The Patriot Post® · Bernie Sanders Represents New Democrat Party

For liberals across the nation, the rest of the primary race will be tainted with the question: Was it Bernie Sanders who actually won the Iowa Democrat Caucus? Early Tuesday morning, the Iowa Democrat Party declared Hillary Clinton the winner by the thinnest of margins. Despite calls from the Sanders campaign to recount, the party’s chair said the results are final. But there’s plenty to question. At least six precincts reportedly chose their candidate through coin flips, but an accurate number is unknown. Furthermore, Democrat caucus attendees reported ill-trained caucus chairmen, long lines and chaos. And due to the Democrat’s method of simply counting people standing in groups, the official tally cannot be recounted.

One stark fact has emerged from Monday night’s chaos: The socialist Sanders, a politician relatively unknown on the national stage a year ago, has become the philosophical leader of the Democrat Party. As columnist David Harsanyi wrote, “a socialist nearly won Iowa” — and that’s a big deal. The wild-haired Vermonter captured the imagination and votes of Millennials, as 84% of Iowans under 30 “felt the Bern.” As the older Hillary supporters step out of the political process, the Democrat Party will embrace full-on socialism.

Columnist Peggy Noonan hypothesized this is because of Millennials’ experience with the U.S. economy. “If you are 20 or 30 you probably see capitalism in terms of two dramatic themes,” Noonan wrote. “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!”

Unless the message of Liberty is communicated in a persuasive manner, Millennials appear poised to repeat the mistakes of the last century. “Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess,” Margaret Thatcher said in 2000. “They always run out of other people’s money.”