Is Bernie an embarrassment to the Democratic party?

[Blue3]

For years, I've had to point out how The Democratic Party =/= Socialism to my conservative friends. I've had to defend Liberalism as being different from Socialism/Communism, and I feel it is. But Bernie really is making the Democratic Party look Socialist. He's confirming every long-held right wing conspiracy about Liberalism in general (IE that "Liberalism is just Hidden Socialism"). He's a joke who unfortunately has a lot of supporters, and is making my party look like the party of far left Occupy Wallstreet loonies. I can sympathize with how lifelong Democrats in 1972 must have felt.

What are you talking about now?

No, Sanders is not an embarrassment.

How is he a joke?

Also, Sanders isn't even officially a Democrat.

If anything, Sanders admitting to being a Socialist shows conservatives how he is different from Democrats.

And really, if anyone believes in Social Security or Medicare/Medicaid or basically any government program created since 1932, they're a socialist too. Even before then, really. The United States, and every other country in the world, has never been purely capitalist.

[Blue3]

For years, I've had to point out how The Democratic Party =/= Socialism to my conservative friends. I've had to defend Liberalism as being different from Socialism/Communism, and I feel it is. But Bernie really is making the Democratic Party look Socialist. He's confirming every long-held right wing conspiracy about Liberalism in general (IE that "Liberalism is just Hidden Socialism"). He's a joke who unfortunately has a lot of supporters, and is making my party look like the party of far left Occupy Wallstreet loonies. I can sympathize with how lifelong Democrats in 1972 must have felt.

What are you talking about now?

No, Sanders is not an embarrassment.

How is he a joke?

Also, Sanders isn't even officially a Democrat.

If anything, Sanders admitting to being a Socialist shows conservatives how he is different from Democrats.

And really, if anyone believes in Social Security or Medicare/Medicaid or basically any government program created since 1932, they're a socialist too. Even before then, really. The United States, and every other country in the world, has never been purely capitalist.

Wrong. That's a GOP talking point right there.

Sanders is running as a Democrat. Bringing his Socialism nonsense into the party with him.

How is it wrong?

Let's have a conversation like grown-ups. Not like socialism is a Voldemort word. The word-that-shall-not-be-named. I'm glad Sanders is breaking the stigma around it, even though I fully support Hillary. You seem to still buy into that stigma.

And just so you know, I know a lot of people in their 20's who think Sanders is too conservative, "just a liberal Democrat."

The Democratic Party is diverse. You're a centrist or center-right Democrat. There are other types of Democrats. Sanders isn't behaving like a loon, he's just another type of Democrat. We're a big tent party. If you don't like it, don't be a Democrat.

[Blue3]

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I said in my post how he still doesn't even identify as an official Democrat.

There are plenty of people with his opinion, or even more liberal than Sanders, who DO and always have identified as Democrats, though.

The part has always had Sanders-style Democrats, as well as Webb-style Democrats. And Webb-style Democrats have been in the minority for well more than a decade.

I don't say the Democratic Party isn't moving to the left, either. (though it's not nearly moving as far to the left as Republicans are to the right. There's not as much different between Hillary and Sanders as there is between some Republicans)

[Blue3]

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The media would have initially treated him that way, and Webb would be coming off of his 2006 victory which tipped the control of the Senate so that would have gotten more notice then.

But even in 2008, I don't think a Webb-like candidate would have really caught on.

The Democrats were quite liberal for several decades. It was only after Gingrich came to power that the Democrats tried to move back toward the center, with Bill Clinton abandoning universal healthcare in the 90's for a more piecemeal and centrist approach. But that phase didn't last too long, especially when the liberals started to harshly turn against the Bush administration. Meanwhile, all the millions of Democrats who voted for or supported RFK and McGovern and Mondale and Jesse Jackson were still in the Democratic Party, just sidelined.

Also, Kucinich was mostly a joke because he talked about seeing a UFO (and, though it shouldn't be true, he looked like an elf, which probably prevented some from ever seeing him as presidential). Didn't help that he was only a Congressman.