Socialist Progressives

I made that exact point, and he countered with this idea:

The problem is, even if he can get the debate to shift slightly, he is still limiting it to capitalism. He's repopularizing the idea that we can somehow affect meaningful change by voting in a system that can't and won't respond to that. When he moves into the main debate arena, he will be limited even further by our media and the terms of the capitalist system.

Sanders may well make the idea of "socialism" more acceptable. But the real problem with it is that he's limiting the discussion while making it appear he isn't. I don't think we need more misinformation out there.

The deradicalization risk of Sanders is a problem as well. There is a good chance the Democratic Party is going to attempt to co-opt his movement, and if he doesn't make it through the primaries, those people that supported him (and he himself) will almost certainly throw his weight behind Clinton, which is a dangerous thing. We need those people to be radicalizing, not giving in.

It will be just as much of a problem if he does win--those that supported him are going to be quite disappointed when they realize he is not going to solve much. They are, in my opinion, more likely to simply withdraw from politics again rather than radicalize. I want to see the energy and frustration behind his movement be channeled into external movements like BLM rather than see it wasted and dispersed within the system. The Democratic Party is where social movements go to die.

But yes, I do think he may at least make the term "socialist" more acceptable. I'm just not convinced that we as socialists should support him--we know that there is no way to change the system from within the system, and we cannot allow the debate to be limited within a capitalist frame.