Hillary proposed going "beyond" Dodd-Frank bank reforms. Martin O'Malley even proposed replacing fossil fuels with "a 100% clean electrical grid" of solar and wind.

Yet we're told the GOP is the "party of extremists."

Socialist Sanders captures at least 25% of the Democrat vote, yet no media ever describe the party as being hijacked by the "left wing." It's acceptable to describe Republicans as "crazies," "whack jobs," "lunatics" and "loons." But such epithets are never used to describe the leaders who have taken over the Democratic Party.

The left is oblivious to its own radicalism.

"As much as Cooper wanted to make 'socialism' a dirty word, neither Sanders nor Clinton took the bait," Salon said. "Instead ... Clinton emphasized how many views she shares with him about income inequality and economic opportunity."
Added the liberal webzine: "Perhaps the word 'socialist' isn't as toxic as it used to be."

Perhaps. But let's test it in the political market. Let's drop the pretense. Instead of fig-leafing themselves as "progressives," Democrats should join Sanders in openly calling themselves socialists. It would finally give American voters a clear, honest choice of ideology.