THE SOCIALIST SHUFFLE:

Buffalo mayor-elect India Walton will be the "first socialist mayor of a big city in 60 years," reports the New York Times, in a headline that is correct on all but two points: Buffalo isn't a big city, and Walton isn't a socialist. [...]

One of the ironies of our time is that the Left has plenty of people who call themselves socialists but few who advocate actual substantive socialism, while the Right has no one who calls himself a socialist but a nontrivial faction of "nationalists" who embrace the fundamentals of socialism in the form of economic central planning (Senator Marco Rubio calls it "industrial policy," while Tucker Carlson reaches across the aisle to salute Senator Elizabeth Warren for her "economic patriotism") and dream of a future America that practices Yankee Doodle Juche.

India Walton seems comfortable enough with the label "socialist," although you will find examples of others describing her that way much more easily than you will find examples of her describing herself that way. And her campaign was supported by the Democratic Socialists of America. But other than a go-nowhere proposal to create a publicly owned bank and some familiar rent-control nonsense, there isn't much real socialism on her agenda, which is mainly bog-standard progressive stuff -- outmoded angst about "food deserts," hilarious question-begging (she promises to make decisions based on "diversity and inclusion rather than political patronage"), handouts for "arts" organizations (about that "patronage," Your Honor . . . ), etc. She also proposes to "establish Buffalo as an international destination for arts and culture," a fantasy that is even more ridiculous than it was when the mayor of Philadelphia was promising the same thing to his city 20 years ago.

When I was writing about the Bernie Sanders primary campaign in 2016, I interviewed a number of Sanders adherents who professed socialism, and, when asked to elaborate their views, they pointed almost without exception to some wealthy European country with a capitalist economy and a larger welfare state. Many of them admired Germany, which has a thriving, export-driven manufacturing economy, national policies that prioritize domestic labor interests with a special solicitousness for industrial jobs, and a relatively generous welfare state. Having those priorities doesn't make you a socialist -- it makes you Donald Trump, who was popular among rank-and-file union members even though organized labor continued to act as a Democratic fief.

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