I’m not a fan of Bernie Sanders, but he taught me an important lesson. Democrats have been going back and forth between calling themselves liberals or progressives, but there is a much better label we need to start embracing and encouraging our leaders to embrace. Are you listening candidates?

Stop calling yourselves Socialists, you are not Socialists! Start calling yourselves Social Democrats!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_democracy

Social democracy is a political ideology that supports economic and social interventions to promote social justice within the framework of a capitalist economy, and a policy regime involving welfare state provisions, collective bargaining arrangements, regulation of the economy in the general interest, measures for income redistribution, and a commitment to representative democracy. Social democracy thus aims to create the conditions for capitalism to lead to greater egalitarian, democratic and solidaristic outcomes; and is often associated with the set of socioeconomic policies that became prominent in Western and Northern Europe – particularly the Nordic model in the Nordic countries – during the latter half of the 20th century.

Social democracy is what we want, but we are using all of the wrong words to describe it so our message is getting lost in Republican rhetoric. Social media, social justice, social security, you could go on and on listing positive American values that line up perfectly with the label of Social Democrat.

So why isn’t anyone calling themselves Social Democrats? Well, from now on I am, if anyone asks.

In my view this is the key to solidifying both the message of our party and the future of our country, even Peggy Noonan sees this is where the country is headed but she calls it socialism too. It’s not!

http://www.wsj.com/articles/socialism-gets-a-second-life-1454026888

If you are 20 or 30 you probably see capitalism in terms of two dramatic themes. The first was the crash of ’08, in which heedless, irresponsible operators in business and government kited the system and scrammed. The second is income inequality. Why are some people richer than the richest kings and so many poor as serfs? Is that what capitalism gives you? Then maybe we should rethink this! ...It’s all part of the great scrambling that is happening this political year—the most dramatic, and perhaps most consequential, of our lifetimes.

Now it’s possible some will draw a connection to the Sozi or Nazi parties in Germany but the truth is the Social Democratic party was banned by the Nazis, so don’t let people confuse this with Nazism, simply because there are ties to Europe and Germany!

Adolf Hitler prohibited the party in 1933 under the Enabling Act – party officials were imprisoned, killed or went into exile. In exile, the party used the name Sopade.

It’s also important to point out there are Social Democratic parties all over the world just not here.

It’s possible there could be some confusion with the terms “social liberal” and “social conservative” too but the truth is social democrat also means social liberal, it’s a distinction without a difference.

I’m not a Progressive or a Socialist, I’m a Social Democrat. Are you?