Bernie Sanders gets castigated as an unelectable radical by conservatives. While hyperbolic at times, his past associations with socialists, or sympathizing with communist dictators, could hurt him in the general election.
“Sanders’ roots, as we all know, are in the radical left, and over the years he has said and done many things that are unexceptional in that milieu but will likely appear shocking to the uninitiated,” Michelle Goldberg wrote for Slate.
Some positions, like opposition to CIA meddling abroad, are defensible and could mesh with mainstream thought on foreign policy, along with Sanders’s goals of improving health care and higher education access. Sanders can also build support behind some of his rhetoric on progressive taxation, corporate influence, and the minimum wage if polls are to be believed.
Others won’t be so easy to hurdle for a Sanders general election campaign team. The social democracy of Scandinavia wasn’t the standard bearer for socialist and communist agitation during the Cold War, and Sanders past could haunt him.
Calls to nationalize large companies throughout the 1970s, support for Marxist Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas, and a naïve defense of Fidel Castro as late as 1985 could hurt him. Ignoring the political repression of communist Cuba, Sanders praised Castro’s accomplishments on universal health care and high literacy rates.
Joining the Young People’s Socialist League in college can be spun as youthful exuberance, an interest in the philosophy behind socialism rather than a true believing carrying the glorious banner of Stalinism. Not breaking from that past, however, well into the 1980s, gives the Republicans ample material. Traveling to the Soviet Union in 1988 and ignoring the abuses of the system, however, hurts him.
Maybe not, though. Vermont isn’t the average state, but Sanders has been successful in re-election campaigns for decades now. The Cold War ended almost 30 years ago. Voters concerned about the economy and health care could overlook that radical past and point to his recent record as proof of his integrity. The average voter doesn’t pay much attention to elections; they could ignore Sanders’s past.
Besides, it’s not like Sanders is the first politician to come from a radical background. With the rise of Sanders and Donald Trump, voters have rejected the technocratic order that has been in power across party lines. A radical socialist who responds to the electorate’s concerns might not be the worst option for the disaffected.
