Socialism: Democratic and Capitalistic

A recent New York Times article about potential Democratic

presidential candidate Bernie Sanders claimed that the Senators opacity
regarding his own beliefs with respect to political economy would lead one to
conclude that if he is a socialist, he is also, at the same time, a capitalist.
The author of this article cited Lane Kenworthy, a sociology professor at the
University of California at San Diego, in order to support his claim, which
Kenworthy provided by suggesting that Sanders would be best classified as a
democratic socialist capitalist.
Since Senator Sanders doesnt feel particularly interested in dispelling
the numerous misconceptions and general confusion that his vague use of
political terms has created, as evidenced in the first Democratic Presidential
Debate, hosted by CNN, where he repeatedly evaded moderator Anderson
Coopers direct and straight-forward questioning: You dont consider
yourself a capitalist, though?
To which the Senator replied: Do I consider myself part of the casino
capitalist process by which so few have so much and so many have so little
by which Wall Streets greed and recklessness wrecked this economy? No, I
dont.
Lets imagine another possible exchange that could have occurred
between Cooper and Sanders. You dont consider yourself a cat, though?
Do I consider myself a lion hunting gazelle on the savannah? No, I dont.
The question remains unanswered.
So what are we to make of Shrdingers socialist? Lets open the box,
and take a look.
In his rhetoric, Senator Sanders has made several references to
Scandinavian nations as being the best examples of what he refers to as
democratic socialism. Well, considering that the nations in question,
Denmark for example, still retain private property relations, commodity
production, and market-driven production and distribution we can concluding
that these nations practice capitalism. However, it is worth noting that the
Danish government does take a more active role in ameliorating the negative
consequences that can arise in an unregulated capitalist economy, though,
there is already a term for this system of governance: Social Democracy.
Unless Sanders, upon completing a miraculous run to the White House,
begins singing the Internationale during his inauguration speech in 2017 and
calling for American workers to expropriate the bourgeoisie, we may affirm

that Sanders is, in fact, a Social Democrat, not any type of socialist,
democratic or not.
The next time the presidential hopeful is asked the direct question,
Are you a capitalist? a simple yes would suffice.
http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2015/10/13/cnn-democratic-debate-fulltranscript/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/20/upshot/bernie-sanders-democraticsocialist-capitalist.html