The Democrats’ Socialist Surge

Wall Street Journal ^ | August 12, 2015 | JASON L. RILEY

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People who follow politics probably know that Bernie Sanders, the U.S. senator from Vermont who is challenging Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, is a socialist. Whether they give a fig is a separate matter, which may tell you something about today’s Democrats.

Mr. Sanders is currently drawing the largest crowds of any candidate in either party. On Monday, he drew a crowd his campaign estimated at 27,500 to the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, including those in an overflow area outside, watching on giant video screens. Over the weekend, 28,000 people turned out to see him in Portland, Ore., and a campaign stop in Seattle pulled 15,000. The conventional wisdom is that Mr. Sanders’s bid is destined to fail. His progressive base is too white and too small for a party that places a premium on “diversity,” and the Democratic establishment has already settled on Mrs. Clinton.

All true, perhaps. The disruption of his Seattle appearance by “Black Lives Matter” protesters suggests that challenges lie ahead for him. But it is also true that no one is saying Bernie Sanders can’t win because America isn’t ready to elect an avowed socialist as president, which might have been the case not too long ago.

Mr. Sanders, a New York City native, moved to Vermont in 1968 after becoming involved with the radical left while attending the University of Chicago. He first ran for Senate in 1972 as the candidate of the socialist Liberty Union Party and garnered just 2% of the vote. He lost a few more statewide races, and then eked out a 10-vote victory in 1981 to become mayor of Burlington. In 1990, running as an independent, he became only the third socialist ever elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

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