If you call yourself a socialist today, almost nobody in the US will vote for you

[struggle4progress]

We can, of course, argue back and forth forever about whether this is fair or whether the American electorate is screaming bonkers mad to take this view

But regardless of such arguments, it's simply a fact

This hasn't always been the case:

At its peak a century ago, the Socialist Party of America polled at 6 percent nationally, had two representatives in Congress and boasted hundreds of state and local legislators. But for more than a generation, socialism has been virtually invisible on the American scene. Its return in several high-profile local city council races—Sawant’s in Seattle, Ty Moore’s in Minneapolis and Seamus Whelan’s in Boston—has been surprising

Sawant won election in 2013; Moore and Whelan lost

In the last 50 years, two towns have elected socialist mayors: in the mid-70s, University Heights IA (pop 1050) elected David Belgum; and since 1980, Burlington VT has elected Bernie Sanders, Peter Clavell, and Bob Kiss

[struggle4progress]

9. Have a nice day

[democrank]

2. Many, many voters are going to absolutely love

Bernie`s message.

[cyberswede]

25. Yep. nt

[appalachiablue]

29. People love Bernie's message. Are they more scared of a populist or corporations?

[Thinkingabout]

3. Makes you wonder more socialists are not elected, huh.

I do not think going to the far left is going to get someone elected either.

[darkangel218]

4. "If you call yourself a socialist today, almost nobody in the US will vote for you

Ahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!

Where is the sarcasm tag?

[struggle4progress]

6. Gauge the grassroots strength of political tendencies by looking locally

People usually don't sprint miraculously into statewide or federal office: they almost always come from city councils, county commissions, and state house or senate seats, before becoming treasurer, or secretary of state, or governor, or member of congress, or President

[Fumesucker]

5. Hillary is trying to scramble to Bernie's left at least rhetorically

He might just end up borking her chances in the general since she is having to make declarative statements in the primary already.

She would be best to ignore him because the flip flops if she wins the nomination after trying to out liberal-Bernie are going to be of epic proportions.

[Scootaloo]

7. Only one way to change that

And it isn't by running as a shitty republican

[orpupilofnature57]

8. FDR Great Socialist and Democrat .

And fascists of the day all around the world hated him for it, especially the ones who were American.

[struggle4progress]

11. One needs a somewhat peculiar view to regard FDR as a socialist

[orpupilofnature57]

13. Social Security ?

[former9thward]

19. Do you know who invented social security?

No it was not Marx. It was the Iron Chancellor, Otto Bismarck, of Germany who was socialism's greatest enemy in the late 1800s. No, social security is not socialism. Many economic systems have a form of it.

[orpupilofnature57]

23. How much longer for ours ? But thanks I didn't know that .

I thought it was the French in the 1789 .

[appalachiablue]

36. That's correct, the establishmnent realpolitk leader Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898) created

Social Security and the first Welfare State in the late 1800s to provide a safety net for working people who might otherwise be drawn to full out socialism-communism. Smart leader and politician Bismarck was. And that was 130 years ago.

As part of the post WWII Allies Marshall Plan recovery, it was determined that Germany should have good wage paying jobs and UNIONS. You can understand why; impoverished, malcontented Germans (as in post WWI) have not proved to be a good thing historically.

[djean111]

10. No, actually, we are not going to argue this back and forth.

We are going to see what happens.
I hope the other candidates are also beneficiaries of all of this worrying!

[Zorra]

12. And that, my friends, is why the US of A is so totally fucked up, and

going to hell in a handbasket faster than a Third Way politician in a bombed out Baghdad ghetto

Fortunately, this is about to change, and after Bernie is elected, there will be no more for profit insurance companies trying to kill us off, and rainbows and butterflies will appear on the streets of Ferguson and Baltimore where cops once killed African Americans with impunity.


The alternative? Same old same old...things continue to get worse by the day.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

14. Saying that your opinion is a fact doesn't actually make it a fact.

Especially when your thesis is 'today', and then you try to back it up by talking about 'the last 50 years'.

[struggle4progress]

17. How many elected socialists are there in your city government? county government?

state legislature? state executive offices? state congressional delegation?

How many hours have you devoted in recent years to knocking doors, or making phone calls, to get your favorite socialist candidates into office?

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

18. Hmm, as many as have run?

You don't support your thesis in any way, sorry. Simply saying there aren't a lot of socialists in office doesn't automatically mean it's because 'no one will vote for them'. Most of the time, it means nobody ran as a socialist. Hell, I don't have a Democrat in office as my House of Reps guy. You know why? Because no Dem actually ran for my district.

[former9thward]

20. Maybe you should.

And I am being serious. I have run for Congress. Heavily R district and no support from the Dems but it was fun and I got a lot of free media.

[struggle4progress]

22. The usual reason nobody runs against a candidate is because nobody else expects to win

If no D ran against your R in the House, it's because the race was widely regarded as unwinnable

Nobody runs as a socialist, because nobody expects to win as a socialist

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

24. Again, what 'people expect' doesn't actually mean it's true.

People believe a lot of things that turn out to be wrong.

Republicans were stunned, because after they made sure everybody knew Barack Obama was actually a 'socialist', they couldn't believe people would still vote for him. Shocker, people still did.

[cali]

15. well, if that's ever to change voters need t

Hear from people like bernie

[frylock]

16. strip the labels, and poll people on policy..

and you find out that practically everyone is a socialist.

[stone space]

21. Pretty close to where I grew up.

in the mid-70s, University Heights IA (pop 1050)

We tried it here in Ames around the same time.

The newspapers called us "self-avowed socialists". (Which made me wonder at the time why nobody ever talks about self-avowed republicans).

We got close to 40%, but lost.

Not bad for a bunch of mostly student socialists pushing a strong gay rights agenda, though.

Of course, that was back before the financial crisis, so capitalism had a good name back then in many circles, and both socialism and gay rights were somewhat frowned upon by some here in Ames at the time.

[PowerToThePeople]

26. Red scare, McCarthyism, and 75 years of fascist propaganda did great damage

and look who is still at it.

[orpupilofnature57]

27. + 1000

[struggle4progress]

31. The Red Scare, McCarthyism, and decades of propaganda did indeed create the situation

But that situation is currently a fact

[arcane1]

28. It's long past time to reverse that trend!

[Jamaal510]

30. It doesn't help

that most voters probably don't even know what socialism means and just go by what they hear.

[blm]

32. IMO, Sanders team should link his socialism to Einstein and Henry Wallace

if/when the attacks are made.

[TBF]

33. Is that the best you got?

Decades old red-baiting ... good lord.

[deutsey]

34. After two Red Scares, the Palmer Raids, COINTELPRO,

the authoritarianism of Stalin and Mao, right-wing misinformation and outright propaganda, it's no wonder socialism wasn't able to build on its early success in America last century (pre-WWI).

It's long over due for the left in this country to reclaim democratic socialism and start making a case for it again.

[Warren Stupidity]

35. Bernie has never had trouble winning elections.

But more to the point, you are seriously afraid and upset about his candidacy. Odd if he has no chance.