EDITOR’S NOTE: Each week we cross-post an excerpt from Katrina vanden Heuvel’s column at the WashingtonPost.com. Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.

Ready to fight back? Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week.

Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue

Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month!

Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter.

Fight Back! Sign up for Take Action Now and we’ll send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and we’ll send you three meaningful actions you can take each week.

Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue

Travel With The Nation Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits.

Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine?

Bernie Sanders’s resounding victory in the Nevada caucuses—and the Vermont senator’s sweep of the popular vote in the first three primaries—makes him the early front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. It also puts a bull’s-eye on his back and triggers panic across the party’s establishment and much of the mainstream media. A self-professed “democratic socialist” leading the race? Get ready for red-baiting, slander, and just plain silliness. Ad Policy

Politicians can’t help themselves. The question is whether the media will pile on—or provide common sense. The early returns aren’t encouraging.

President Trump’s reelection campaign is already gearing up its scare machine, which it will roll out against any Democrat. To impugn Sanders, it will scream about Venezuela, Cuba, and economic ruin, while painting Trump as Horatius at the bridge, saving America from socialism.

Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.