This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/12/us/politics/bernie-sanders-socialism.html

The article has changed 6 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 3 Version 4
Bernie Sanders Delivers Defense of His Democratic Socialist Philosophy Bernie Sanders Calls His Brand of Socialism a Pathway to Beating Trump
(about 4 hours later)
WASHINGTON — For five decades, Bernie Sanders has embraced the label of democratic socialism, one that has defined his political ideology and won him millions of loyal supporters even as it has become a cudgel for opponents seeking to portray him as too radical. WASHINGTON — Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont offered a strident defense of the democratic socialism that has defined his five decades in political life on Wednesday, while tying his presidential campaign to the legacies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Martin Luther King Jr.
On Wednesday, two weeks before the first set of primary debates, he issued a robust defense of his core political beliefs, delivering a formal address on democratic socialism in what will amount to the most aggressive attempt yet to defuse voter concerns about his electability. Sliding in public polling and seeking to seize attention in a sprawling Democratic primary field, Mr. Sanders cast himself at times in direct competition with President Trump, contrasting his own collectivist views against what he called the “corporate socialism” practiced by the president and the Republican Party.
Mr. Sanders — an independent senator who has not joined the Democratic Party but is running for the Democratic nomination — presented his vision of democratic socialism not as a set of extreme principles but in terms of “economic rights,” invoking the accomplishments of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. And he argued that his ideology is embodied by longstanding popular programs, including social security and Medicare, that opponents often label as socialist. And Mr. Sanders, 77, declared that his version of socialism was a political winner, having lifted Mr. Roosevelt to victory four times and powered his own career in government.
Saying that the United States must reject a path of hatred and divisiveness, he said the nation must “instead find the moral conviction to choose a different path, a higher path, a path of compassion justice and love. And that is the path that I call democratic socialism.” “Today in the second decade of the 21st century, we must take up the unfinished business of the New Deal and carry it to completion,” Mr. Sanders said.
“Today in the 21st century, we must take up the unfinished business of the New Deal and carry it to completion.” The issue of socialism has taken on outsize importance for a party being pulled to the left by an energized wing of progressives seeking transformational change. Mr. Trump has repeatedly called Mr. Sanders “crazy” and extrapolated the socialist label to all Democrats. He and other Republicans have seized on proposals like “Medicare for all” to portray Democrats as far out of the mainstream, signaling clearly that it will be a major line of attack in the general election.
Speaking in a small theater on the campus of George Washington University, Mr. Sanders struck back at these negative characterizations.
“Let me be clear, I do understand that I and other progressives will face massive attacks from those who attempt to use the word ‘socialism’ as a slur,” he said, “but I should also tell you that I have faced and overcome these attacks for decades, and I am not the only one.”
[It seems as if there are as many definitions of democratic socialism as there are democratic socialists. Here’s an overview.][It seems as if there are as many definitions of democratic socialism as there are democratic socialists. Here’s an overview.]
If Mr. Sanders was laying out views that have long shaped his political career, he was also tackling his biggest political vulnerability at a moment when he is falling in some early polls and running second behind Joseph R. Biden Jr. Even before he entered the presidential race, Mr. Sanders has faced skepticism about whether his upend-the-establishment views can appeal to enough voters in a general election, with Republicans — and some of his Democratic presidential opponents — hurling thinly veiled broadsides against socialism. Mr. Sanders — an independent who has not joined the Democratic Party but is making his second bid for its presidential nomination — presented his vision of democratic socialism not as a set of extreme principles but as a pathway to “economic rights,” invoking the accomplishments of Roosevelt and King. He argued that his ideology is embodied by longstanding popular programs, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, that Republicans have labeled socialist.
The issue has taken on outsize importance for a party being pulled to the left by an energized wing of progressives seeking transformational change. President Trump has repeatedly called Mr. Sanders “crazy” and extrapolated the senator’s brand of socialism to all Democrats, seizing on proposals like “Medicare for all” to portray them as far out of the mainstream, and signaling clearly that this will be a major line of attack in the general election. Saying that the United States must reject a path of hatred and divisiveness, he said it must “instead find the moral conviction to choose a different path, a higher path, a path of compassion, justice and love.”
In his speech, Mr. Sanders was striking back at these negative characterizations. “And that is the path that I call democratic socialism,” he continued.
