It is no hyperbole to say that Jeffrey D. Sachs hates the Wall Street elite, and that he is an admirer of Bernie Sanders who calls himself a “democratic socialist.” It comes as no surprise that he hopes for his preferred candidate’s nomination and resents those – the capitalists and their liberal media alles – who doubt Sanders’s electabilitiy. He accuses them of trying “to whip up against Sanders,” and fearing that his Bernie, if elected, “would bring about the collapse of the republic.”

To be fair, these people’s main goal is to unseat Trump in November, and they worry that Sanders might be a weak candidate. It would be irresponsible to dismiss their concerns, because Trump’s removal from office is a matter of urgency. Sanders has himself to blame for stoking fear among less informed voters.

Sanders’s misleading self-description will be a gift to the Trump campaign. allowing Trump to suggest that he would “turn the US into Venezuela,” which would mean nationalisisng major industries and replacing a free market economy with central planning, even though “Canada or Denmark” were the “obvious comparisons.”

There is nothing wrong with Sanders seeking to “restore some basic decency to American life: universal publicly financed health care; above-poverty wages for full-time workers, along with basic benefits such as family leave for infants and paid leave for illness; college education that does not drive young adults into lifelong debt.” His message goes down well with his supporters, but the question is whether he will be able to convince swing voters, whose support he needs to defeat Trump.

The author is right about wide public support for the ideas of universal health care, higher taxes on the rich, a transition to renewable energy, limits on big money in politics etc. These are key issues on Sanders’ agenda, and they “all are commonplace” in most European countries which embrace social democracy. However, Sanders declaries himself a “democratic socialist,” prompting the “befuddled Wall Street elite and their favorite pundits” to question how an “extremist” like Sanders wins the vote.

The problem is that Republicans have a long, disreputable history of conflating any attempt to improve American lives with the evils of “socialism.” When Medicare was first proposed, Ronald Reagan called it “socialized medicine,” and he declared that it would destroy Americans’ freedom. These days, if any effort to introduce universal child care is proposed, conservatives would call it an attempt to turn America into a communist country.

Sanders is what Europeans call a “social democrat.” But he does himself a huge disservice by calling himself a “socialist.” One just wonders why he does it. Perhaps it has to do with personal branding, an “enfant terrible” in American politics with a dash of glee at shocking the bourgeoisie. And this self-indulgence did little harm as long as he was just a senator from Vermont, a very liberal state.

But running against Trump, Sanders needs to appeal to a broader electorate with diverse preferences and ideologies. With his progressive ambition, and his simplistic approach to reforms and his ill-advised determination to call himself a socialist; many fear his opponents will quickly substitute that term for “communist” once the presidential race unfolds. The tragedy is that Sanders does not seem to realise his weakness.