David Michael Miller
Bernie Sanders keeps earning my respect. Earlier this year he showed up at Liberty University, a bastion of conservatism, to give a remarkable speech that showed respect for his audience while frankly admitting his differences with them and searching for common ground.
Then, just before Thanksgiving, Sanders went to a liberal bastion, Georgetown University, to deliver a reasoned, impassioned and comprehensive speech on what it meant to be a “democratic socialist.” It was such a fine talk that it is worth the investment of 15 minutes of the reader’s time to read it in its entirety.
Americans cringe at the word “socialism,” and no mainstream politician except Sanders identifies himself as such. Sanders could have run from the label and tried to recast himself the way most liberals do these days as a “progressive.” Instead he essentially said, “Damn right I’m a socialist. I’m proud of it. Here’s what it means to me, and here’s why I believe my views are in keeping with mainstream American values going back to Franklin Roosevelt.”
In plain and precise language, Sanders said that Americans who work hard for a living deserve to live decently — they should be able to put food on their tables, have a roof over their heads, receive decent health care and afford to send their kids to college if that’s what they want. On foreign policy he gave a detailed and convincing analysis of what’s going on in the Middle East and proposed a broader coalition to fight ISIS, a stark contrast from clown candidate Donald Trump’s promise to “bomb the **** out of them!”
Sanders’ speech was filled with intelligent, fact-based argument and short on inflammatory rhetoric. He took one small shot at Hillary Clinton, saying that he wasn’t running because he felt he was “next in line.” That was probably gratuitous, but it’s true that the Clinton campaign can often have an air of entitlement.
But speaking of Clinton, I wish we would hear this kind of sterling defense from her for a word that she should embrace: liberal. Sanders’ reason and courage is something liberal Democrats should take to heart. Because here’s the way American politics has worked at least since the era of Ronald Reagan. Conservatives define liberals as out-of-touch elitists. Then liberals, rather than defending the word, dissemble. They say that labels are simplistic or they relabel themselves as “progressives.”
All of that comes off to the American public as just what it is — less than sincere. Given a choice between conservatives who clearly and fervently believe what they’re saying, and who proudly embrace the word “conservative,” and liberals who hedge and run away from who they really are, voters tend to go with the genuine.
It’s as if liberals have left the field wide open to the other side. They let them equate the word “liberal” with the political equivalent of “ax murderer.” Then when conservatives call the opposing candidate a “liberal” with all the heavy political weight they’ve assigned to the term, the liberal candidate responds by claiming not to be one of those. That has worked to disastrous effect.
It’s time liberals do with their label what Sanders has so masterfully done with his. The response should be, “Hell, yes, I’m a liberal! And why aren’t you?”
