Columnist and author of “‘A Disgrace to the Profession‘” Mark Steyn argued, “things that would have been insane in the Bill Clinton era Democrat Party, are now conventional wisdom” and the other Democratic candidates are “ready to join” Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) “on the socialist ledge” on Wednesday’s “Hannity” on the Fox News Channel.

Steyn stated, “the whole rationale for Joe Biden getting in is that Bernie Sanders is too far to the left. On that stage last night, with the exception of Jim Webb, everyone was too far to the left. The idea that this is a party of Scoop Jackson Democrats who need to be — rein in the craziness of Bernie Sanders. They’re all ready to join him, all of them are ready to join him on the socialist ledge.”

He added, “Obama in 2008 was doing all this, there are no red states, there are no blue states, there are just American states. He was being Mr. Moderate, Mr. Centrist. I think, Bernie Sanders is running on what he believes, but I think Hillary and the others have made a calculation that the Democratic Party base has shifted. You know, Lincoln Chafee said last night he didn’t leave the Republican Party, the Republican Party left him. Well, it’s the other way around for Bernie Sanders the socialist. He didn’t join the democratic party, the democratic party joined him. the things that would be career killers when Bernie Sanders was running…for mayor of Burlington in the 1980s, the things that would have been insane in the Bill Clinton era Democrat Party, are now conventional wisdom. that was an explicitly socialist, redistributionist party, that, as Bernie said, thinks America ought to be should be a large Sweden. good luck trying to have Sweden for 300 million people.”

Steyn continued, “back when Bernie took his honeymoon in the Soviet Union, that would be considered an unusual quirk, even for a Democrat to do. By the time he announced — it was brought up by Anderson Cooper last night, the oddball was Jim Webb, who when Bernie was honeymooning in the Soviet Union, Jim Webb was taking Vietcong bullets over in the jungles of southeast Asia. that seems far weirder to the democrat base than Bernie’s honeymoon in the Soviet Union. … They’ve bet that there are now — that every year, people who believe in the old Constitution and the founding fathers, they die off, and these young millennials who agree with him on Denmark and Sweden and Norway go to the polls.”

Steyn concluded by saying of Hillary Clinton, “I think she staunched the flow, but I actually thought — you know, everyone thinks that Bernie’s line about the country’s sick of your damn emails is that he’s climbed in the tank with her, and that basically, that [line] absolved her of guilt. I think he actually did something very clever. He said, you’re tainting my epic heroic revolutionary socialist struggle. And I think that’s why all the romance on the Democrat side is still with Bernie.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett