 So, I know I sound like a broken record at this point, but I think it's worth repeating again because this is a really important point to make. If you think that Bernie Sanders being a self-proclaimed democratic socialist is going to hurt him in 2020 and make him less electable against Donald Trump, then you have been misled. And I get it. It's difficult to conceive of that because this is what conventional wisdom tells us. It tells us that a social democrat or a democratic socialist or anyone who attaches that socialist label to themselves in whatever capacity. They're inherently less electable than, say, a centrist democrat. Media pundits say it, Republicans say it, and even Democrats are so worried about the potential toxicity of that socialist label that they're actively conspiring against Bernie Sanders behind closed doors to stop him because they think that's going to facilitate another Trump victory. Now, the underlying assumption with this theory here is that, you know, if a socialist can't beat Trump, then obviously that means we must need a centrist democrat like Joe Biden to go up against Donald Trump because he's going to be the most electable because Republicans won't be able to use that label to describe Joe Biden, except, oh wait, they've already done that. In fact, Mike Pence has already accused Joe Biden of advocating for a socialist agenda. And what these people who are worried about socialism and that label don't realize is that anyone who isn't Trump, who goes up against Donald Trump, will automatically by default be labeled a socialist. Even a centrist like Obama was labeled a socialist, and in fact, they even call him a communist, which is hilarious to me, but the point is to Republicans, socialism is literally just a synonym for things that they don't like. That's all it is. So if you honestly believe that that label or that attack will only uniquely affect Bernie Sanders and harm him and nobody else, you have been duped by conservatives because whoever the Democratic Party nominee is, left wing or right wing, Joe Biden or Bernie, they will be called a socialist over and over again by Republicans. Because say it with me, socialism is a synonym for things Republicans don't like. They have a sandwich that they didn't like. That was a socialist sandwich. They play a video game that had too many microtransactions in it. That was a socialist video game. This is what they do. That word doesn't mean anything related to political affiliation or political ideology. It just means bad. And to give you another example as to how this word has lost all meaning, we'll go to our friend Mitch McConnell who's going to call a new thing socialist, and I'll tell you why it's ironic that he's making this argument when we come back. For the first time in my memory, I agree with Nancy Pelosi. I am indeed the grim reaper when it comes to the socialist agenda that they've been ginning up over in the house with overwhelming Democratic support and sending it over to America. Things that would turn us into a country we've never been. They're on the way to doing some additional things, in addition to the ones they've already done, the Green New Deal, Medicare for All, and by the way, you may have mentioned this on your show, but they had planned to make the District of Columbia State that give them two new Democratic senators, Puerto Rico State would give them two more new Democratic senators, and as a former Supreme Court clerk yourself, you've surely noticed that they plan to expand the Supreme Court. So this is a full bore socialism on the march in the house, and yeah, as long as I'm the Majority Leader of the Senate, none of that stuff is going anywhere. Okay, so he says, statehood for DC and Puerto Rico is quote, full bore socialism. Let's just pause for a moment and try to think about what that even means. Statehood for DC and Puerto Rico is full bore socialism. It doesn't mean anything. He's calling it socialism because he doesn't like that. But what's funny is that by Mitch McConnell's own standards, he just came out as a socialist because if advocacy for DC or Puerto Rico and their statehood, it makes you a socialist, then I'll let you in on a little secret. The Republican Party is now socialist because this is a quote from their 2016 GOP platform. We support the right of the United States citizens of Puerto Rico to be admitted to the union as a fully sovereign state. Gotcha, bitch. I don't know about you guys, but that sounds like full bore socialism. To me, ladies and gentlemen, turns out Mitch McConnell is a socialist by his own standards. To be serious here, what that platform really means is that we support Puerto Rican statehood so long as Democrats don't also come out in favor of it. In that case, we reserve the right to flip on that because fuck Democrats. If they like something, then it is inherently bad. And now, according to Mitch McConnell, it's literally full bore socialism to support statehood for Puerto Rico. So do you understand what's happening here? Do you see what's going on? If you truly believe that Bernie Sanders is the only candidate that Republicans will weaponize socialism against, then congratulations, you have been duped. And by advocating for a more centrist Democrat in order to increase the chances of us beating Donald Trump, you're playing right into their hands because data suggests another centrist Democrat would lose to Donald Trump. Now we don't necessarily have to look at data to come to this conclusion, seeing that we just ran an experiment in 2016 where we tried that. And Donald Trump won, but nonetheless, for those of you who are still unconvinced, you've been warned. If you're so worried about socialism making Bernie Sanders or a Democrat lesslectable, you're already going to be fighting this battle regardless of who you support. If you support Kamala Harris, she's going to be labeled a socialist. If you support Pete Buttigieg, he's going to be labeled a socialist. If you support Amy Klobuchar, even she will be labeled a socialist. Anyone who goes up against Donald Trump will be labeled a socialist. So by saying Bernie Sanders shouldn't be the nominee because he's less electable as a direct result of that socialist label that he uses for himself, you're inadvertently helping Republicans because you're opting for someone who's weaker against Donald Trump because, again, a centrist Democrat can lose to Donald Trump. That's what data suggests. It's what happened in 2016 and it could very well happen again. It's not a foregone conclusion. A corporate Democrat could beat Donald Trump theoretically because there are few people in the country as incompetent as Hillary Clinton. With that being said, though, if you truly want to beat Trump, don't roll the dice and go with another centrist Democrat. Go with someone who actually is a self-identified socialist who can take that label and describe what he means by socialist, who can flip it back on Republicans and call them corporate socialists, who can say, you know what? I am a socialist, but this is what I think socialism means to me. And Bernie Sanders did the right thing here. He embraced socialism, but he also called Republican socialists in the sense that they support socialism for large multinational corporations but only denounce it when it positively impacts the working class. So you've got to understand here, if you're worried about that socialist label, then you're going to worry regardless if Bernie Sanders is the nominee or a centrist Democrat is the nominee. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. They'll even call Howard Schultz a socialist because that's just what Republicans do. It's been their strategy for decades now. Anyone who doesn't have an R next to their name is a socialist by their standards. So once and for all, let's stop running away from the word socialism and actually realize that it's not the boogeyman that it used to be. And since Republicans use it for any and everything that they don't like, it no longer has meaning, which gives us the opportunity to ascribe meaning to that word, to redefine it, to use it in a way that benefits us and not them once and for all. But unfortunately, a lot of Democrats, namely strategists in DC, they don't get this. And the writing's on the wall. So don't think that a corporate Democrat isn't going to be called a socialist because Mitch McConnell just called statehood for DC in Puerto Rico full war socialism. Literally anything is socialism that they don't like. Always remember that when somebody tells you that Bernie Sanders can't win or he's less electable because he's a socialist and Americans would never opt for a socialist. Socialist by Republican standards is just a synonym for something or someone that they don't like. Period.