Democrats are socialists? Phooey. Larry Elder is just lying.

Larry Elder

In his raw youth, Bernie was a fellow traveler who favored, for America, public ownership of some, but not all, of the means of production.

He seems to have been supportive of the more full-throated socialism of various Latin American regimes and movements, despite their being allied with the Soviet Union.

And of course he opposed the Vietnam War out of apparent sympathy with Ho's North Vietnamese communists, as did a good many people nowadays accounted leading liberal or left wing opinionists.

But the overwhelming majority of Democratic office seekers and holders are and have been pro-capitalist, rejecting anything beyond the customary level of public enterprise - schools, fire departments, highways, and the like - though convinced of the need for extensive public intervention in the economy for the public good and for some forms of public insurance like Medicare and Medicaid, as well as the public pension scheme, Social Security.

And they have been anti-communist.

As for O and BS both pushing for "universal health care," Bernie admires the British National Health Service (actual socialized medicine) but favors Medicare for all for America (socialized health insurance), while O went for subsidization and extension of private insurance along with expansion of eligibility for Medicaid, excluding even a "public option" from his plan.

Elders' article is pretty much just crap.