Socialism on the ballot

WRITE OF CENTER

When I moved from Utah to Vermont in 1982, the newly elected mayor of the city of Burlington openly called himself a socialist. His name was Bernard Sanders. Vermont itself had been governed by Republicans for more than a century, and Sanders did not seem like a serious public official.

He had never held a real job; he was an “activist.” Many of us laughed him off, thinking he would just go away on his own. After all, there is no place on earth where socialism actually works.