Donald Trump threw down the gauntlet when he called Sen. Bernie Sanders a “socialist-slash-communist.” Bernie Sanders is planning a major speech to rebut the myths and outright McCarthyist smears. In reality, Sanders is a Democratic Socialist who actually endorses regulated capitalism. The New York Times explored this issue on Tuesday. According to the Times:
The weirdest thing about this fight is that Mr. Sanders, a Vermont senator, is not really a socialist. Or at least, if he is a socialist, he is also, at the same time, a capitalist.
“I think Bernie Sanders’s use of the word ‘socialism’ is causing much more confusion than it is adding value,” said Lane Kenworthy, a professor of sociology at the University of California at San Diego. Mr. Kenworthy, who recently wrote a book called “Social Democratic America” and thinks about these sorts of things for a living, offered a suggestion: “He is, if you want to put it this way, a democratic socialist capitalist.”
The Wayne Besen Show interviewed Kenworthy to further discuss the meaning of Democratic Socialism, as well as what the controversial label means for the Sanders campaign.
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