Now, I have a smart friend who is certain the socialist label would have sunk Bernie in the general election. He believes America's long antipathy toward the Red Menace (the old red, not the new, conservative red) would have been fully exploited by right wing commentators and the Trump campaign. Certainly, that would have been the central line of attack. But I argue, with the Soviet menace no more than a memory, the potency of that attack would have been largely limited to a constituency on the right that no Democrat could win anyway.