If attacking single-payer — the health care policy Bill Clinton said would save taxpayers $1 trillion/year in 2011 — is not enough for Team Hillary and its small-minded press secretary, Brian Fallon, now we see the campaign engaging in full on red-baiting.
Really, Brian? A “Socialist Democrat”? This is no different than the Republicans who refer to the Democratic Party as the “Democrat Party.”
Bernie, as he explained in an outstanding speech at Georgetown University, is a social democrat, or one who believes in democratic socialism.
What is social democracy or democratic socialism? It’s basically a political philosophy espoused by center-left politicians in Western Europe: Matteo Renzi of Italy, François Hollande of France, and many, many Nordic politicians.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, for example, is a “social democrat,” but he is not a “socialist democrat.” Brian just wanted to be cute, “clever,” and very, very silly by adding the -ist so that it makes Bernie sound like some sort of Lenin or Stalin or Castro.
But, whatever, Team Hillary is running scared because all of their mainstream wonks seem to have underestimated the strength of Bernie’s people-powered political revolution. So, let’s laugh at Brian Fallon’s mean-spirited tweet and hope he can find a good public relations job on K Street — perhaps lobbying on behalf of private health insurers during the implementation of Medicare-for-all — after Bernie Sanders is elected president.
