Hickenlooper reverses course, denounces Sanders's embrace of 'democratic socialism'
WASHINGTON—John Hickenlooper, one of more than 20 Democratic hopefuls for the 2020 presidential election, took a definitive step toward the center and away from the left during a speech Thursday in Washington.
“Democrats must say loudly and clearly that we are not socialists,” Hickenlooper said. “If we do not, we will be helping to reelect the worst president in this nation’s history.”
“If we do not draw a clear line and say that we are not socialists, the word is so freighted and has so much baggage in this country that if we don’t clearly say that we’re not and demonstrate that we have pragmatic solutions, I think we do put at risk the White House in 2020,” he said.
After delivering the short speech, in which he also called on Democrats to definitively state their allegiance to capitalism, he mused about the challenge for second- and third-tier candidates in upcoming presidential primary debates.
“They’re all going to be trying to have that moment,” he said, referring to crowded field of which he is part. “ It will be interesting to see … whether it’s even possible for people to be really distinctive.”
He paused and added, “I would say that with the exception being our campaign.”
The audience at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. laughed, in part because the comment had an ironic touch. Hickenlooper is the former governor of Colorado and has an impressive political resume. But currently he is just as desperate as anyone for a way to separate himself from the 2020 pack.
The former geologist, brewpub owner and Denver mayor is polling at less than one percent according to the Real Clear Politics average, tied for 15th place with Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii.
And so while the stated reason for Hickenlooper’s speech Thursday was to criticize the Democratic party’s leftward drift, there was a clear political upside to calling out Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., by name.
Sanders gave a speech on Wednesday critiquing “unfettered capitalism” and defending and promoting “democratic socialism.”
Hickenlooper is one of the first Democrats willing to start the intraparty battle for the soul of the Democrats that many have been expecting for some time. It’s the question of whether the party will go hard left or whether it will try to appeal to moderate voters on a range of economic and cultural issues.
And by staking out territory firmly in the anti-socialist camp, Hickenlooper appears to be positioning himself to step up if frontrunner Joe Biden, the former senator and vice president, falters and leaves a vacuum in the center-left lane of the party.
There is competition for that lane, of course. Hickenlooper’s former protégé, Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, is one of several other Democrats who are critical of the Democratic Socialist wing of the party, along with Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, and former Rep. John Delaney of Maryland, who drew attention for a speech last weekend criticizing the idea of Medicare for All.
Hickenlooper’s speech on Thursday represented a clear break from his much-discussed interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” in early March.
“Do you consider yourself a proud capitalist?” asked host Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman from Florida.
Hickenlooper laughed and dodged the question. “Oh, I don’t know. The labels, I’m not sure any of them fit,” he said.
Scarborough then asked Hickenlooper twice if he even considered himself a capitalist at all.
“I don’t look at myself with a label,” he said.
On Thursday, Hickenlooper embraced capitalism, though not without caveats.
“American capitalism has to be reformed ... but we will not solve our problems by endlessly expanding government,” he said. “It would be a grave mistake to abandon the American entrepreneurial spirit that has always been at this country’s core.”
Hickenlooper said that “too many megacompanies dominate” in the American system, but notably, he only listed the hardware industry as an example, rather than the tech and social media companies such as Facebook, Google and Amazon that are currently the subject of intense debate regarding whether anti-trust action should be taken by the government.
He argued that America’s “greatest successes” have come from government in partnership with the private enterprise and nonprofit sectors, and listed the space program and polio vaccine as examples. And he said that socialism increases tax burdens on working families and doesn’t solve the problems it purports to address.
Medicare’s cost increases, he said, are caused by the fee-for-service model, but the Medicare for All proposal pushed by some Democrats would do nothing to address that, he said.
He said he would enact a public option for health care, allowing Americans without insurance to gain health care through that model, without stripping the 100 million or so with private insurance of their plans.
Hickenlooper called this “an evolution and not a revolution.”
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