Sure, "communist" like even Bloomberg called him in the Nevada debate is a cheap shot, and Bernie reacted by saying exactly that. So, no, he isn't a communist.
But Bernie himself muddies the waters calling himself a democratic socialist, although he is anything but. What he is, is a social democrat. Here:
Bernie Sanders is a social democrat, not a democratic socialist — Quartz
Bernie's model is Canada's and Scandinavia's rather than Angola's, obviously (Angola is a country that actually defines its dominant system as democratic socialism). And of course, Bernie's vision is not the Marxist-Leninist orientation of Cuba.
And here, from the horse's mouth:
Bernie: I’m Just a New Deal Liberal in Socialist’s Branding
Bernie has also said in a TV interview with CBS that "I didn't do the equivalent of nationalizing anything when I was the mayor of Burlington, VT, right? My thinking on this has evolved." I paraphrase because this was on TV and I don't have a link to it, but that's what he said.
And here he was even clearer:
Wait
a moment, praise for the New Deal? No
interest in nationalization? That definition sounds a lot like capitalism! - Big Think
I'm aware that it is basically Bernie's fault for not being clear on the definitions... All that it demonstrates, though, is that Bernie has failed Political Science 101. But he is no socialist. He is more like FDR.
Why does he twist the definition? Some say it's because he wants the shock value, to de-stigmatize the word. Others say he wants to stick it to the bourgeoisie, by being rebellious (this is a bit infantile, for me). You know, Bernie has this personality trait of trying to be different. He calls himself an independent but has always caucused with the Democratic Party and he his voting records aligns with the Party's values and recommendations more than many other life-long Democratic senators, like I've shown with Bernie's actual voting record compared for example with Klobuchar's and especially Munchin's (the latter has voted with what Trump asked for and recommended, a whooping 52% of the time; Klobuchar some 34%, and Bernie only 16%).
I think that Bernie actually does a disservice to his electoral chances by insisting with this misguided label of "Democratic socialist" when he is actually a social democrat, in the sense that he gives ammunition to his electoral enemies, who keep pushing the idea of the socialist boogeyman who is coming to destroy America's economy.
Rest assured, fellow voters: if Bernie wins the November election, America's capitalism will survive just fine. We won't turn into Angola or Venezuela.
