Yes,
Lenin came with his New Economic policy (NEP) which was basically return to capitalism. However then he got stroke and Stalin took over.
Ping
However Sanders officially claims “Sweden in 1970ies” as his ideal.
That’s actually why the oligarchs like it. Sweden in 1970ies was country run by few oligarch families, all of them already rich, before the socialistic era started. Socialism in Sweden basically eliminated middle class and especially any chance to get ahead and make big money. But somebody had to feed the people, so the oligarchs, who were already rich, just kept growing their business. They just reinvested the profits (as anywhere, re-investments are basically free of taxes) and pull out just enough money to live comfortably. Not having any competition helped therm profusely.
“Democratic Socialism” actually produces this oligarchic society of few very rich and everybody else just getting along.
Kind of where Obama/Biden America was heading and may be heading again. Note that it was quite popular in Sweden and there are still, after 100 years, some vestiges of it there.
Really hard to get rid of any government program!
I definitely agree that Sanders is a far-left ideologue, and that most Americans have fortunately rejected him.
However, I do have some issues to state with your analysis:
1. Regarding Vladimir Lenin, more likely he only implemented the NEP so he’d restore Russia enough for another go around to take it down again due to it threatening to kill off Communism far too quick for his tastes. He wasn’t merely naive that Communism would be great and then realized near the end that it wasn’t good. He knew full well what it would entail. Aside from Gary Morson’s “Leninthink” article spelling it out that he WANTED carnage first and foremost, there’s also the fact that Lenin deliberately not only voted against relief efforts during a bad famine in the Volta, but even went as far as to outright sabotage a charity specifically to ensure they can’t get any relief efforts, specifically because he wanted the people to starve to such an extent that they become radical enough to embrace Marxism, and then after taking power, decided to starve his populace anyways for a sheer kick. He knew EXACTLY what he was doing.
2. Regarding Putin, actually, Trevor Loudon as well as Ion Mihai Pacepa have given pretty convincing evidence that Putin was also still very much a far-left communist. If he objected to certain elements of the far left agenda, it’s purely out of pragmatism, like how Stalin locked up gays in Gulags despite supporting the homosexual agenda abroad. Besides, I don’t think a guy who’d compare Christian Relics to Lenin’s Relics should be considered anti-Communist.