Bernie Sanders Falsely Wraps ‘Democratic Socialism’ in the Flag of Roosevelt’s New Deal

Yet of course, presidential elections are about more than just policy proposals put down on a piece of paper. The voters also consider questions of personality, character, temperament—and, yes, trustworthiness.  

So it’s interesting that within the Democrat primary field, Sanders is polling at less than 17 percent. That’s enough to put him in second place, behind Joe Biden, but still, it means that five-sixths of Democrats are supporting someone else—or no one else.

So what could be undercutting Sanders’ appeal? Why do Democrats not fully embrace Sanders, even when he cites the sainted FDR?

We can point to lots of possible explanations, of course, including the fact that most other Democrats in the race support similar policies, even if they don’t invoke FDR’s name. (Having been born in 1941, Sanders can say that he actually remembers the living FDR.)

And yet there’s another, more profound question to be asked about Sanders: Is he being sincere when he claims that he is an FDR man? Or to put the matter more bluntly, Is Sanders, in fact, way to the left of FDR? 

We can start to answer such questions by considering self-appellation—that is, the terms that the two men have used to describe themselves. 

FDR sometimes called himself a “liberal,” albeit one with some decidedly conservative aspects. For instance, in 1936, Roosevelt traveled to Dallas for the unveiling of a statue honoring Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, whom FDR described as “one of the greatest American Christians and one of our greatest American gentlemen.”  

That same day, speaking at the Cotton Bowl, FDR seemed to embrace what might be called the “Gone With the Wind” view of the Civil War and post-Civil War Reconstruction; as he said to the assembled Texans, “You have gone through the difficult days of the War Between the States and the trials of Reconstruction. You have had to fight against oppression from within and without.”

We know that Roosevelt, a New Yorker, was no fan of the Confederacy. However, he was president of all the 48 states of the union, and so he was judiciously—and, yes, politically—mindful of public sentiment, including conservative and nostalgic sentiment. And so that’s one reason he carried Texas, and all of Dixie, comfortably, in all four of his presidential runs. 

Okay, so if we dig into Roosevelt a little bit, we find a complicated picture; FDR was undeniably on the left overall, and yet at the same time, he was always staunchly anti-communist.

As he also said in 1936: “I have not sought, I do not seek, I repudiate the support of any advocate of Communism or of any other alien ‘ism’ which would, by fair means or foul, change our American democracy.”

At the same time, FDR was also cheerleader for Americanism and American nationalism; as he said in yet another speech in 1936, his goal was “a safer, happier, more AmericanAmerica.” Indeed, one might even go so far as to define FDR as an “Economic Patriot.” 

As we can see, FDR was nuanced. Yes, he was a liberal, economically, but he was a moderate, and sometimes even a conservative, on cultural issues. And as for winning World War II and bringing America to its zenith of power and influence in the world—where does one put that on the ideological meter?

We might pause to note that one big fan of FDR was … Ronald Reagan. Yes, the 40th president was a good deal different from the 32nd president, and yet even so, the Gipper retained a lifelong affection for the man he had voted for, four times. In fact, in the White House, RWR happily hosted a centennial tribute to FDR. 

Okay, so now, back to Sanders. For openers, he calls himself a “democratic socialist”—that’s a term FDR never used about himself.   

Moreover, there’s serious question as to the various ideological places that Sanders has been to in his life, as well as the geographical places he has traveled to, and paid homage to. On both scores, Reason magazine’s Justin Monticello has done valuable spadework: 

Sanders once identified as a socialist who, with reservations, admired the economic achievements of Cuba under Fidel Castro, of Nicaragua under the Sandinistas, and of the Soviet Union right up to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Running for office as a candidate for the Liberty Union Party in Vermont in the 1970s, Sanders sought a top tax rate of 100%, saying “nobody should earn more than $1 million.”

Sanders wanted to stop businesses from moving out of their original communities, arguing that the ultimate solution to protect workers was national legislation that would “bring about the public ownership of the major means of production.” He favored the government seizure of “utilities, banks, and major industries,” without compensation to investors or stockholders.

That’s not FDR-type thinking, that’s a whole different ideology.

Of course, even if he was once a real socialist, or maybe even more than a socialist—Brooklyn in the ’40s was, after all, known for its many “red diaper babies”—Sanders has a right to change his mind. Yes, it’s possible that when he was younger, he was way-y-y to the left—way to the left of the New Deal—and that he’s mellowed into, merely, a staunch progressive.  

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Or, it’s possible that when Sanders invokes FDR, he’s seeking to mislead us, and that, in fact, those hard-left flames still burn bright in his heart. (That might explain why he always seems so cranky.) 

At a minimum, Sanders owes us a full accounting of his shifting views—and how, why, and where they have changed.

And of course, the rule is always, to borrow a Russian proverb, Доверяй, но проверяй. Translated, that’s “trust, but verify.”

Maybe Sanders already knows that.

Story cited here.

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