What Bernie Sanders means by ‘democratic socialism.’ (You still have your choice of pajamas)

[cal04]

(snip)
“It used to be that I was known as ‘the longest-serving independent in the history of the United States Congress,’ which is true,” Sanders said during an appearance Saturday at Saint Anselm’s College here. “Now I’m a ‘self-professed democratic socialist.’ Things change when you run for president.”

In response to a student’s question, Sanders, whose campaign for the Democratic nomination has surged in recent weeks, went on to give a lengthy of explanation of what “democratic socialism” is -- and is not.

“So what does that mean?” Sanders asked the students. “Does anyone here think I’m a strong adherent of the North Korean form of government? That I want all of you to be wearing similar colored pajamas?”

(snip)
“So what democratic socialism means to me," he said, "is having a government which represents all people, rather than just the wealthiest people, which is most often the case right now in this country. And it is making sure that all of our people have health care as a right, education as a right, decent housing as a right, child care as a right. That’s what I believe.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/09/19/what-bernie-sanders-means-by-democratic-socialism-you-have-your-choice-of-pajamas/

[HassleCat]

1. An indistinct distinction

There are some "real" socialist groups that poke fun at democratic socialists because we are "pretend" socialists or something like that. I'm not clear on all the alleged differences, and some of them seem to be hair-splitting. One thing democratic socialists believe is that we should use the electoral process to select leaders who will implement what we want, so we're not into overthrowing the government or anything like that. Also, we realize most of what is privately owned now will remain so in the foreseeable future, so we don't propose to use the power of government to seize businesses and turn them over to the workers. Instead, we propose democratic reforms that will achieve some of the same results through legislation implementing better labor laws, tighter regulation of the financial sector, protectionist trade legislation, universal health care, etc.

Some of the "real" socialists say this is not enough. But many of them are active in the Democratic Party, and they support various political candidates, etc. even at the same time they make fun of our democratic tendencies. Some of the socialist parties even run their own candidates for president, so they appear to have views similar to ours when it comes to the means of implementing change, even though they want different results. I'm sure they would be happy to explain why we (democratic socialists) are delusional, but I cannot detect any differences worth worrying about when it comes down to looking for results that might be within reach, and ight have some effect.

On edit: By the way, we do support using the power and wealth of the government to help workers buy businesses from the owners, and operate employee owned businesses, so that' pretty close to "real" socialism.

[lindysalsagal]

2. I think the RNC hate machine will have trouble attacking this sweet man

Of course, it will be trickle down economics and anit-abortion and anti-health care and all the rest. It will be "we can't afford his version of america."

But that doesn't destroy a candidate. The kind of immoral character crucifixion that they usually win on will be impossible with this senator. He's got no skeletons in his closet. Accusing him of something immoral is ludicrous.

It would make the accusers look like whiny babies.

I think he's bullet-proof.