Debbie Wasserman Schultz handled Chris Matthews well on Bernie Sanders Democratic Socialist moniker
One would expect that many in the GOP would use Bernie Sanders Socialist Democrat moniker to create a false narrative. Chris Matthews attempting to mislead with it is shameful. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Democratic National Committee Chair and obvious Hillary Clinton supporter did not allow Chris Matthews to set the narrative.
Chris Matthews started the segment by referring to the a piece written by Barney Frank titled “Why Progressives Shouldn’t Support Bernie.” To be clear the piece is only relevant if one believes that Americans are not fed up with the status quo. His last two paragraphs is the only portion of the article worth examination.
Decades ago, Sanders made a principled choice to play a valuable part in our politics — the outsider within the system. He defied the uniquely American aversion to the word “socialism.” We are, after all, the only Western democracy in which no self-identified socialist party has ever played a significant governmental role. While voting with the Democrats to organize first the House and then the Senate, he made clear he did so as a regrettable necessity, not a preference, and cited his nonmembership in the party as an indication of his political integrity. Substantively, he has consistently, forcefully and cogently made the case for a larger federal government role in improving both the fairness and the quality of life in our country, refusing to soft-pedal in the face of declining support for this view in public opinion.
His very unwillingness to be confined by existing voter attitudes, as part of a long-term strategy to change them, is both a very valuable contribution to the democratic dialogue and an obvious bar to winning support from the majority of these very voters in the near term.
In effect Barney Frank has acquiesced to what the Powell Manifesto‘s designed indoctrination has accomplished. Instead of spending decades of connecting the dots, Barney Frank and the Blue Dogs in the Democratic Party simply became Republican lite.
Bernie Sanders’ message may be catching on. That is the fear of the Plutocracy at large, Republicans and Democrats alike. Americans may be coming to the realization that they are just a commodity from whence to extract. Americans are finding out that the aversion to the word “socialism” did them no good. Denmark, Canada, and France even with their country specific problems have a much less stressed middle-class even as their entrepreneurship and innovation flourish.
Chris Matthews attempted to bait the DNC chair into a Socialist vs Democrat debate. She appropriately refused to go there. Unless one could get into an educated discussion it would simply be spun by all the false negative connotations many have attached to the word just like they have to the word Liberal. The DNC chair made her point as to what Democrats stand for and pointed out that all the Democrats running in general support at least the basic tenets of liberalism and a robust social safety net.