“Let me be clear, I do understand that I and other progressives will face massive attacks from those who attempt to use the word socialism as a slur,’’ he said, “but I should also tell you that I have faced and overcome these attacks for decades and I am not the only one.” Mr. Sanders mentioned Mr. Trump by name eight times during his remarks, once more than he said the words “democratic socialism” — mirroring the playbook of Joseph R. Biden Jr., the current Democratic front-runner, who has squarely portrayed himself as being in a direct showdown with the president. Mr. Sanders said the president “believes in corporate socialism for the rich and powerful; I believe in a democratic socialism that works for the working families of this country.”
The president, he said, “believes in corporate socialism for the rich and powerful. I believe in a democreatic socialism that works for the working families of this country.” In a pre-speech interview, Mr. Sanders said he aimed to draw the president into a one-on-one debate about his agenda.
Speaking with the use of a teleprompter, Mr. Sanders delivered his speech in a small theater at the George Washington University, a dozen flags behind him. The venue, within walking distance of the bureaus of most major news organizations, was filled with people invited by the campaign, as well as members of the news media, which made up about a third of the audience. “It’s going to provoke, I know, a fierce debate,” Mr. Sanders said. “I eagerly look forward to President Trump’s tweets.”
His address appeared similar to one he delivered in November 2015 at Georgetown University during his first presidential bid. In that speech, Mr. Sanders — who at the time was mounting an underdog but surprisingly robust challenge to Hillary Clinton — also presented himself as an heir to the policies and ideals of Mr. Roosevelt and Dr. King and cast democratic socialism as a system that ensures people can have health care, access to higher education and jobs that pay at least a minimum wage.
In the political realm, socialism has become an elastic term that takes on different meanings depending on a person’s viewpoint and ideology. Mr. Sanders has taken pains to draw a contrast between his brand of democratic socialism and the kind that prescribes a command economy and government-owned industry. But at times in his long career in public service, he has also advocated for some policies that leaned toward a more traditional definition of socialism.
[Sign up for our politics newsletter and join the conversation around the 2020 presidential race.][Sign up for our politics newsletter and join the conversation around the 2020 presidential race.]
In the 1970s, for example, he argued for nationalizing some industries, including energy companies and banks. And as mayor of Burlington in the 1980s, he went further than many Democrats in supporting socialist leaders. Throughout his political career, he has spoken of revolution, espousing a sympathy for the working class and the poor, whom he argues are suffering at the hands of profit-seeking corporations and the rich and powerful who lead them. One of his political heroes is Eugene V. Debs, the labor organizer. Yet while Mr. Sanders drew distinctions between himself and the president, he also included allusions to the contest that would precede a showdown with Mr. Trump. Ticking through a list of New Deal opponents, Mr. Sanders included “the conservative wing of F.D.R.’s own Democratic Party,” an unambiguous reference to his centrist foes in today’s Democratic Party.
While he remains popular with many in the progressive left, Mr. Sanders has been working in recent months not only to expand his base but also to retain the voters who supported him in 2016. A recent poll from the Des Moines Register and CNN showed that Mr. Sanders had lost ground over the last three months among likely Iowa caucusgoers, even as Senator Elizabeth Warren and Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind. have surged. Mr. Sanders delivered his remarks at a moment his campaign is flagging in early polls. A Monmouth University survey released on Wednesday, an hour before Mr. Sanders’s speech, showed that Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts had surpassed Mr. Sanders among Democratic voters in Nevada, a key early state, with 19 percent support to Mr. Sanders’s 13 percent. Mr. Biden led with 36 percent, but the results mark the first time Ms. Warren has led Mr. Sanders in a major poll of 2020 voters.
A poll by Monmouth University released on Wednesday, an hour before Mr. Sanders’s speech was set to begin, showed Ms. Warren had surpassed Mr. Sanders among Democratic voters in Nevada, a key early state, with 19 percent support to Mr. Sanders’s 13 percent. A poll over the weekend from The Des Moines Register and CNN showed that Mr. Sanders was running second but that he had lost ground over the last three months among likely Iowa caucusgoers, as Ms. Warren and Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., surged to within a point or two.
The rise of Ms. Warren in particular has worried Sanders supporters, who see her as an ideological ally who is nevertheless targeting some of the same voters who were drawn to Mr. Sanders in 2016. The rise of Ms. Warren has worried Sanders supporters, who see her as an ideological ally who is nevertheless targeting some of the same voters who were drawn to Mr. Sanders in 2016.
