At Wednesday night’s Democratic presidential debate, Mike Bloomberg absolutely savaged Bernie Sanders’s support for socialism. It was beautiful to watch. But parts of the former New York City mayor’s economic argument could have been more clearly articulated.
“I can’t think of a way that would make it easier for Donald Trump to get reelected than listening to this conversation,” Bloomberg said. “It’s ridiculous. We’re not going to throw out capitalism. … We tried that, other countries tried that, it was called communism, and it just didn’t work.”
watch Bernie Sanders’ face when Bloomberg correctly states capitalism is amazing and communism sucks:pic.twitter.com/9hVojMvk1T
— Jason Howerton (@jason_howerton) February 20, 2020
What a wonderful country we have. The best known socialist in the country happens to be a millionaire with three houses. What did I miss here @BernieSanders?#DemDebate
— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) February 20, 2020
Bloomberg continued, later hitting Sanders for the hypocrisy posed by his personal life: “What a wonderful country we have. The best known socialist in the country happens to be a millionaire with three houses.”
The general crux of Bloomberg’s argument is spot-on.
Sanders advocates a destructive ideology that has wrecked economies everywhere it has been implemented. His campaign plans include proposals that would have the government take over 70% of the economy and nationalize entire industries such as healthcare and even the internet. Sanders deserves ample criticism for his economic illiteracy, and yes, the depths of the personal wealth the millionaire socialist has reached are worth bashing too.
But rather than invoking “communism,” which conjures up images of the authoritarian dictatorship of the Soviet Union, Bloomberg would have been better served by pointing to the example of what has happened in Venezuela. Yes, it’s true that Sanders has defended countless communist dictators, so criticizing him as sympathetic toward communism is completely fair. But in terms of making a broader argument against so-called “democratic socialism,” Venezuela is the clear and obvious present example.
The Venezuelan economy was destroyed by a socialist government’s runaway spending, the printing and burning of money in pursuit of promises to secure “human rights,” and the nationalization of private industries — and it was originally done by a democratically elected government.
This is a better example than “communism,” because after all, Elizabeth Warren and even Sanders aren’t advocating for an authoritarian dictatorship. Bloomberg will have a better chance criticizing Sanders’s socialism with reasonable Democrats and independents if he hones it a bit better. If Bloomberg simply invokes “communism,” he won’t convince anyone that doesn’t already share his hostility toward Sanders’s economic philosophy.
