Phil Lando: Sanders’ socialism

Regarding the Jan. 10 column “The self-reliant generation”: I respect David Brooks and value his analysis. However, on the issue of support for Bernie Sanders among younger voters, he has not examined one very relevant consideration.

Those of us who are liberal members of an older generation recall our support for George McGovern in the election of 1972. Richard Nixon won re-election despite early revelations about Watergate and his four years of continuing an increasingly unpopular war in Vietnam. This was largely due to a smear campaign portraying McGovern as too liberal for America. Those of us who were dismayed to see a good candidate be defamed and defeated fear a repeat of this debacle.

Despite our agreement with Sanders’ concerns about corruption on Wall Street, we fear that his identification as a socialist will be too big a liability among too many voters when the smear machine reaches its election-year crescendo. Even those of us who are not strong Hillary Clinton supporters fear the likely Republican alternative.

This story was originally published January 18, 2016 at 1:00 PM with the headline "Phil Lando: Sanders’ socialism."