Jen Psaki, a Democratic strategist and former White House communications director for President Barack Obama, said she viewed Mr. Sanders’s speech as a direct effort to take the reins back from Ms. Warren. “The speech is a pretty clear indication he is feeling the heat from Elizabeth Warren’s recent momentum among progressive voters and recognizes that if he doesn’t do something dramatic she will overtake him,” said Jen Psaki, who served as White House communications director during the Obama administration. “It is his attempt to reclaim the anticapitalist mantle he ran on in 2016.”
“The speech is a pretty clear indication he is feeling the heat from Elizabeth Warren’s recent momentum among progressive voters and recognizes that if he doesn’t do something dramatic she will overtake him,” she said. “It is his attempt to reclaim the anticapitalist mantle he ran on in 2016 — but the problem for Sanders is now there are more progressive options and the same playbook probably won’t work.” Among his supporters at the speech Wednesday, Mr. Sanders’s version of socialism seemed perfectly reasonable.
It could also play into Mr. Trump’s hands. “In America we embrace a lot of socialist policies already, like public education and parks,” said one attendee, Jeremiah Lowery, 33, who works for an environmental organization. “Bernie is just moving America forward by his full embrace of democratic socialism.”
“Most Democrats running don’t subscribe to Bernie Sanders’s democratic socialism and his economic policies,” said Mary Anne Marsh, a Democratic strategist in Boston who worked for John Kerry and Ted Kennedy. “Ultimately, Bernie Sanders giving this speech will appeal to his base and no one else, and it gives fodder to Trump and the Republicans.” The speech was designed for maximum news media exposure. About one-third of the audience were journalists, at a venue within walking distance of the Washington bureaus of several national news organizations. Mr. Sanders read from a teleprompter — a rarity for him — and stood before a line of a dozen American flags.
But among his supporters at the speech Wednesday, Mr. Sanders’s philosophy seemed perfectly reasonable. Mr. Sanders called for a “21st-century economic Bill of Rights,” which he said would address health care, wages, education, affordable housing, the environment and retirement. And he touted his record of putting forth policy plans, a subtle allusion to Ms. Warren, whose ranking in the polls rose as she released a steady stream of policy proposals.
“In America we embrace a lot of socialist policies already, like public education and parks,’’ said one attendee, Jeremiah Lowery, 33, who works for an environmental organization. “Bernie is just moving America forward by his full embrace of democratic socialism.” “Over the course of this election my campaign has been releasing — and will continue to release — detailed proposals addressing each of these yet-to-be-realized economic rights,” Mr. Sanders said.
In a telephone interview on Tuesday, Mr. Sanders said that he had planned for some months to deliver this address during this time frame, and that it would elevate human rights “in a way that I think has almost never been raised in a political campaign.” If Mr. Sanders was laying out views that have long shaped his political career, he was also tackling what is potentially his biggest political vulnerability. Even before he entered the presidential race, Mr. Sanders had faced skepticism about whether his upend-the-establishment views could appeal to enough voters in a general election, with Republicans — and some of his Democratic opponents — hurling thinly veiled broadsides against socialism.
“It’s going to provoke, I know, a fierce debate,” he said. “I eagerly look forward to President Trump’s tweets.” “Most Democrats running don’t subscribe to Bernie Sanders’s democratic socialism and his economic policies,” said Mary Anne Marsh, a Democratic strategist in Boston who worked for Senators John Kerry and Edward M. Kennedy. “Ultimately, Bernie Sanders giving this speech will appeal to his base and no one else, and it gives fodder to Trump and the Republicans.”
He also said he would preview programs he plans to introduce, including on jobs and retirement security. Indeed, second-tier Democratic presidential candidates seemed poised to grasp some political oxygen for themselves by attacking Mr. Sanders’s speech. Former Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado plans his own Washington speech on Thursday in which he will warn that nominating Mr. Sanders will lead to re-electing Mr. Trump.
“This is a debate that the American people have got to have: What are we entitled to as human beings?” he said. “Democrats must say loudly and clearly that we are not socialists,” Mr. Hickenlooper will say, according to his prepared remarks. “If we do not, we will end up re-electing the worst president in our country’s history.”
Mr. Sanders’s embrace of the democratic socialist label is hardly new. In the 1970s, he argued for nationalizing some industries, including energy companies and banks. And as mayor of Burlington, Vt., in the 1980s, he went further than many Democrats in supporting socialist leaders. Throughout his political career, he has spoken of revolution, espousing a sympathy for the working class and the poor, who he argues are suffering at the hands of profit-seeking corporations and the rich and powerful who lead them.
“This is a debate that the American people have got to have,” he said in the pre-speech interview. “What are we entitled to as human beings?”