Theologian David Bentley Hart wrote an op-ed Can We Please Relax About 'Socialism'. The byline says, "Only in America is the word freighted with so much perceived menace." As he frames it, socialism is simply about creating a more equitable economy, not about recreating the Soviet Union or Venezuela. This is what people like Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez are promoting.
What Hart is describing is social democracy, not socialism. Democratic socialism is the systematic transformation of capitalism (private ownership and market exchange) into socialism (state ownership and control of the economy), while social democrats embrace capitalism, looking for ways to make it more equitable. Social democrats and democratic socialists may dovetail on some incremental policies, but they have divergent missions.
Let's assume Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, and others want a more equitable market system of government. Let's go further and agree with Hart's questionable protest that this is all socialism means. Hart acknowledges that "socialism" is a freighted word. Why are they using a freighted word to describe their position? People promote similar policies all over the world without using this language and have done it for generations in the United States. They choose the word precisely because it is inflammatory. They are populist demagogues.
Trump and the Freedom Caucus go out of their way to frame things to maximize enemy outrage while communicating to the base that they are the reasonable ones at war with the crazies. That is why Sanders, AOC, and Hart say "socialism." In their communication strategy, the hyperbolic Fox News response to "socialism" is not a bug. It is the objective. It maximizes their enemies' ire and stokes their base's commitment. As with Trump, the specific policy prescriptions are not serious but serve to antagonize enemies and keep a base, giving them power from which to accomplish other agendas.
Hart is wrong about Europe. While there are cadres of democratic socialists throughout Europe, there are no democratic socialist governments. There are a great many social democracies. "Socialism" is not a widely embraced term. Sweden experimented with democratic socialism from the 1970s to the 1990s before returning to their present social democratic capitalism.
Furthermore, Scandinavian countries are among the most free-market countries in the world. Their generous social safety net is oriented around capitalist self-interest, not a sense of altruism. They designed their nets to maximize the productivity of people in their capitalist economy. This is not Democratic Socialism.
The Democratic Socialists of America, to which Sanders and OAC give allegiance, has as their stated aim not to create a more equitable capitalism but the incremental and systematic replacement of capitalism with socialism. So, while I have no doubt the Fox family goes to hyperbolic lengths to stoke fears, their base criticism is legitimate. This is the Left's Tea Party/Freedom Caucus moment. The answer to our problems is a winsome person who can mobilize a sizeable majority to embrace prudent solutions, not another populist fringe to counter the right's populist fringe. Unfortunately, all I read of Hart is an audition to be a Franklin Graham or Jerry Falwell, Jr., in the Left's version of the Freedom Caucus.
(If you want to be more informed about comparative economic systems, I recommend this excellent piece by economist Timothy Taylor, Capitalism with Scandinavian characteristics. This Finnish-American offers insights into the role of the welfare system in Nordic countries, What Americans Don't Get About Nordic Countries. And from Denmark prime minister, Denmark's prime minister says Bernie Sanders is wrong to call his country socialist.)
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