Since I’m a policy economist, I rarely comment on political matters.
But I am worried that the Democratic Party is veering too far to the left. Bernie Sanders, an out-of-the-closet socialist is leading the way, followed closely by other leading Democrats with hard-left policy agendas, such as Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren.
But not every 2020 candidate is hopping on the socialism bandwagon. Some of the major candidates, such as Joe Biden, have avoided saying anything favorable about socialism.
And two of the candidates have explicitly rejected the poisonous ideology.
Interestingly, they’re both from Colorado.
CNN reports that the former governor, John Hickenlooper. received a very hostile reception when he rejected socialism.
The welcoming cheers 2020 presidential hopeful John Hickenlooper received when he first graced the stage at California’s Democratic Convention quickly crumbled into boos and jeers after he rejected socialism as the answer to Democrats’ problems. “If we want to beat Donald Trump and achieve big progressive goals, socialism is not the answer,” Hickenlooper said to a crowd of more than 4,500 delegates and observers on Saturday.Before he could get finish his next sentence, a chorus of boos…overtook his speech, lasting for more than 30 seconds. …The former Colorado governor is one of 15 Democratic candidates to address the San Francisco crowd, which is known to be home to some of the party’s furthest left progressives.
And, as reported by the Hill, one of the state’s U.S. Senators, Michael Bennet, also condemned socialism for being contrary to American ideals.
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), a 2020 presidential hopeful, said on Sunday that his dismissal of socialism as a solution for America is not out of the mainstream for the Democratic Party. “I don’t think I’m out of step,” Bennet told ABC’s “This Week.” “I think we have 230 years of being the longest-lived democracy on the planet. That’s something we need to preserve.” …Bennett made the comments in response to a viral moment in which his fellow Democratic presidential candidate, former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, was booed at the California Democratic Convention over the weekend …Bennet…is on the moderate end of the Democratic primary field.
I hope Joe Biden and other Democrats join Hickenlooper and Bennet.
In my fantasy world, the next Democratic president will turn out to be another Bill Clinton who presides (either intentionally or unintentionally) over an expansion of economic freedom in the United States.
But at the very least, I don’t want the country to take a big step toward statism, which was the mistake the United Kingdom made under Clement Attlee after World War II.
P.S. I realize many Democrats today don’t really have a firm understanding of socialism. Many of them don’t realize it implies government ownership, central planning, and price controls. Heck, some of them probably think the market-oriented Nordic welfare states (which have similar levels of economic freedom as the United States) are socialist. Regardless, they definitely want government to get bigger at a faster rate, so I’m hoping they’re not the majority of the Democratic Party.
this sample represents democratic socialism’s human capital… the comrades in this video are likely activists… in all manner of hard left ideologies… they are the future of the democrat party… they will be the democrat socialist bureaucrats of the future… the members of congress… the people writing regulations which will rule our lives……………………….. get to know them…
[…] looking good on the Democratic side. Joe Biden is presumably part of the Democratic Party’s anti-socialist wing, which is encouraging. But all the other leading candidates are hard-core big […]
[…] I wrote last week about the emerging “anti-socialist” wing of the Democratic Party. Presumably they would […]
[…] Read the rest of Dan Mitchell’s piece at International Liberty […]
Most people don’t realize the uniformity in socialist and Nåzi policies, the left wing propaganda about Nåzi being right-wing is totally false.
The Nåzi party’s full name is NAtional soZIalistische deutsche arbeiter partei – which literally translates from German as the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. SOCIALIST? WORKERS? Like the socialist wing of the Democrats, Nazis are extreme left-wing, NOT right-wing.
Still not convinced? See the enormous similarities with far-left and Nåzi programs and then comment at:
www.DiscourageCriminals.net/nazi
Most people don’t realize the uniformity in socialist and Nåzi policies, the left wing propaganda about Nåzi being right-wing is totally false.
The Nåzi party’s full name is NAtional soZIalistische deutsche arbeiter partei – which literally translates from German as the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. SOCIALIST? WORKERS? Like the socialist wing of the Democrats, Nazis are extreme left-wing, NOT right-wing.
Still not convinced? See the enormous similarities between far-left and Nåzi programs and then comment at: http://www.DiscourageCriminals.net/nazi
That would be the Democrat party not the “Democratic Party”. They’re far from democratic. Same goes for “liberals”.
The current American concept of “socialism” is (probably) private-property + regulation + income-distribution.
Assuming that is so, then the iron-fist of state control of everything (“everything within the state; nothing outside the state”) is covered by a velvet glove of popular control of the excesses of “capitalism” and inequality of outcomes. And, of course, any mix of government-control/liberty is possible.
The difficulty NOT recognized is the slippery slope. Suppose a society accepts that the proper scope of government’s role in progress is wide. There are really very few places where it would be unseemly for government to go. Then the slow inevitable slide to government encroachment upon liberty is unchecked. Everytime someone identifies a “problem” the knee-jerk reaction is that “there ought to be a law!” And legislators cheerfully supply another law.
We have seen enough of this already in America’s history to recognize that we are NOT IMMUNE. Because we are so large we are mostly unconscious of what has occurred elsewhere and over history. Few of these Democrats are aware of current affairs in Venezuela. So, they can’t imagine that something might go wrong.
There is no anti-socialist wing in the Democrat party. The closest anyone comes to that aren’t Democrats, but are people who’ve decided they can define conservatism as they see fit, like John Kasich, Jeb Bush, etc.. And they’re sort of Republicans! Maybe!