By former Assemblymember Steven Sanders

It is a sure bet that over the next 12 months as the race for president heats up, you will hear the term “socialist” tossed around by some like an accusation of criminal conduct or of a political miscreant. A scare tactic for certain.

Those who hurl this spitball gauge that most Americans are suspicious, even fearful of socialists. It’s a timeworn page out of the playbook of those opposed to social change that might reapportion some of America’s vast wealth to support programs that primarily benefit middle and low income persons at the expense of the richest.

But is that socialism? In reality, socialism is an all-encompassing system in which government controls the economy from production output to prices of goods and the incomes of its citizens. The actual fact of the matter is that no candidate is proposing that, not even Senator Bernie Sanders, the self-described socialist running for president.

But in the aggregate, Democratic candidates are offering the American people a plethora of goodies, too many that could ever possibly be enacted all at once. To wit: Medicare For All; an elimination of private insurance; forgiveness of all student loans; free college; pre-K programs for all 3 and 4-year-olds. One Democratic candidate is even proposing to give families $1,000 per month every month to spend as they wish!

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