Sanders: What kind of ‘socialist’ is he?

A sea of Iowans greets an independent senator from Vermont. As he addresses issues like corporate dominance and media bias, the crowd erupts into cheers, waving signs that simply read “Bernie” — he likes to keep himself on a first-name basis with those who support him. After all, he is the candidate they trust to change the game of U.S. politics.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has quickly become a candidate to watch for the 2016 presidential race. Sanders repeatedly draws large crowds, having filled 19,000 seats at a stadium in Portland, Oregon, on Aug. 10, for his largest event yet. In comparison, only 5,500 were present for considered front-runner Hillary Clinton’s largest campaign event, according to CNN.

But because pundits simply label Sanders as a “socialist,” his platform automatically loses legitimacy, and he is written off as too radical ­— an unfair summation of what he stands for and what he want’s to accomplish as President.

Since the First Red Scare, many Americans have held a deep-seated distrust of economic beliefs that fall outside of the capitalist norm. This fear is especially persistent among America’s oldest citizens — only 15 percent of those over 65 have a positive view of socialism. But the trend exists among young Americans too, as only 36 percent of those under 30 have a positive view of socialism, according to a poll conducted by the online market research company, YouGov.

In American politics, the label “socialist” carries a pejorative connotation and has been used as an insult time and time again by the right wing, as we have witnessed during Obama’s time in office. Fox News commentator Sean Hannity even went as far as to say that Obama is the “most radical president” in American history because of his “socialist” policies — one can only imagine what he would say if Bernie Sanders were president, seeing that he actually describes himself as a socialist while Obama does not.

The country’s irrational fear of this ideology is unfortunate, because many Americans — especially college students — could stand to benefit from Bernie Sanders’ brand of “socialism.”

Classic socialism, the one many pundits seem to be afraid of, advocates for government control or ownership of the means of production and certain sectors of the economy.

Sanders, however, is not a classic socialist — he is a self-described democratic socialist. Democratic socialism stands for those who want a more egalitarian economy — one in which all citizens, not just elites, are involved in economic policy.

Democratic socialism is currently employed by many Scandinavian governments. Their version is known as “the Nordic model,” and it promotes a combination of a free market economy and a welfare state. A piece in The Economist titled “The Nordic Countries: The next supermodel,” describes nations that use the Nordic model as “stout free-traders who resist the temptation to intervene even to protect iconic companies,” while also looking for ways to offset capitalism’s negative effects by providing strong public safety nets and by nationalizing services citizens may need to stay above the poverty line — like pensions, health care and higher education.

This has worked out very well for the people in Scandanavia. The Gini coefficient, the world’s standard measure of income inequality, measures Sweden as having the smallest gap between the rich and poor in the developed world.

Nonetheless, when Americans hear the word “socialist,” many are reminded of dictators and tyrants like Joseph Stalin or Mao Zedong. Yet, democratic socialism directly concerns average citizens, as the policies surrounding it work to support all participants, or future participants, in the economy — not just a wealthy few.

The vast majority of Americans would like to see this. Ninety-two percent say they believe our country’s wealth should be more equally distributed. Sanders, who believes that our current economic system is “immoral” and “unsustainable,” echoes this popular sentiment.

In line with his democratic socialist beliefs, Sanders says spreading the wealth could directly benefit universities. In fact, he advocates for free higher education, which he proposes to finance through a relatively small transaction tax on Wall Street trades.

This is crucial, as the issue of free higher education is becoming increasingly urgent as student debt continues to mount. Currently, two-thirds of American college students graduate with some level of student debt, totaling to $1.2 trillion. This has a crippling effect on our economy. The average student has to pay $320 a month over a ten-year period toward student loans, which inhibits their ability to buy a car or home, start a family or open a small business.

[graphiq id=”3GRa1LCEMN7″ title=”Historical Tuition vs. Student Debt – U.S College Education” width=”600″ height=”550″ url=”//www.findthebest.com/w/3GRa1LCEMN7″ link=”http://colleges.startclass.com” link_text=”Historical Tuition vs. Student Debt – U.S College Education | StartClass”]

Sanders and his promotion of democratic socialism provide the best solution to this problem. Capitalist rationale would allow this student debt debacle to continue, as traditional capitalist thought encourages non-interventionism. And this same thought process has forced universities themselves to focus more on profits than on students, because of a lack of funding from the state.

Of course, some will continue to be wary of Sanders’ “socialism,” and the label may very well cost him the election.

Nonetheless, his political stances would allow us to work toward building a society and economy that allows all of us to thrive, not just the top one percent.

But first, Americans need to get over the rhetoric of “socialism” for this to ever become a reality.

Write to Alyssa at aal43@pitt.edu