Free Republic

Johan Hassel, the international secretary for Sweden's ruling Social Democrats, visited Iowa before the caucuses, and he wasn't impressed with America's standard bearer for democratic socialism, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). "We were at a Sanders event, and it was like being at a Left Party meeting," he told Sweden's Svenska Dagbladet newspaper, according to one translation. "It was a mixture of very young people and old Marxists, who think they were right all along. There were no ordinary people there, simply." Hassel was most "impressed" with Pete Buttigieg, though he also liked Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Some...

During CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” network anchor Jim Cramer offered his reactions to the Nevada Democrat debate. Host Joe Kernen called 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) “genuine,” but Cramer called into question his socialist views, asking if he is really more of a communist. “Genuine? Is he really a socialist or is he a communist?” Cramer asked. “What is socialist about what he wants? Joe, isn’t he more of a communist?” Kernen replied, “He is. Well, oh no, I’m not saying that, I don’t, but — it’s a fine line, and it’s authoritarianism either way because you just...

During MSNBC’s Friday night post-debate coverage, Hardball host Chris Matthews behaved like a man possessed, hellbent on informing all about the deadly dangers posed by communism and socialism, how concerns during the Cold War were real, and Bernie Sanders might not be looking to just remake America into a socialist country a la Denmark. Something was up early on in the show as he praised Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) for having “had guts to talk about the issue of this campaign,” which “is that word socialism” as “some people” and “younger people like it,” but socialism wasn’t exactly what they...

Bernie Sanders is getting a lot of credit for supposedly stepping into the lion’s den at Liberty University. In fact, the students at that evangelical university founded by Jerry Falwell are far more polite and well-behaved than their counterparts at most other campuses. There was zero danger of disruption, but the media swells who gushed over his courage do not know much about Liberty and its standards of conduct. As I type this, Mike Barnicle on Morning Joe is calling the speech “Incredible … just incredible.” Mika Brzezinski (of course) echoed him. Eugene Robinson, the Pulitzer Prize-winner of the WaPo,...

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,...