- b.c.,
Okay. I wonder why he calls himself a socialist, then, especially when in this country the connotations of "socialist" are about as favorable as those of "communist," "Leninist," "baby eater," etc.
My thoughts on the matter were similar. The term "socialist" is and historically was the "scarlet letter" of political terms in this country, reminiscent of McCarthyism's "commie" scare (not that I infer communism and socialism are the same), and has been used for the purpose of discrediting everything from the 60's civil rights movement to our current President.
So look to opponents of anything left of center to USE it, in their typical dog-whistle fear-mongering fashion - against the man and ANYONE else even remotely similar.