Red Scare: Love Is Never Having To Say You’re Socialist

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

On this Valentine’s Day, the Democratic establishment is sending out its equivalent of “forget me nots” saying “Love is never having to say you’re Socialist.” Alarm over the surge of Bernie Sanders has turned widespread alarm in Democratic and media circles (sometimes hard to differentiate on some channels) into full-blown panic. With now a double digit lead over Biden in national polls, there is a constant drumbeat in the media against Sanders – the same type of bias that actually pushed many voters toward Trump in 2016.

The latest Morning Consult poll shows Sanders at 29 percent support with Biden at 19 percent followed closely by Michael Bloomberg at 18 percent. While the media tirelessly pumps Amy Klobucher, she is still at most 5 percent with Elizabeth Warren at 10 percent.

Sanders has also surprisingly taken the lead in Texas. Moreover, Sanders accounts for over half of the young voters in the New Hampshire primary — more than all of the other candidates, including the young Pete Buttigieg, combined. Those voters are not likely to be swayed by figures like Hillary Clinton effectively campaigning against Sanders. To the contrary, this effort seems to be backfiring in spectacular fashion.

With establishment figures like Biden and Klobuchar struggling, the media continues to slam Sanders.

We discussed the open bias against Sanders at CNN and MSNBC.

It is now even more raw and obvious. Hosts remain undeterred with recidivists like NBC’s Chuck Todd objecting to people calling Sanders a “frontrunner.”

In the meantime, many continue to misleadingly call Sanders a “communist” — most recently James Carville who seems to be assigned the task of hounding Sanders out of the primary.

As I discussed before, the open bias shown in 2020 by media figures is more likely to have the same impact as the bias shown in favor of Hillary Clinton in 2016. There is a total lack of respect for viewers in this virtually scripted attack on Sanders. Notably, Warren’s policies are quite similar to Sanders’ policies but she is not saddled with the label of “communist.” The result is a Democratically-led “red scare” — something I have written about in earlier columns.

The whole point is to get the public to loathe rather than love the authenticity of Sanders.